MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, May 10, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A03
Investigators have ruled that the death of a Fort Lee man and his 5-year-old daughter was a murder-suicide, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said Saturday.
Raif Gandell, 42, shot his daughter, Kira Gandell, twice in the head before shooting himself through the mouth, Fahy said. The bodies were discovered about 8:05 a.m. Friday on the bed with a .32-caliber automatic handgun between them.
Fahy said an autopsy indicated the two died between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.
Gandell and his wife, Jill Markowitz, of the Half Moon House Apartments at 2400 Hudson Terrace were in marriage counseling and he had been depressed over the marital problems, Fahy said.
A baby sitter reporting for work the next morning could not enter the apartment because the door was latched with a chain from the inside. However, she found a note from Gandell underneath the door telling her what he had done, and saying that she should call the police.
Markowitz, who was out of state on a business trip, was informed of the deaths Friday. She returned home that day, but could not be reached for comment. Gandell was a medical social worker at Englewood Hospital.
ID: 17376812 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
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