Why is the Long Branch, New Jersey area so murdery, by episodes?

Long Branch sits on the central New Jersey coast and has been a beach resort since the late 1700s, when early presidents made it the place to go and nineteenth-century theatrical performers followed the crowds. In the twentieth century it became a family holiday town of just over 31,000 people. The cases in the Long Branch area fan out from there: Ocean Grove six miles away, Neptune City seven, then Toms River Township and Woodbridge Township at 23 and 24 miles.

There are five episodes and seven murders. Two is the most any one case holds, in Ocean Grove in 1983 and in Toms River Township across 1979 and 1984. The rest are single murders spread over the decades, from 1982 in Long Branch itself to 2016 in Neptune City, with 2004 in Woodbridge in between.