Introduction
This blog is a tracking of the murder case of Brittney Gregory by Jack Fuller Jr. for those looking for information.
I had planned to cover the facts as they unfolded, piece together as much of the press and information as I can, since many of the sources of information are
either poorly linked, or disappear to archives (some paid).
At some point I still hope to get some, interviews with some of the players in this case,as well as Brittney's family and friends. I have opted not to even try up until now as I felt there were other places their attention needed to be focused.
While I tried to remain unbiased, once Fuller admitted to killing Brittney, it became impossible for me as a father of a young girl to be COMPLETELY "fair and balanced".
But despite that, all information that I uncover will be found here.
Please feel free to comment, but remain civil. (especially towards each other).
Friday, July 23, 2004
Mom recalls kindness to suspect (Historical)
(originally published in the Star Ledger July 23, 2004 - link to original Publication no longer available)
She recoils to think he is now accused of killing Brittney
BY MARY ANN SPOTO
Star-Ledger Staff
Brittney Gregory once helped save the life of the man who stands accused of taking hers.
The Brick Township Memorial High School junior was visiting Jack Fuller's daughter one night a couple of months ago when a taxicab pulled up in front of the Fullers' Howell Township home, according to Brittney's mother, Debra Gregory. Fuller was in the back seat of the cab, barely conscious because of a drug overdose, Gregory said.
Brittney, 16, and Fuller's daughter, Cassie, 20, immediately called 911, and Fuller was soon revived by the ambulance crew, she said.
The irony of that has gnawed at Brittney's mother since Fuller's arrest. "How do you take the life of a person who saved your life?" Debra Gregory asked during an interview yesterday at her Beachwood home. "How do you do that?"
Fuller, a 38-year-old with a long rap sheet and a history of drug problems, was charged Sunday with Brittney's murder. He remains at the Ocean County Jail on $1 million bail.
Brittney's remains have not been found. Police continued to search wooded areas in Howell, Brick and Lakewood yesterday. New Jersey State Police crews spent about 45 minutes early in the afternoon examining the ground in the back yard of the home where Fuller's friend, Tom Long, lives. Long was reported to have been in a car with Fuller and Brittney the night she disappeared. The search extended into a neighbor's yard, too.
The charges against Fuller were the result of the cooperation of a confidential informant, according to Brittney's mother and law enforcement sources. The informant, a drug dealer, contacted authorities to say that Fuller had approached him with a question about how to bury a body. Detectives from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office put a wire on the informant and had him tape a conversation with Fuller, a law enforcement source said.
Police told Brittney's mother that Fuller implicated himself in Brittney's murder during that taped conversation, Debra Gregory said yesterday. The family wants Fuller to tell authorities where he buried Brittney so they can give her a proper funeral. "It makes us hate him more the longer this goes on," Brittney's sister Bryana Gregory said.
Brittney, who lived in Brick with her father Joe Dunn, was home by herself on July 11, the night she disappeared. She and her boyfriend, John Fitzgerald, had had a tiff during the day about him not taking her to the beach, Debra Gregory said. Brittney badly wanted to go see him. The last time Gregory talked to her daughter was around 8:30 that night, when Brittney called from home to ask for a ride to her boyfriend's house.
Brittney would not have called Jack Fuller to ask for a ride, but if he had been in the area she might have been desperate enough to accept one if he offered, according to her mother and her sister.
Fuller was well-known to Brittney and her family. He and Brittney's father were friends, her mother said. Brittney's brother used to date Fuller's daughter, and Brittney and the daughter remained close.
Gregory said she has run through the events of that evening in her mind a thousand times since Brittney disappeared, trying to figure out what might have happened. "Nothing adds up," she said. "Nothing makes sense. I think of all those theories, but nothing makes sense."
Her family imagines that whoever killed Brittney had his hands full. She had two older brothers and two older sisters, after all, and had had her share of sibling fights. "She stood her ground until the end," Bryana said.
Debra Gregory remembered Brittney yesterday as "every mother's dream of a 16-year-old girl."
She said her grades at Brick Memorial were so good that she was exempted from many of her final exams. She was never a discipline problem, her mother said. She never had to be told to do her homework or clean her room, and she loved to read.
Brittney relished her role as the baby of the family, her mother said. She was spoiled, to be sure, but not vain or arrogant. She celebrated her 16th birthday in April by holding her mother to a promise she had made to let her get her bellybutton pierced. She idolized pop queen Britney Spears and had posters of her tacked up in her bedroom. She enjoyed cartoons, especially "SpongeBob SquarePants," and she couldn't get enough of the TV shows about forensic science, a profession she wanted to pursue. She and her mother used to tune in to the same shows and then call each other to talk about them as they watched.
"She thought it was so cool they can tell how you died, when you died ... She was so intrigued," her mother said. "And now there's people out there like that looking for her."
Staff writers Brian Donohue and Tom Feeney contributed to this report.
