I’m an investigative and enterprise reporter for NJ Advance Media, the company that provides stories for The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s biggest newspaper, and its sister publications in the state, along with NJ.com, the state’s premier news website.
A priest suspended from ministry for allegedly groping boys during ‘submission’ wrestling matches now works as a teacher to ninth-graders. … More Priest-turned-teacher accused of exploiting boys
It has become the flood that won’t go away. Four days after Hurricane Irene made landfall in New Jersey, thrashing some areas with nearly a foot of rain, the state remains a patchwork of engulfed neighborhoods, its muddy rivers pushing into new territory, fouling all in their path. As one community begins to dry out, … More Hurricane Irene’s wrath
A detailed look into the sad life and lingering death of an 8-year-old girl. … More Within four walls, a world of pain
A seven-month investigation shows how hundreds of cops and firefighters obtained steroids and human growth hormone from a crooked doctor — and how taxpayers paid for it all. … More STRONG AT ANY COST
On Memorial Day, as Americans honored the nation’s war dead, Angelo Otchy bowed his head to accept a medal from officials in Verona for his sacrifice and service. The 35-year-old Army veteran told a reporter that day about his three tours of duty in Iraq. Voice dropping to a near-hush, he spoke, too, about the … More Stolen Valor: Honored Iraq veteran fabricated stories
To understand the motivation behind one of the more unusual crimes in New Jersey in recent years, you have to go back to the pity party. Roy Slates, investigators say, was in a melancholy mood as he drank in a rural Missouri bar that day last fall, lamenting to a buddy that he’d once been … More How to Kidnap the Wrong Man
Coleman Bean served two tours of duty in Iraq, witnessing horrors that stayed with him at home. On Sept. 6, 2008, he shot himself in the head. His death is part of an accelerating trend that has sent tremors throughout the U.S. military, alarming the most senior officers and highlighting the strain on America’s fighting men and … More The Wounds Within: Suicide in the Military
My ride-along with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team. Otherwise known as the day I pulled 9Gs in an F-16 and managed not to throw up. … More Awesome view from Thunderbird’s perch
Al Davis wishes he could forget that Sunday afternoon, wash it away like the blood he hosed off his front porch. But some images stick with a man. A gut-shot granddaughter is one of them. … More Innocents Lost: When lives are shattered in the crossfire
After all these years, Tom Donovan can’t shake the sound. “Like hitting a pumpkin,” he says. It’s the sound of a 400-ton train striking human flesh, a person who, just moments before, had been walking and talking and breathing. In the sterile parlance of the railroads, such collisions are known as critical incidents. To the … More Death By Train
Mark Mueller Journalism 