In September 1982, 34-year-old William J. Ward of North Wildwood was killed in Asbury Park. Prosecutors say Richard Fran Biegenwald lured Ward to his car and shot him multiple times in the head. Ward’s body was later found buried in a shallow grave behind a cemetery in Neptune City; reports state he had been shot five times in the head.

Ward’s killing was one of several in a string of murders along the Jersey Shore tied to Biegenwald. A tip and the cooperation of an associate, Dherran Fitzgerald, led investigators to additional burial sites and to Biegenwald’s Asbury Park home, where a search reportedly turned up weapons and drugs. A Monmouth County grand jury returned an eight-count indictment in the Ward case, and Biegenwald was convicted of several murders.

Does anyone have memories of Ward or information about his movements in Asbury Park in the weeks before his death?