A man from Pennsylvania, who was originally from Mays Landing, has been sentenced to over half a century in state prison for the 2014 murder of a woman from Egg Harbor Township.

On Friday, 42-year-old Timothy Wright, most recently of Chambersburg, PA, was sentenced to 55 years behind bars for the slaying of 25-year-old Joyce Vanderhoff.

A jury previously convicted Wright of first-degree murder after a two-and-a-half-week trial that ended this past October.

Wright was charged with strangulating and killing Vanderhoff on February 13, 2014.

Vanderhoff’s naked body was found on the side of County Route 559/Weymouth Road in Hamilton Township the next morning.

Wright, who was living in Mays Landing at the time, was arrested in 2019 in Pennsylvania and extradited to New Jersey to stand trial.

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According to The Press of Atlantic City last October,

Assistant Atlantic County Prosecutor Seth Levy told the jury that Vanderhoff...and Wright had a drugs-for-sex relationship, and she was at his home he shared with his girlfriend in Mays Landing overnight on Feb. 12, about a day before her body was found in the snow.

Levy said the prosecution believes Wright strangled Vanderhoff while she was at his home in Mays Landing, per reporting by The Press.

In reporting Friday from The Press of Atlantic City, Wright maintained his innocence, saying the prosecution had "the wrong person."

I'm not the monster. I'm innocent, and I'm going to keep continuing to fight for my innocence.

The 55-year sentence is subject to the No Early Release Act, which requires eighty-five percent of the sentence, or almost 47 years, to be served before Wright will become eligible for parole.

Wright is also subject to parole supervision for five years after his release.

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