The preppy Princeton murder suspect accused of fratricide ripped out his little brother’s eyeball after beating and slashing him to death in the family’s luxury apartment Saturday night — and police believe he ate it, a law enforcement source told The Post.
Officers also found a bloody knife, fork and plate near victim Joseph Hertgen’s body, the source said — which has led cops to believe accused killer Matthew Hertgen, 31, consumed the missing organ.
Matthew Hertgen also set the family cat on fire during his twisted rampage, sources said — several months after posting a chilling poem to Facebook that included lines about “knives sharpening” and “blood oozing out of his eyes.”
The apocalyptic verses proved eerily prophetic, as police say Hertgen used a blade and a golf club to kill 26-year-old Joseph around 11:15 p.m. Saturday.
Afterward, Hertgen called the cops to report a body and a fire inside the upscale Michelle Mews apartment complex off Witherspoon Street, where units go for up to $2 million.
When officers arrived, they discovered Joseph’s bloody corpse and quickly pinned the crime on his sibling.
They also uncovered the grisly body of the torched cat, sources said.
“It was gruesome,” one police source told The Post. “It was way overboard.”
Another high-ranking Garden State cop said the “brutality of the homicide — and in an Ivy League town — shocked most detectives.”
The ghastly details of Hertgen’s alleged cannibalism are the latest twist in the sorrowful story of an all-American family shattered by unimaginable violence.
“It’s incredibly tragic,” a high-ranking police source said. “Matthew Hertgen came from what appeared to be a perfect, all-American family. No one could have predicted something like this would happen.”
Authorities have charged Hertgen with murder and other offenses, and he faces life in prison if convicted.
Both brothers were high school soccer stars at Toms River North High School and played in college —Matthew at elite Wesleyan University and Joseph at the University of Michigan.