MATRICIDE-SUICIDE IN TENAFLY

By Michael O. Allen and Bill Sanderson, Record Staff Writers | Thursday, July 4, 1991

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

Correction: Jack Fonder, who authorities believe killed himself after stabbing his mother to death in their Tenafly home, recently spent a month at Fair Oaks Hospital in Boca Del Ray, Fla., according to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office. The hospital was misidentified in The Record on Wednesday. (PUBLISHED SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1991, ae, a02)

A Tenafly woman was stabbed to death by her mentally disturbed son, who then turned the knife on himself and committed suicide, investigators said Wednesday.

Estelle Fonder, 57, was found in a bathroom of her family’s five-bedroom home on Deerfield Drive, a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood of ranch-style houses surrounded by broad lawns and stout trees. Her son Jack, 24, was found dead in the living room.

Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said cuts and abrasions on her hands led investigators to believe she struggled with her son before she died. Investigators assume Jack Fonder killed himself, partly because no similar wounds were found on his body.

Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune said officers from his Bureau of Criminal Investigation collected samples of blood throughout the house.

“It appeared that there was a violent struggle prior to the demise of Mrs. Fonder,” Terhune said. “There was blood spattered throughout the house in the bathroom, hallways, kitchen, and the living room.”

Fahy said Jack Fonder had recently been released after spending a month at Fair Oaks Hospital in Summit, a private psychiatric hospital.

“No one has told us they heard a fight going on,” Fahy said. “The son was suffering from psychiatric problems. Everyone in the family knew that.”

The exact time and cause of the deaths will be determined by autopsy. Medical examiners were studying the bodies on Wednesday, Fahy said.

The victims were found dead at 10:11 p.m. Tuesday by Edward Fonder, Estelle’s husband and Jack’s father. Fahy said Fonder, a pharmacist who owns the Midtown Pharmacy in Closter, was returning home from work.

The Fonders have two other sons James, who owns a bicycle shop in Closter, and Steven. Though the Fonders have owned the five-bedroom house since 1968, neighbors said they knew little of the family.

Keywords: SUICIDE; TENAFLY; ESTELLE FONDER; JACK FONDER; EDWARD FONDER

SUSPECT SHOOTS HIMSELF; WAS CORNERED AFTER HOLDUP TRY, COPS SAY

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, June 29, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

A man who tried to hold up a fast-food restaurant was in critical condition at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood Friday, the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after the robbery attempt went awry, authorities said.
The man, whom police have not been able to identify, tried to rob the Roy Rogers Family Restaurant at 31 Godwin Ave. in Midland Park at about 12:40 a.m. Friday, said Midland Park Police Chief Thomas Monarque.
About 40 minutes later, the suspect rather than surrender to Ridgewood Police Sgt. Richard Maier and three Glen Rock police officers who had him cornered in the driveway of a Lincoln Avenue home pointed his gun at Maier briefly, then to his own right temple and pulled the trigger, Monarque said.
The incident started at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday when the man, clad in a Roy Rogers uniform, knocked on the door and asked to be let in to use the phone, Monarque said. He claimed to have car trouble.
“They did not let him in,” Monarque said. “About an hour later, when they were all leaving the restaurant property, they noticed this person still loitering around the restaurant.”
The suspect waited until all the vehicles, except for the manager’s van, had pulled out of the parking lot, Monarque said. He then approached the manager, took a gun out of his waistband, and ordered the manager out of his van, telling him to go back into the restaurant for money, Monarque said. However, the manager stalled.
The suspect at one point aimed the gun at the manager, whom Monarque declined to identify, then turned away at the last minute and fired in the direction of the van but did not hit it.
The other employees returned to the parking lot when they realized the manager wasn’t driving behind them, the chief said. The suspect fled on foot without any money when he saw the employees.
About 1:20 a.m., Ridgewood and Glen Rock police responded to a report of a hitchhiker on Lincoln Avenue fitting the description of the suspect, Monarque said.

Keywords: RIDGEWOOD; ROBBERY; SHOOTING; MIDLAND PARK; RESTAURANT

GUNMAN HIJACKS TRUCK ON ROUTE 46

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, June 29, 1991

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

A gunman hijacked a cargo-filled Caldor truck on Route 46 near the George Washington Bridge on Thursday night and then met up with an accomplice who took the driver to upstate New York, where he was released unharmed, authorities said.
“Evidently traffic was a little heavy or the guy was going slow enough for someone to jump into his cab,” Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso said.
Orso said the driver is a 32-year-old man from North Bergen but declined to identify him further. The truck valued at $47,000 and carrying about $80,000 worth of clothing belonged to Caldor Distribution Center at 601 Westside Ave., North Bergen, Orso said.
The driver told FBI agents a gunman jumped into the cab of his tractor-trailer about 10:30 p.m. Thursday as the truck slowed in eastbound traffic on Route 46, Orso said.
“When the suspect jumped in the car, he told the driver to keep driving. When he got to the Major Deegan, he was handcuffed and transferred to a white minivan. They took him to a town called Deposit in upstate New York, about a four-hour drive,” Orso said.
Store officials on Friday declined to comment on the hijacking, the shipment’s origin, or its destination.

Keywords: FORT LEE; NEW YORK STATE; KIDNAPPING; HOSTAGE; CLOTHING; STORE; MOTOR VEHICLE; THEFT

8 CHARGED IN ROBBERY OF BANK WORKER

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, June 28, 1991

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

Police have arrested eight men for Monday’s assault and robbery of a bank messenger, who was pulled from his car and beaten as he waited at a red light.
Raymond Ayala, a messenger for the Trust Company of New Jersey, was in his 1984 Dodge waiting at 70th Street and Tonnelle Avenue when he was pulled from the car by three men who then assaulted him. The men got away with $12,000 in cash and $4,000 in checks that Ayala had just picked up from a business, Police Chief Angelo Busacco said.
The three who attacked Ayala, 35, of Jersey City, along with the driver of the getaway car were charged with robbery and aggravated assault, Busacco said. The other four helped plan the crime and were charged with conspiracy, the chief said.
“The victim, he took a pretty bad beating,” Busacco said. “He has a fractured eye socket, a broken nose, and a broken jaw. He was fairly bruised about the entire body.”
Ayala was taken to Palisades General Hospital on Monday and was discharged Thursday, a hospital spokesman said.
Charged with robbery and assault were Sergio Ariz of 7200 Grand Ave., North Bergen, who was released on $5,000 cash bail; Alan Amador of 6223 Liberty Ave., North Bergen, who posted 10 percent of $5,000 bail; Gary Bohanan, 22, of 6 River St., Little Ferry, and Christopher Camacho, 20, of 7521 Bergenline Ave., North Bergen, who each posted 10 percent of $2,500 bail.
Charged with conspiracy and posting 10 percent of their $2,500 bail were Michael Tomicich, 18, of 335 71st St., Guttenberg; Joseph Lalicata, 32, of 6601 Cottage Ave., North Bergen; Richard Zedower, 18, of 7108 Cottage Ave., North Bergen, and Joseph Occhipinti, 23, of 6024 Newkirk Ave., North Bergen.
Bohanan, Camacho, Lalicata, and Amador turned themselves in at headquarters; the other four were arrested at home or at work, the chief said.
Bohanan and Camacho appeared in court Wednesday. The others are scheduled to appear July 3, Busacco said.
For security reasons, Busacco declined to say how many men were involved in the investigation. He said key officers in the case were Lt. Timothy Kelly, Lt. Robert Heldman, Sgt. Joseph Bode, Detective Joseph Gener, and Detective James Onderdonk.

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; ROBBERY; ASSAULT

BOY, 15, DIES AFTER SNIFFING BUTANE IN CAR ELMWOOD PARK YOUTH PASSED OUT AT MALL

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, June 27, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A01

A 15-year-old Elmwood Park boy died Tuesday about an hour after he passed out while sniffing butane gas in the back seat of a friend’s car in Paramus, authorities said Wednesday.
Thomas Prokap was pronounced dead at 10:46 p.m. at Kennedy Memorial Hospitals at Saddle Brook, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.
A spokeswoman for the Bergen County Medical Examiner’s Office said an autopsy Wednesday failed to determine the cause of death. Toxicology tests, which usually take six to eight weeks, will be performed, she said.
Prokap was in the friend’s car at Garden State Plaza with three friends, whom Fahy declined to identify because they are juveniles. The prosecutor said they began “hanging out” in the mall’s parking lot about 7:45 p.m.
Sometime after 9 p.m., they drove to a store on Main Street in Hackensack, where Prokap bought a 2 1/2-ounce canister of Ronson butane fuel, Fahy said.
The other youths told authorities that, as they had seen Prokap do on occasion within the past week, he inhaled butane from the spray top on the canister, Fahy said.
They said they noticed he was drooling and appeared to be sleeping. When they couldn’t wake him, they drove to the hospital, he said.
The youths were not drinking and there was no evidence of drugs in the car, Paramus Police Chief Joseph Delaney said. Police do not anticipate charging the youths with any crime at this point, he said.
The investigation points pending the medical examiner’s toxicology tests to the butane, Delaney said.
Elmwood Park Police Chief Byron Morgan II said that he has heard of teenagers using inhalants to “achieve a high,” but he knew of no other cases in which a local youth had used butane.
“Any accident like this is a tragedy, a little more so when it involves the life of a child or a teenager,” he said.
Dr. Joseph Boyle, an associate professor of physiology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, said butane causes excitement, exhilaration, and delirium when inhaled. He also said it could act as a depressant.
“They get intoxicated, similar to alcohol,” he said of users.
Butane also causes a condition known as hypoxia, a depletion of oxygen in the body tissue to a point where it cannot sustain life, he said. And it does not take inhalation of a large quantity of the gas for it to occur, he added.
Boyle said another effect of butane, a volatile organic substance, is an irregular heartbeat.
Residents in the tight-knit Elmwood Park neighborhood where Prokap lived spoke highly of his family, whose other two sons attend Rutgers University, and of Prokap, whom they described as a tall, lean, “good-looking” boy.
“They’re great people. I don’t understand what went wrong,” a neighbor said.
Prokap, who was a sophomore at Elmwood Park Memorial High School who died 22 days short of his 16th birthday, was a former member of the Elmwood Park Little League and St. Leo Boy Scout Troop 80.
Among his survivors are his parents, John and Gloria, and two brothers, John and Gordon, all of Elmwood Park.
Record Staff Writers Jim Consoli and Wendy Zentz contributed to this article.

Keywords: ELMWOOD PARK; PARAMUS; YOUTH; FUEL; ACCIDENT; DEATH; VICTIM; TEST

Caption: PHOTO – PETER MONSEES / THE RECORD – A can of Ronson butane fuel, which carries warning against inhalation.

MAN HELD AFTER CAR CHASE IS SUSPECTED IN HIT-RUN

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, June 26, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B04

A man in custody on charges of driving a stolen car and eluding police is also being investigated in connection with a hit-and-run accident that left a 16-year-old township girl with two broken legs, police said.
Rosa Sanfilippo of Broadway Street was in stable condition at the Jersey City Medical Center Tuesday, a hospital spokesman said.
Luis Urrutia, 41, of 9008 Bergenwood Ave., North Bergen, was being held in the Bergen County Jail on $5,000 bail. Palisades Park police arrested him in Edgewater, following a chase that began on Bergen Boulevard in Palisades Park shortly after a broadcast of the accident over the police scanner about 10:45 p.m. Sunday. He was charged with possessing stolen property the car and eluding police.
North Bergen Police Officer George Alburtus said Sanfilippo was at Broadway and 77th Street when a northbound car struck her, then fled. He declined to identify the suspect, citing an ongoing investigation, but said North Bergen police are exploring charges against a suspect arrested by Palisades Park police.
The suspect was arrested following a chase that began in Palisades Park a short time after the accident, Alburtus said.
Palisades Park Police Officer Michael Anderson began chasing the white 1977 Pontiac that Urrutia was driving at about 11 p.m., after hearing the broadcast and telling the driver to pull over, police said.

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT

WOMAN, MOM ARE `CRITICAL AFTER COLLISION

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, June 23, 1991

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

An 18-year-old Teaneck woman, eight months pregnant, lost her baby and was in critical condition Saturday after her mother’s car collided with a gasoline tanker while backing out of their driveway, officials said.
Sharon Baboulis of 632 Teaneck Road was in the Hackensack Medical Center intensive care unit Saturday, suffering from a chest contusion, ruptured uterus, and cardiac problems, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Her mother, Thelma Baboulis, 50, suffered head trauma and a fractured arm and was in critical condition, the spokeswoman said.
Neither woman was wearing her seat belt when the collision occurred about 11 p.m. Friday, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.
The tanker, owned by Island Transport of West Babylon, N.Y., was empty and was heading south on Teaneck Road when it came upon the car, Fahy said. The 1987 Honda rolled over once after being struck on the driver’s side, he said.

Keywords: TEANECK; ACCIDENT; MOTOR VEHICLE; BABY

Notes: Bergen page

CAR CRASH LEVELS SERVICE STATION BOOTH

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, June 23, 1991

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

A car driven by a 31-year-old Hackensack man crashed into a center divider and demolished a booth at an Exxon service station on Route 46 Saturday, just missing the gasoline pumps, police said.
The driver, William Valle of Lodi Street, suffered a fractured pelvis and was in fair condition at Hackensack Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. Police said he would be charged with driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, driving an uninsured car, and driving without a license. The accident occurred about 3:30 a.m. Saturday along Route 46, by Overpeck Creek. Valle was thrown from his car when it hit a parked auto after striking the service station booth, police said.

Keywords: RIDGEFIELD PARK; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; GARAGE; HACKENSACK

Notes: Bergen page

HIT-AND-RUN VICTIM FROM LODI SUCCUMBS

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, June 23, 1991

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

A 37-year-old Lodi man injured in a hit-and-run accident while crossing Market Street early Friday died in Hackensack Medical Center of multiple head injuries, a hospital spokeswoman said. Gary Merlo of Vreeland Avenue, Lodi, died at noon Saturday, the spokeswoman said.
A Saddle Brook police dispatcher Saturday confirmed the accident at the corner of Market Street and Rosemont Avenue sometime after midnight Friday, but said no more information was immediately available.
Bill Ramirez, Merlo’s brother-in-law, said witnesses at a nearby bar saw a jeeplike truck or four-wheel-drive vehicle hit Merlo as he crossed the street after leaving a nearby diner.

Keywords: DEATH; VICTIM; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; SADDLE BROOK; LODI

Notes: Bergen page

POLICE SEEK WITNESSES TO MAN’S INJURY

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, June 23, 1991

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

Borough police are seeking witnesses to an accident in which a 77-year-old Allendale man apparently was struck by a school bus Thursday as he crossed the intersection of Wyckoff Avenue and Franklin Turnpike.
The bus driver “stopped because she saw a man in the road,” said Patrolman Gordon Andre. “She didn’t know how he got there. . . . We are not able to talk to the man right now because he’s in intensive care at The Valley Hospital.”
Extensive head and rib injuries suffered by Lawrence Bogart, 77, of Homewood Avenue, were consistent with those of someone who had been struck by a vehicle, Andre said.

Keywords: POLICE; ALLENDALE; SCHOOL; BUS; WALDWICK

Notes: Bergen page