A Sad Death In Ocean Acres

by Patricia A. Miller

It was cold and dark and Rob Pasterchick was getting desperate.

The late-November chill had seeped into the Privateer Drive home he shared with roomates Jean Curtin and her son John. The electricity had been shut off in September. There was no heat and no lights in the modest ranch home in the Ocean Acres section of the township.

So Rob, 42, decided to place an ad on Craigslist, hoping that someone with a good heart and a kerosene heater to spare would respond.

Displaced Sandy victims still suffering. Electric is off w/ no way of turning on. Elderly lady and her son as well as me. With a reprise from the cold I am taking advantage of asking some good soul to donate a kerosene heater so we can stay warm. I have used up everything I have to help them. I, myself am a Sandy victim and have received no help. I am just asking if there is someone out there that doesn't need theirs if we can have it. Please feel free to stop by to check our situation out: 321 Privateer Road, Manahawkin, NJ. The lady is Jean, I am Rob. We can use food also. I don't think Ill survive much longer but my goal is too take care of them the best I can."

Someone did respond. A Toms River priest showed up at the house a day or two later with a brand-new heater, some kerosene, food and a Bible. He talked and prayed with Rob for several hours, said Curtin, 64, his good friend of many years.

Sometime later that day Rob started up the heater. He and Jean made plans for the next day, including a visit to a local food pantry - had some tea and talked.

Rob complained of a pain in his left leg that evening, "like a charlie horse that wouldn't go away, Curtin said.

So she heated up some water and applied hot compresses to his leg. Then he decided to get some rest.

"He said, 'I'm going to go lie down,' " Curtin recalled. "I was sitting there with my scarf over my face, because the kerosene was killing me. He bought it (the heater) into his room and left the door open."

Sometime later than night she found Pasterchick- a heavy smoker who suffered from chronic bronchitis - on the bathroom floor. He was
having trouble breathing and asked Curtin to get his inhaler. She got a flashlight and brought it to him.

"I heard him spraying it, and he fell back down on the floor," she said. "I couldn't feel his pulse. We called 911."

But the police and paramedics were unable to revive him. Rob was gone.

The Ocean County Medical Examiner's Office determined there was no foul play involved in his death and said he had died of a medical condition.

Stafford Police Capt. Thomas Dellane said yesterday that the kerosene heater was not the cause of death. Curtin said Rob died of a blood clot.

Rob and Jane were displaced Superstorm Sandy victims who had known each other for years. She asked Pasterchick - who did handyman work - to move into the Privateer Road house with her and her son John, and help share the rent.

Curtin often stayed with her daughter and her family next door. But it was "kind of crowded" in her daughter's house, where she slept on a couch in the basement.

"I got tired of sleeping on the couch and thought maybe this would be a good idea," she said.

Curtin at first shared the Privateer Road home with a younger woman and her children. Curtin said she gave her share of rent money to the woman, but apparently the electric bill was never paid.

Rob and the younger woman did not get along and eventually she moved out. Pasterchick tried to have the Atlantic Electric account transferred to his name, but the company refused, Curtin said.

It wasn't too bad in early fall. The house had a gas stove and water heater, so they had hot water and could cook. But as time went on, it got colder and darker.

So Pasterchick, in desperation, put up the Craigslist ad.

"He was just a good guy," she said. "I miss him so much. We were his family."

Curtin is back at her daughter's house right now. She is hoping to move back into 321 Privateer Road sometime next week, when the landlord has the electricity turned back on.

She is grateful to people like Fred Redmond, who stopped by with food and told her to call him if she needed anything.

"It's been a rough couple of days," she said. "I'm alright. I'm upset."