"Marple Grad Covers Neulander Trial"
By Laura Nachman  
"County Press"
November 7, 2001

As the Delaware Valley followed the trial of Cherry Hill, NJ Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, accused of plotting the 1994 murder of his wife, Carol, sitting in the press gallery along with the journalists from Court TV, “Inside Edition,” “People” magazine, the Philadelphia television stations, and more was Broomall’s Mike Mathis, reporter for the “Burlington County Times.”   

Covering a big story is nothing new for Mathis, a 14-year veteran of the paper, who currently works the major crime beat, and also wrote about the South Jersey mother of two, Kimberly Szumski who was missing for two months, and was later found buried in the wall of a home in Philadelphia in which her estranged husband, Thomas was part of the construction team.   

For the 1983 Marple-Newtown graduate, it’s been a long road since he was a student reporter for Paxon Hollow Junior High and Marple-Newtown Senior High, as well as a writer for “The County Press.”  After high school, Mathis, was the entertainment editor for the school paper at Villanova University (where his father Ed Mathis is chairman of the Economics department), and graduated in three years with a double major of Communications and English. From there he worked for a couple of smaller papers before landing at the “Burlington County Times” in 1987.

Mathis has been writing about the Neulander case since 1994, the year Rabbi Neulander’s wife, Carol, was found bludgeoned to death in her home.  The sensational aspects of the case have led to extensive coverage in the media.

If covering major trials isn’t enough, Mathis who resides in Cherry Hill, NJ with his wife Beverly and their children Melissa, 10, and Michael, 8, teaches Journalism, Mass Media & Public Relations at Camden Community College and is the author of four books – “Images of America: Marple and Newtown Townships,” “Images of America: Cherry Hill, NJ,” “Cherry Hill: Then and Now,” and “Images of America: Burlington.”  He also appears occasionally as a guest on the 6ABC show “Sunday Live.”

Mathis said, "I wanted to be a journalist since I was a student at Paxon Hollow, so I am gratified and very fortunate to have been able to cover several major news events in my career. My career goal was never to be rich or famous, but was instead, and still is, to inform and educate people about what is going on in their community."

The communities of Marple and Cherry Hill have been lucky to have him.