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After tip, NJ police find 17 bodies inside nursing home morgue

The bodies were among 68 recent deaths linked to the long-term care facility, authorities said

New York Daily News

ANDOVER, N.J. — Police reportedly found 17 bodies piled inside a small morgue at one of New Jersey’s largest nursing homes.

According to the New York Times, the Andover Township Police Department in Newton, N.J., made the disturbing discovery after checking out an unfounded tip that a body was being stored in a shed at the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center.

Instead, they found 17 bodies in a morgue at the complex meant to store four bodies.

“They were just overwhelmed by the amount of people who were expiring,” Andover Township Police Chief Eric Danielson told the Times.

A call to Danielson Wednesday night was not immediately returned.

The Times reported the bodies were among 68 recent deaths linked to the long-term care facility, including two nurses. Twenty-six of those deaths were people who had tested positive for COVID-19, the news outlet reported

Among patients being cared for at two buildings that make up the nursing home complex, 76 have tested positive for the virus, and 41 staff members, including an administrator, are sick with COVID-19, Sussex County health records showed, the Times reported.

The records show the 700-bed facility is the state’s largest licensed facility.

Laurie Facciarossa Brewer, the New Jersey Long-Term Care Ombudsman, told the New Jersey Herald her office had opened three cases for investigation of the nursing home complex between March 13 and April 13.

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