UPDATE on June 4, 2026:

Thanks to the press and public’s generous sharing of the “Notice of Unclaimed Body” Press Release this office disseminated yesterday, Coroner Edward R. Howell is pleased to announce that family members of Brooke A. Woodcock have been located, and a familial relationship has been investigated and confirmed. Although the family members are distant relatives and
have never met Brooke A. Woodcock, they are willing to be responsible to claim her body to ensure she is laid to rest in a proper manner.

This office is sincerely grateful for the interest that has been expressed in this death investigation. It is our desire that no deceased person in Wayne County be permanently deemed an unclaimed body. The sensitivity and compassion that has been exemplified in the case of Brooke A. Woodcock has been encouraging and is appreciated.

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The office of the Wayne County Coroner is seeking to identify, locate, and communicate with family members of an individual who died in Wayne County earlier this week. On Monday, June 01, 2026, Wayne County Coroner Edward R. Howell pronounced the female dead in her Dyberry Township home.

The decedent has been identified as Brooke A. Woodcock, age 72. Coroner Howell has ruled the manner of death Natural.

Attempts to identify the existence of any living family members of the decedent have thus far been unsuccessful.
Any person having information regarding the existence of living relatives of Brooke A. Woodcock is asked to contact the Wayne County Coroner’s Office via email at waynecoroner@waynecountypa.gov or by phone at 570-488-5000.

Coroner Howell’s investigation has established the following information:

• Woodcock was born in November of 1953, in New Jersey; likely in Morristown.
• She may have been raised in Parsippany, New Jersey.
• Her father was John D. Woodcock. He was born in 1925 in Mineola, Long Island, NY. He died in December of 1976.
• He was a WWII Veteran who lived in Morristown, New Jersey in his youth.
• Her mother’s name at birth was Alice Pierson. Alice was later known as Alice P. Woodcock. As of at least 2010, Alice P. Woodcock lived in Newton, NJ.
• Brooke A. Woodcock is believed to have been an only child, having no siblings.
• Alice P. Woodcock (the decedent’s mother) had a sister, Mildred P. Hodges of Denville, NJ who died in April of 2010. Mildred was married to Robert E. Hodges; Robert died in 2017. They did not have any children.
• Brooke A. Woodcock was a graduate of the Berkeley School of Fashion Merchandizing.
• In 1974, Brooke A. Woodcock may have married Charles Lee Wheatley in Pasquotank County, North Carolina.
• In 1977, she married Michael S. Alpern at the First Baptist Church in Morristown, NJ. At this wedding, the maid of honor was Ronda Lee Franciso of Boonton, NJ; the bridesmaid was Rowena Lavell of Tabor, NJ.
• She moved to Wayne County, PA from Lake Hopatcong, Morris County, NJ sometime approximately between 2006 and 2009.
• Brooke A. Woodcock may have used the following aliases: Brooke A. Alpern; Brooke A. Wheatley.
• It is believed (but not confirmed) that during her lifetime, she did not bear any children.
• She may have aunts, uncles, cousins, or other extended relatives living in New Jersey.