SCENE: Murder Charge A Rarity In Long Beach Island

It is the first town you encounter as you come across the Causeway Bridge on Route 72 and onto Long Beach Island. In the summer, as the focal point of entry and exit, Ship Bottom is hopping every night of the week.

In the months that frame the summer tourist season, it is far quieter. Summer homes that have been closed up for the winter line many of the streets here, including the one on Wednesday night.

Hunsinger, 73, died when he was struck by a vehicle driven by his neighbor, Terrance O'Brien, in front of the home on the 200 block of West 7th Street in Ship Bottom, one block over from where Route 72 becomes part of Long Beach Island.

O'Brien, 63, lived downstairs in the same two-story building as Hunsinger, and is charged with murder; the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office has said he hit Hunsinger intentionally in the driveway of the blue-sided home.

It is the first murder charge on Long Beach Island since Gregory Gillick stabbed his 75-year-old stepmother, Doris Gillick, to death after night of drinking in March 2004. Gillick, now 40, is serving 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to the crime in November 2006.

On Thursday, the scene of the alleged murder was quiet again. Most of the other homes on the street were completely quiet; at the few where cars were present, no one answered the door.

A young man in his early 20s who arriving in the early afternoon said he knew Huntsinger, and that Hunsinger was his friend's mother's boyfriend, but declined to give his name or speak further, instead disappearing into the house.

A woman on a phone appeared in the doorway. Two other men came out of the house a short time later but declined to talk.

One thing that was visible and evident: Tire tracks in the driveway where Hunsinger was struck, right next to an RV parked in the driveway.