TLDR
New Jersey regulators have upheld the firing of a morgue assistant who leaked confidential details of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau’s deaths, while the drunk driving case against accused driver Sean Higgins now faces fresh scrutiny over blood alcohol evidence.
Trust Shattered in the Morgue
For fans who knew Johnny Gaudreau as “Johnny Hockey”, the story of his death already carries a heavy ache. According to Daily Mail US, that grief was pulled into an even harsher spotlight when a Gloucester County morgue assistant admitted sharing confidential details from the brothers’ case.
Investigators say Connor McGlynn, 34, photographed handwritten notes that listed Johnny and Matthew’s birth dates, home addresses, and early details of the crash that killed them near their New Jersey hometown. The image was circulated in a group text with friends, then appeared on X and Reddit as the hockey world was only beginning to process the loss.
The leak exposed more than the Gaudreaus’ private information. The texts also revealed the phone number of the state trooper who first responded to the scene. According to reports, the officer became “very upset” after his phone rang repeatedly with strangers demanding details about the crash.
McGlynn was fired in September 2024 from the Gloucester County Medical Examiner’s Office, then appealed. The New Jersey Civil Service Commission ultimately voted 3-2 in February to uphold his termination. In a written ruling cited by the Courier Post, Administrative Law Judge Allison Friedman noted that “McGlynn has no explanation of why he would send the picture to the text, other than that he was in disbelief and acted out of emotion.” She still described him as “remorseful, a valued employee” who “has learned from his mistake.”
The ruling underscores a painful reality for high-profile families. In the hours when loved ones are most exposed and least able to protect themselves, they depend on quiet professionalism from people they never meet. Here, that trust broke at the morgue door.
Families Carry on without Answers
The Gaudreau brothers were killed in August 2024 while riding bicycles on the eve of their sister Katie’s wedding. The ceremony was postponed, and the family was left planning funerals instead of a celebration.
Johnny’s wife, Meredith, was pregnant with their third child at the time of the crash. She later welcomed her son, Carter, in April 2025, joining siblings Noa and Johnny. Matthew’s wife, Madeline, gave birth to their first child, Tripp, in December 2024. Katie eventually rescheduled her wedding and is now expecting her first child as well.
For a fan base that watched Johnny rise through the Calgary Flames and Columbus Blue Jackets, the family details land hard. The leak case is not about statistics or trade rumors. It is about whether the most intimate, devastating facts of a public figure’s final hours can still belong first to the people who loved him.
Legal Fight over Higgins Continues
Even as the employment battle around the leak closes, the criminal case over the crash itself is far from settled. Sean Higgins, 45, was arrested after allegedly striking the brothers with an SUV. He has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide, aggravated manslaughter, and related charges, and remains free while awaiting trial.
State troopers testified that they smelled alcohol on Higgins’s breath and that he acknowledged drinking earlier, reportedly saying, “I have been drinking beers, but I have not had one in like two hours.” Prosecutors initially cited a blood alcohol concentration of 0.087, slightly above the legal limit.
Higgins’s defense team is now challenging that cornerstone number. According to Daily Mail US, attorney Richard Klineburger told the court that testing was done on plasma rather than whole blood, arguing that an expert review lowers the true reading to 0.075. He suggested the earlier figure \”taints\” the indictment and may have “impacted the grand jury.”
Prosecutor Michael Mestern has said his office will run the new analysis past its own experts and, if warranted, seek a fresh indictment. That leaves the Gaudreau family and the hockey world that watched Johnny grow up on the ice, moving forward with their lives even as the legal picture and the fight over accountability continue to shift.
How do you think public figures and their families should be protected when deeply personal details intersect with intense media and fan interest?
