Ex-priest Accused of Sex Abuse Found Shot to Death in Nevada: Report

By Kim Chatelain
NOLA.com
March 14, 2019

https://www.nola.com/crime/2019/03/ex-priest-accused-of-sex-abuse-found-shot-to-death-in-nevada-report.html

John Capparelli in a photo taken in 2011. The former priest was found murdered in Nevada on Saturday.

A former New Jersey priest who was credibly accused of groping young boys was shot to death in his Nevada home, NJ.com reported.

The body of John Capparelli, 70, was found in the kitchen of his home in Henderson, Nevada, by police who were conducting a welfare check on Saturday (March 9). He had been shot once in the neck, the website reported.

Capparelli’s name was included in a list of 188 clergymen in New Jersey who had been “credibly accused” of sex crimes against children. The state’s five Catholic dioceses released the names while under mounting pressure to identify clergy accused of sexual misconduct, according to NJ.com.

Other dioceses across the country, including the Archdiocese of New Orleans and three others in Louisiana, have made similar releases as part of a transparency movement designed to help the church address its ongoing clergy abuse crisis.

Though he was never convicted of a crime, Capparelli was suspended from the ministry in 1992 after being accused of groping and brutalizing teenage boys. He was also linked to a fetish website that he allegedly ran from his home, NJ.com reported.

Nearly two decades after being cut loose by the church, The New Jersey Star-Ledger revealed Capparelli was working as a public school teacher in Newark. The state then revoked his certificates, the website reported.