Police, Fire & Courts

Murder Charges Filed in Violent Death of Seaside Heights Woman, 32

by
Daniel Nee
November 7, 2025

Emiliano Davila (Photo: Ocean County Jail)

The boyfriend of a Seaside Heights woman who was dropped off at a local hospital with shocking injuries earlier this week has been charged with murder, prosecutors announced Friday.

Mary O’Connor, 32, succumbed to the injuries on Wednesday, after two days in the hospital. Emiliano Davila, 41, of Keansburg, is now in custody after an extensive investigation. According to a statement issued Friday by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, police were called to Community Medical Center in Toms River for a report of a female with blunt force trauma to her head. The female, later identified as O’Connor, had been dropped off at the hospital by two males who then left the area. O’Connor was found to be unresponsive, suffering from a brain bleed, and showed obvious signs of bruising consistent with strangulation, the statement said.

An investigation by the prosecutor’s office’s Major Crime Unit and Seaside Heights Police detectives determined that Davila was one of the individuals who left O’Connor at the hospital. Continuing investigation revealed that O’Connor and Davila were in a dating relationship, “and that Davila had assaulted Ms. O’Connor the night before at a motel in Seaside Heights where she was residing,” the statement said. The name of the motel was not included in the statement.

Davila was taken into custody by detectives from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics Strike Force and Brick Township Police Department the same day and charged with domestic violence aggravated assault by way of strangulation. Davila was transported to the Ocean County Jail where he is presently lodged pending a detention hearing.

An autopsy performed Thursday determined that the cause of O’Connor’s death was blunt force trauma to the head causing a subdural hematoma, and the manner of death was homicide. Charges against Davila was upgraded to murder. Davila was served with the charge while in custody at the Ocean County Jail, where he remains.