in march 2015, geoffrey soriano, the county prosecutor, ruled that their death was a murder-suicide in which john, possibly motivated by despair over an upcoming negative state report on the hospital's cardiac unit, had killed joyce, then himself, and set the fire to conceal evidence. mark sheridan and his brothers strongly disputed that conclusion, and hired michael baden to do a second autopsy. he concluded that it was highly likely that a third person killed the two, especially given that the knife which had inflicted the fatal wounds could not be found.