University student charged in beating death

A University student and two other men have been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the beating death of a 23-year-old North Wildwood, N.J., man outside a Wildwood bar, the Wildwood Police Department said Saturday in a news release.

The victim, John Vollrath, was pronounced dead at 3:44 a.m. Saturday at Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital, about an hour after police responded to reports of a fight.

Police identified those charged as Christopher Michael Short, 20, and his brother Adam, 18, both of Philadelphia and Joseph J. Mader II, 21, of North Cape May, N.J.

Christopher Short is a University student; Adam Short attends Widener University in Chester, and Mader is an unemployed bar bouncer, according to the news release.

John Vollrath went to the Club Kaladu with his sister, Heidi Vollrath, and girlfriend, Nicole Baines, after picking them up at another local bar, the victim's mother, Sally Vollrath, told the The Press of Atlantic City.

While at Club Kaladu, Mrs. Vollrath said, the suspects accused John Vollrath of ogling their girlfriends.

The suspects later confronted him, pulled his shirt over his head and allegedly beat him outside of the club, Mrs. Vollrath said.

She said her son did not know the suspects.

The three were taken to Cape May County Jail on Saturday. Superior Court Judge Vincent Segal set bail at $100,000 for each suspect, according to the news release.

The three suspects have also been charged with conspiracy in connection with the police investigation.

A telephone call to the Short residence in Philadelphia was not returned yesterday.

The Mader family is not commenting, said a woman who answered the phone at their North Cape May home.