Column: SECOND LOOK–LODI’S FORGOTTEN, UNSOLVED AX MURDER

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Saturday, June 8, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A02

The blinds were drawn on the carefully locked house at 221 Union St. in Lodi. Inside the gas-filled home of Mary Moll was her hatchet-hacked body.
Even after 58 years, Moll’s murder is one of North Jersey’s most bizarre unsolved crimes.
Moll, 69, had been a recluse for several years after her husband, Gottfried, died. Two daughters-in-law coming to look in on her about 5:30 p.m. on May 15, 1933, peered through the window of the house when she didn’t answer the knock on the door. Blood stains on the floor clued them to call police.
Moll’s body was found slumped in the kitchen of her home. She had been dead several hours, said Dr. Raphael Gilady, county physician.
Investigators said it was murder but considered the possibility she may have committed suicide, according to contemporary reports.
But an ax wound in the back of Moll’s skull indicated little possibility that it could have been self-inflicted. Detectives said the murderer probably struck Moll with the ax and turned on the gas jets while leaving to insure her death if she regained consciousness.
The locked house, signs of struggle on the main floor, and absence of any evidence of robbery presented tangled clues for detectives to unravel. A blood-covered ax with bits of bone clinging to it was some of the gruesome evidence scanned by detectives who sought to reconstruct the murder.
But Mary Moll’s killer eluded them.
Today, virtually no one remembers Moll. Not Lodi’s acting police chief, John Pizzuro, who searched unsuccessfully for several days for files on the case. Not Sharyn Peiffer, Bergen County assistant prosecutor in charge of homicide.
“We do have files from the 1930s, but not that one,” Peiffer said. “An ax is generally, at least in my experience, an odd method to commit suicide. . . . This is an awfully violent way to commit suicide, even murder.”
Not even the cause of Moll’s death is certain. An autopsy was performed at noon on May 16, 1933, but the Bergen County medical examiner’s records before 1946 were destroyed in a fire.

Keywords: LODI; MURDER

TWO PATERSON MEN FACE GUN CHARGES CAR, MOTEL SEARCHES UNEARTH WEAPONS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, June 6, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

Two Paterson men were charged Wednesday with carrying a police baton and two automatic handguns following their arrest during a traffic stop on Route 46.
William G. Figueroa, 18, of 62 22nd Ave. and David Cruz, 24, of 96 Market St. were stopped about 9:50 p.m. Tuesday after pulling out of a motel driveway onto Route 46 westbound without coming to a full stop, said Arthur Montenegro, the acting police chief.
Montenegro, Detective Lt. Gene Roma, Patrolman Brian Veprek, and Detective Michael Montenegro were on special assignment when they saw the 1985 Volkswagen Rabbit pull out of the driveway.
Roma saw the baton in the car’s back seat and asked whether either man was a police officer or a security guard. Both said they were not and police arrested them.
“When the driver got out of the vehicle, I saw the butt of a handgun sticking out of a hole in the console of the vehicle,” Arthur Montenegro said.
It was a loaded .380-caliber automatic, and its serial number was scratched off, meaning it was probably stolen, Montenegro said. A search of the car revealed a .38-caliber Derringer, he added.
Montenegro said a search of the motel room where the men had been staying turned up several hollow-nosed bullets.
Both men face charges including possession of two loaded handguns, hollow-nose bullets, and a baton, as well as defacing a firearm by filing off the serial number. Figueroa was being held in the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail and Cruz on $2,500 bail.

Keywords: SOUTH HACKENSACK; WEAPON; CRIME

CRASH JAMS GWB TRAFFIC FOR 9 HOURS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, June 6, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A05

A predawn accident on the westbound express lanes of Route 95 leading to the George Washington Bridge created massive traffic delays Wednesday.
The traffic jam was especially acute during the morning rush hour, as it took New Jersey-bound motorists as long as two hours to cross the bridge, said Catherine Bowman, the bridge’s operations supervisor.
The accident, on the upper level express lanes, involved an overturned garbage truck and two cars. It occurred about 2 a.m. near the Port Authority’s George Washington Bridge bus station, said Port Authority spokesman John Hughes. Details were not available.
Hughes said westbound traffic backed up as far as the New England section of the New York Thruway and was rerouted onto local streets and the Henry Hudson Parkway. The westbound lanes were closed for nine hours because of difficulty righting the truck, he said.
Bowman said the bridge’s lower level lanes were closed for construction at the time of the accident and were not opened until 6:30 a.m., adding to the congestion.
A special crane was used to right the truck about 11:30 a.m., and the lanes were reopened about noon, Hughes said. He said the cause of the accident had not been determined late Wednesday. Although the cars suffered extensive damage, no one was injured, he said.

Keywords: BRIDGE; NEW JERSEY; NEW YORK CITY; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT

WATER MAIN BREAK HITS CARS, COMMERCE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, June 5, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page A12

A water main break on Main Street on Tuesday snarled traffic and shut off water to about 15 stores, disrupting business, officials said.
A 12-inch main that dates to 1883 ruptured at about 2 a.m., Hackensack Water Co. spokeswoman Cindy Munley said. Workers located the rupture in front of the United Jersey Bank at 210 Main St. and turned off the pipe about 6:30 a.m., she said.
Santiago Patino, the bank’s operations division vice president, said the bank was closed for the day because the Fire Department, for safety reasons, advised that electrical power to the building be cut. Water drained into the bank’s basement, where all the bank’s electrical components were kept, he said.
Customers were directed to other branches, Patino said, adding that the bank will reopen today.
Perry Tsucalas, owner of Colby’s Luncheonette at 190 Main St., said the restaurant lost about 40 percent of its customers for the day when the bank closed. “A lot of our customers are from the bank, and that affects business,” Tsucalas said.
Tammy Hoffman, manager of Duby Florist, which is next door to Colby’s, said she was called in to work about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, five hours earlier than usual, to find about four feet of water in the basement.
“We couldn’t park in front of the store because of the water, Hoffman said. “It was like a big river on Main Street from the railroad track. The top of the store was fine, but downstairs in the basement there were three to four feet of water. It’s just a total mess. We lost all our supplies.”
Water was restored about 4 p.m., Munley said, adding that about 15 stores had to have water pumped out of their basements.

Keywords: HACKENSACK; WATER; ACCIDENT; BUSINESS; STORE

MAN HELD IN SUPERMARKET STABBING OF ESTRANGED WIFE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Tuesday, June 4, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B02

A 31-year-old West New York man was being held Monday in Hudson County Jail on charges that he stabbed and critically wounded his estranged wife several times at the ShopRite supermarket, police said.
Police Lt. Mark Cerbo said he and three other officers, responding to a report of a stabbing at the Kennedy Boulevard supermarket Sunday, arrested Rafael Llaverias as he was running through the parking lot.
“He had blood all over his pants,” Cerbo said.
Inside the store, Yohanny Llaverias of Union City was sprawled on the floor, bleeding from stab wounds all over her body. The serrated kitchen knife that police believed was used in the stabbing was lying next to her, Cerbo said. The knife was broken in half.
The 21-year-old woman was in critical condition in Jersey City Medical Center’s surgical intensive care unit, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday.
Lt. Timothy Kelly said Yohanny Llaverias had restraining orders barring her husband from contacting her.
Rafael Llaverias was being held in Hudson County Jail without bail on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon, and violation of a restraining order.

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; ASSAULT

URBAN LEAGUE HONORS STUDENTS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Monday, June 3, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page B02

Christopher Sanders said he did not know he would receive an award at the annual Urban League Salute to African American Scholars until he arrived at the ceremonies Sunday in Hackensack.

“I looked in the program and it was like `Wow, first place! It’s inspiring,” said the Teaneck High School student.

Sanders essay on Democratic Party National Chairman Ronald Brown won him first place and a $1,000 scholarship. He said he plans to study architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark this fall.

About 300 camera-toting parents packed Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Edward Williams College auditorium to see the Urban League recognize and honor some 70 North Jersey middle and high school students.

After apologizing to the audience for the broken air conditioning that created sweltering conditions in the auditorium, FDU President Francis Mertz received applause when he announced that the school will award a four-year, $12,500 scholarship to an Urban League honoree every year, beginning in 1992.

Lenworth Gunther, president of Edmedia Associates Inc. and the day’s keynote speaker, said the students being honored were revolutionaries in a sense because they were defying stereotypes.

“This is just the first stage of what will be many honors and many recognitions, I hope,” Gunther said. “I want you brothers and sisters to understand that I am you, just a little older version. I don’t want to be expendable and I don’t want you to be expendable.”

Among the parents who attended were Edris Clarke, whose daughter Debbie Laine Clark, received an award for excellence. She will begin pre-med studies at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., this fall.

“I’m very proud of my daughter,” the elder Clarke said. “She is a very conscientious student . . . She says to me, `Mommy, I know where I’m going and I’m going to get there by God’s grace.”

Keywords: AWARD; BLACK; HACKENSACK; ORGANIZATION; STUDENT

Caption: PHOTO – COLLETTE FOURNIER / THE RECORD – Christopher Sanders of Teaneck congratulating fellow award-winner Michele M. Cherville of Paterson.

SCHUBER LEADS REGIONALIZATION TALKS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, June 2, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

In the first of what new Bergen County Executive William “Pat” Schuber said he hopes will become regular meetings of municipal leaders, representatives of 45 county communities met with him Saturday to talk about regionalization and consolidation of services.
“The county is not that big anymore,” New Milford Mayor Theresa M. King said. “It’s 70 towns, and we all have the same problems. My concern is that the county put forth programs that do not duplicate themselves, that we don’t add . . . bureaucracy and additional costs.”
Saturday’s meeting, organized by Schuber and Charles O’Dowd, chairman of the Board of Freeholders, among others, examined regionalization in areas such as health, law enforcement, recycling, and a countywide 911 system.
“Regionalization as a word does not mean the end of home rule,” Schuber told those gathered, “but instead represents an approach which will aid communities during these most difficult economic times such as [those] we are facing.”
County government, Schuber said, will take a lead role in helping the towns find ways to share services and concentrate efforts to take advantage of the economies of scale.
One area that is being scrutinized is the potential for regionalizing law enforcement. First Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Paul Brickfield announced that a commission to study how that could be done would be named in July, with meetings and hearings scheduled in August and September.
He said many communities already share dispatching duties, have mutual aid assistance programs, and work together in other ways.
When asked what would happened if a town decided to opt out of a regional arrangement, Brickfield said that would be an impediment only if the proposal was for one central police department for the whole county.
“It is unlikely at this stage that a plan would emerge seeking that all 70 towns join into one force. The trend in the short term is for neighboring towns to at least start to share services, and look at consolidation later,” Brickfield said.
Regionalization is a bitter medicine for some, however, even those like Ridgefield Park Mayor Fred J. Criscuolo, who served on the Inter-local Governmental Relations Committee of the Schuber transition team.
The concept of regionalization is a direct attack on home rule that would cause the deterioration of municipalities by the year 2000, Criscuolo said. But he said municipalities have little choice.
“Since it’s been forced on us, it is the only way to go,” Criscuolo said. “Funding is almost terminated in most areas. With various laws and mandates from the state that require even more money, I think regionalization, or as we call it, intergovernmental relationship, is the only way to go.”
O’Dowd said he realized regionalization might be difficult to achieve politically.
“There are two standards to be met when we talk about cooperation and regionalization: will the service improve and will the cost decrease,” O’Dowd said. “If we can put all the cobwebs out of our brain about home rule and local control and understand that we’ll still have that because it is our decision to make. If we meet those two standards, then we have served our people and served them well.”

Keywords: HACKENSACK; BERGEN COUNTY; EXECUTIVE; MEETING; GOVERNMENT; OFFICIAL

Notes: Bergen page

POLICE SAY MEN SOLD COCAINE IN PARKING LOT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer |Saturday, June 1, 1991

The Record (New Jersey | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A04

City police, responding to residents complaints of rampant drug dealing at their apartment building, have arrested two men they saw allegedly selling cocaine in the parking lot.
Fernando Hernandez, 29, of 28 E. Palisade Ave., Palisades Park, and Nelson Adarve, 34, of 31 W. Englewood Ave., Englewood, were being held in the Bergen County Jail Friday on $100,000 bail.
About 7:15 p.m. Thursday, detectives Edward Murray and Charles Gormley saw Hernandez, with Adarve sitting next to him, drive into the parking lot of the building at 143 Tenafly Road, honk his horn, and sell a packet to a tenant, who was not arrested, said Englewood Police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley.
The two then drove to Sunnyside Park in Englewood, where they picked up Timothy Maloney, 26. Shortly afterward, police, who were following in an unmarked car, attempted to pull them over. They sped off, but the chase ended a short while later on Marcotte Lane in Tenafly when they crashed into a tree.
Charges against Hernandez and Adarve include possession of 65 grams of cocaine, worth about $8,000; possession of the drug within 1,000 feet of a school; possession with intent to distribute; reckless driving, and eluding police, Tinsley said.
Maloney, whose last known address was 177 Pleasant Ave., Englewood, was charged with possession of cocaine and released on his own recognizance, Tinsley said.

Keywords: ENGLEWOOD; PARKING; POLICE; SALE; DRUG

TONS CONFISCATED, 8 ARRESTED; NEW JERSEY’S BIGGEST DRUG BUST

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, June 1, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A01

In what is being called New Jersey’s largest drug haul ever, undercover U.S. Customs Service agents Friday seized 4,700 pounds of cocaine, 7,000 pounds of marijuana, and $995,000 in cash, and arrested eight men connected to the shipment, officials said.
“New Jersey, unfortunately, is becoming a central transit place for heroin, cocaine, and other forms of narcotics,” said Robert van Etten, special customs agent in charge.
Friday’s arrests culminated a four-month investigation in which customs agents infiltrated a New York metropolitan area drug-smuggling organization that was supplied by the Cali drug cartel in Colombia, Van Etten said. The marijuana was to be delivered to Illinois and Indiana, he added.
The cocaine had a wholesale value of $58.2 million, and the marijuana was valued at $11.2 million wholesale, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart Rabner.
Van Etten said a private transport plane brought the drugs first to Miami, then to Newark International Airport about a week ago. The drugs were transferred to a rented truck, which was seized by agents in Newark Friday.
Among those arrested were North Jersey residents Enidio Abreu, 42, of 310 Warwick Ave., Teaneck, and Julio Menendez, 29, of 1614 83rd St., North Bergen.
The eight were charged with conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana. They were being held without bail in the Union County Jail.

Keywords: DRUG; NEWARK; PROBE; SHIP; NEW JERSEY; SMUGGLING

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – BB BRUSH / THE RECORD – Workers in Newark unloading cocaine and marijuana seized Friday after a four-month investigation.

COPS PROBE HOW WOMAN IN SPAT FELL FROM WINDOW

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Thursday, May 30, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page B04

Investigators are trying to determine how a 24-year-old Jersey City woman, a bystander in a spat between a man and his two girlfriends, fell out of a third-floor apartment window Wednesday and cracked her skull, police said.
“Everything indicates that she didn’t want to go out of that window,” Union City Detective Sgt. Maurice Ryan said.
Wanda Colon of 1812 Fifth St. was in critical condition in the intensive care unit at University Hospital in Newark, a hospital spokesman said.
Ryan said the dispute started when Carmen Natal of 2508 Adams Place, Union City, and Jacqueline Casco of 228 Fourth St., Jersey City, found out they had been dating the same man Michael Lugo, 23, of Queens and decided to confront him early Wednesday.
Natal, 24, telephoned Lugo and told him her husband was beating her, Ryan said, adding that Natal is not married. Ryan said that when Lugo arrived at Natal’s place, armed with a gun, he was surprised to find Casco, Colon, and two other women there, along with Natal.
The gun was a catalyst in the ensuing melee, during which Colon fell out of the window, Ryan said. Broken window panes, scratches on her wrist, and her fingernail marks on the sill, showed that Colon struggled to prevent her fall, Ryan said.
Lugo was charged with possession of a weapon and aggravated assault. He was being held in the Hudson County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Keywords: UNION CITY; ACCIDENT; PROBE