Seaside Heights Man Indicted for Murdering Woman in Motel Room

Gerardo Ruiz (Photo: OCPO)

A grand jury in Ocean County has handed up an indictment of a Seaside Heights man who is accused of murdering a woman in his motel room May 1, 2021, then overdosing on drugs before being arrested and charged.

The indictment was returned against Gerardo Ruiz, 50, of Seaside Heights. He is charged with killing Alecia Perreault, 29, also of Seaside Heights, at the Offshore Motel on the Boulevard.

Gerardo Ruiz (Photo: OCPO)

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According to prosecutors, Seaside Heights police, at about 7:30 a.m., received a telephone call from an individual claiming to have knowledge that Ruiz killed a female at the Offshore Motel in Seaside Heights. The caller told officers that Ruiz was staying at the nearby Surfside Motel in Seaside Heights.

Officers ultimately went to a room at the Offshore Motel, where they located the body of Perreault with apparent wounds to her neck; she was pronounced deceased at the scene. Officers subsequently went to Ruiz’s room at the Surfside Motel, and discovered that he had experienced an apparent drug overdose, the statement said. Ruiz was then taking to Community Medical Center, where he was kept under guard by Ocean County sheriff’s officers.

Since being released from Community Medical Center, Ruiz has been detained in a secure medical facility, prosecutors said.