by Dana DiFilippo, New Jersey Monitor
The Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office took over the Franklin Township Police Department Thursday, after the family of a woman murdered by her ex-boyfriend — a New Jersey state trooper — said the department failed to respond to her reports of harassment and pleas for help.
Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renée M. Robeson said her office will supervise the force’s daily operations “until further notice.”
“HCPO has determined that supersession of FTPD is immediately necessary following its active investigation into the homicides in the Pittstown section of Franklin Township on or about August 1, 2025, which has raised serious concerns about FTPD’s operations and effectiveness,” Robeson said in a statement.
Township officials placed the department’s chief, Timothy Snyder, and Sgt. Kevin Bollaro on administrative leave, and Robeson appointed Capt. Paul Approvato as interim officer in charge.
The move comes six days after Ricardo Jorge Santos, a state police lieutenant who at one time was assigned to guard Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive team, gunned down Lauren Semanchik, 33, and her boyfriend Tyler Webb, 29, of Forked River, at Semanchik’s home in the township’s Pittsman section.
Santos and Semanchik, a veterinarian, had dated last year but broke up in September, investigators found. Semanchik subsequently reported Santos to Franklin police for “harassing and controlling behavior,” according to the prosecutor’s office.
Her sister, Deanna Semanchik, told PIX 11 that Semanchik and Santos dated for about six months and that he phoned and texted her repeatedly, vandalized her car, and hid recording devices in her home after their breakup. She told the outlet her sister reported Santos to Franklin police in May and sought a restraining order, but was told no one was there to help her, and no one returned her subsequent follow-up call.
Detectives investigating the murders this week quickly identified Santos as a suspect, thanks to those reports as well as a video surveillance system Semanchik had installed in her car, according to the prosecutor’s office.
That video showed a white 2008 Mercedes SUV trailing Semanchik after she left work in Long Valley Friday evening, the office said. The camera also caught a man sneaking through a wooded area along her driveway about 15 minutes after she got home, and Webb arriving about a half hour after that, the office said.
At 7:08 p.m. Friday, someone called 911 to report audible gunshots and screaming on the road where Semanchik lived, the office said. Franklin officers responded and checked the area, but didn’t identify the source of the sounds and left.
Another 911 call came in just after noon Saturday, when an unidentified person found Semanchik unresponsive in her home, the office said. Franklin officers returned to the scene and found Semanchik and Webb, a firefighter, dead.
Santos was discovered dead later the same day in the white 2008 Mercedes SUV in a Piscataway park, the office said. Investigators found a gun in the car, and the Hunterdon County Medical Examiner’s Office determined he’d shot himself and preliminarily ruled the death a suicide.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of Dr. Lauren Semanchik and Tyler Webb, whose lives were tragically taken in an act of domestic violence. This senseless and devastating loss has deeply affected our entire community,” Robeson said in a statement. “Considering the suspect’s subsequent suicide, we recognize that many questions remain, and healing will take time. While justice in the legal sense may not proceed, our commitment to supporting survivors and preventing future tragedies remains unwavering.”
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New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.
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