October 7, 2024 | By: Anthony-Jay Schwartz

This story is part of a collaborative project between Project: Cold Case and the University of North Florida’s Applied Journalism class.

Sharon Thor loved ballet. She often danced around the family home and made her older brother watch as she leaped with pointed toes.

Over 40 years ago, Sharon climbed into the passenger side of a car with two men and never returned. Her body was found in a wooded area not far from the family home. Her death occurred just two days before her 16^th birthday, and her murder has yet to be solved.

Sharon grew up in Franklin, New Jersey with four brothers. Sharon always stuck up for her younger brother, Chris. Sharon’s mother, Sonia, said that growing up with so many brothers made her a strong individual.

Sharon had beautiful blue eyes and wavy hair. As a child, she studied ballet and tap dancing at the Neva McCrimmon School of Dance in Bound Brook, New Jersey. Although only a teenager, she had dreams of having her own dance school.

On October 26, 1982, Sharon and her mother, Sonia, were preparing to leave their Franklin home for Sharon’s weekly ballet lessons. Sharon received a phone call from someone she apparently knew and hopped into a car with two men. She told her mother that she would be right back. She never returned home.

Sonia and her husband, Frank, drove to the police department to report that their daughter was missing, but Franklin police wouldn’t process a missing person’s report for at least 24 hours.

Sharon’s body was found three days later in a wooded area off a dirt road near her home in Franklin. She had been beaten to death, suffering multiple fractures to her ribs and head.

Most of the family still lives in the New Jersey area. The topic of Sharon’s murder is still traumatic for the whole family, who continue to struggle with grief. Sharon’s mother cannot talk about her daughter’s death without getting visibly upset.

Sharon’s niece, Samantha, was born years after Sharon’s murder. She says that while the pain has slightly subsided over the years, the family yearns to know who murdered her aunt.

“I really wish I could have met her,” Samantha said. “I feel like we could’ve had a great bond, but that opportunity was stripped from me.”

Franklin is a small town in New Jersey with a population of under 5,000 people as of 2022. Franklin is not known for violent crime, having a significantly lower violent crime rate than the rest of the US, according to Neighborhood Scout.

Franklin police have recently kept the family informed, and there are hopes that there will be some answers soon.

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Anyone with information concerning Sharon Thor’s murder is asked to call the Franklin Township Police Department at (732) 873-5533 ext 2020. To remain anonymous and possibly be eligible for a reward, call the TIPS hotline at (732) 873-7277.

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