Man Arrested After Woman Found Dead In Franklin

A homicide case in Franklin Township is moving fast, but the biggest facts are still grimly simple. A man from Georgia called police to a hotel on Davidson Avenue early Saturday, May 2, 2026. When officers got there, they say he led them to a vehicle in the rear parking lot. Inside was an unresponsive woman in the front passenger seat. She was pronounced dead at the scene. ### Who was arrested? Police and prosecutors say the man at the scene was Keith Demery, 54, of Ellenwood, Georgia. After officers found the woman, they detained Demery and took him to a local hospital for treatment of what authorities described as minor injuries. After that, he was transported to the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office, formally charged, and then lodged in the Somerset County Jail pending a detention hearing. ### What charges is he facing? The charge list is short but serious. Demery was charged with first-degree murder and third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. That second charge matters because it tells you investigators believe some weapon was tied to the alleged crime, even though officials have not publicly described the weapon or explained exactly what happened inside or near the car. ### How did police find the woman? This is the detail that makes the case stand out. Police were not initially dispatched to a report of a dead body. Prosecutors say Franklin Township police got a call at about 6:00 a.m. from someone identifying himself as Demery, asking for an officer to respond to the hotel for a report of injuries. When officers ### Who was the woman? Authorities still have not released her identity. That usually means the New Jersey Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office is still working through positive identification and next-of-kin notification. Prosecutors have also said a postmortem examination will determine both the cause and manner of death, which means some of the most important medical facts in the case are still not public. ### What do investigators know right now? They know enough to file a murder charge, but not enough — or not enough that they are willing to share — to explain the timeline in detail. Officials say the homicide is believed to have occurred during the early morning hours of May 2. The investigation involves Franklin Township police, the Somerset County medical investigators. Basically, this is no longer a simple local police call. It is a coordinated homicide investigation. ### What is still missing? A lot. The woman’s name is missing. Her relationship, if any, to Demery is missing. The cause of death is missing. The exact hotel has not been emphasized in official releases beyond its Davidson Avenue location. And the public record so far does not explain why Demery called police in the first place or what injuries he claims that will decide how this story is understood. ### What happens next? The next concrete steps are procedural but important. Demery is awaiting a detention hearing, the medical examiner still has to complete the postmortem work, and investigators are asking for tips from the public. So the arrest is not the end of the story — it is the point where the case shifts from a shocking discovery in a hotel parking lot to the slower work of proving exactly what happened. ### Bottom line? A woman was found dead in a car outside a Franklin Township hotel after police answered a 6 a.m. call for injuries. A Georgia man who made that call now faces a murder charge. But the case is still missing the facts that usually make a homicide legible — who the victim was, how she died, and what led both of them to that parking lot before dawn.