Out of the mouths of . . .

My wife (Let’s call her LJ) and two boys (Gabriel, 10, and Aidan, 6 years old but turning 7 in five days) were walking on Hope St., by Spring, the other day when they came across a scene that was unusual enough they ran home to get a camera to record it: a Vulture eating a Possum.

On their return, the scene acquired a touch of the surreal. Vulture was still eating Possum. Then a hearse drives by.

This is where I enter. That night, the boys were telling me about their day.

Aidan: That Vulture was cute.

Gabriel (knowing his brother, laughs)

Me: It was a vulture.

Aidan: All vultures are cute.

(Aidan believes all animals are cute.)

Me: Vultures are never cute.

Aidan: How ‘bout the Possum, it was cute?

Me: It was dead!

Aidan: Besides that.

FT. LEE DAD KILLS CHILD, 5, AND SELF

By Michael O. Allen and Steven Crabill, Record Staff Writers | Saturday, May 9, 1992

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

A Fort Lee man reportedly depressed over marital problems shot and killed his 5-year-old daughter sometime before dawn Friday, then turned the gun on himself, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.

Kira Gandell was shot twice in the head and Raif Gandell, 42, once in the mouth, Fahy said.

Gandell and his wife, Jill Markowitz, of 2400 Hudson Terrace had been in marriage counseling for some time, Fahy added.

Police found the bodies of Gandell and his daughter on a bed in the family’s second-floor apartment at the Half-Moon House Apartments at 8:05 a.m. A maid-babysitter saw a note beneath the door when she arrived for work but could not enter because a chain on the door was latched from the inside, Fahy said.

A worker at the building said and authorities confirmed that the note said: “Call the police. I killed myself and Kira.”

Police battered down the door and found the bodies on the bed, Fahy said. A .32-caliber automatic pistol was between them.

Markowitz, in Seattle on a business trip, was notified and was returning Friday, Fahy said.

Authorities did not know how long the couple had been married.

Kira was their only child, Fahy said.

Gandell had been employed at Englewood Hospital as a medical social worker counseling patients in need of community services or extended care after leaving the hospital since March 1991, said Shelley Rosenstock, director of communications at the hospital.

FAMILY ID’S SON’S BODY, THEN LEARNS HE’S ALIVE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, April 12, 1992

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

Members of John Howe’s family thought he had died in a train accident Thursday night. On Friday, they found out he hadn’t.

His boss, his brother, and his parents on Friday identified a body taken to the Rockland County, N.Y., morgue as that of Howe, Suffern Village Police Chief Leo Costa said Saturday.

“Each one positively said that it was him,” Costa said. “No doubt about it.”

But then Howe, 22, was later spotted walking along a Spring Valley, N.Y., street with his girlfriend.

The body in the morgue was subsequently identified as that of Charles Horton, 24, of Wayne Avenue, Suffern. He was struck and killed near Suffern by an NJ Transit train Thursday night. Police said no identification was found on the body.

Dr. Frederick Zugibe, Rockland County chief medical examiner, said Saturday that Howe’s mother, father, and brother came to the morgue in Pomona five hours after the body was discovered and identified it as Howe’s. They were called shortly after Howe’s boss was summoned to the morgue and made the initial identification.

In a followup investigation to determine Howe’s whereabouts before the accident, police tracked down his girlfriend and found the two in Spring Valley.

Police did not identify Howe’s relatives, boss, or girlfriend.

Costa said the two men bore a strong facial resemblance. Authorities were able to identify Horton through his fingerprints.

A woman described by Costa as Horton’s common-law wife had called police to ask if they knew where he was.

2 BROTHERS SHOT, THIRD IS CHARGED; Family Argument Erupts Into Gunfire

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, March 1, 1992

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

A feud between brothers spilled onto a front lawn, where an Oakland man fired nine shots at his two brothers, striking each once in the back, police said. The victims were spared serious injury because the bullets were slowed by the doors of the Jeep in which they were attempting to escape.

Anthony Rucereto and his brother John drove themselves to Englewood Hospital immediately after they were shot, Police Chief Michael Affrunti said. A spokeswoman at Englewood Hospital said they were treated and released.

Vincent Rucereto was arrested without incident on numerous charges among them attempted murder after the shooting Friday night on the lawn of his mother’s home at 248 Lexington Ave., the chief added.

“They were trying to get away from him and that’s when he started shooting at them,” Affrunti said. “It’s an argument over money. I don’t have details yet because we haven’t had a chance to interview these people.”

The brothers 70-year-old mother with whom Anthony, 50, and John, 31, live injured her hands when she fell trying to separate her sons, the police chief said. The woman, whose name was not given, was also treated at Englewood Hospital.

The argument among the Ruceretos began somewhere outside of Dumont, then continued when they arrived at their mother’s house about 10:40 p.m. Friday.

When his brothers tried to drive away, Vincent, armed with a .22-caliber automatic handgun, fired nine shots into the vehicle, the police chief said.

“John Rucereto was struck in the back,” Affrunti said. “It penetrated the door of the car first so it didn’t go that deep into him. The other brother, Anthony, was also hit in the back but it didn’t penetrate him because that bullet also went through the car first.”

Two stray bullets also hit the house, the chief said.

Vincent Rucereto, 48, of Rutgers Drive, Oakland, was being held in Bergen County Jail on $90,000 bail. He was charged with two counts of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose, Affrunti said.

GLOBAL SEARCH FOR FORT LEE BOY; DAD SUSPECTED IN ABDUCTION

By Mary Jo Layton and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Thursday, October 10, 1991

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

An 8-year-old Fort Lee boy was snatched from a street corner and apparently taken to South Korea in a custody dispute, setting off a frantic international search, authorities said Wednesday.
Investigators suspect that Pyung Woo Song, abducted near his North Central Road home Monday morning as he waited for a school bus, is with his father in Seoul. They were trying Wednesday to confirm the boy’s whereabouts with the assistance of South Korean authorities.
“This is unique because of possible parental involvement,” FBI Special Agent William Tonkin said.
“We are trying to ascertain whether or not we have a federal kidnapping here, and I don’t think we have an answer yet because we don’t have enough facts.”
Investigators from the FBI, South Korea, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, and Fort Lee are involved in the case.
Fort Lee police suspect that the boy’s father, Dae Seup Song, also known as Kwi Hwa Song, arranged the abduction after threatening to bring the boy to South Korea against his mother’s wishes, Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso said. The parents were estranged, but Orso said authorities believe they share custody.
The chief said investigators spoke with the father Tuesday afternoon from Seoul.
“He denied having anything to do with it,” Orso said. “He said it’s a shame. She is doing this to hide the boy.”
The boy’s mother, Eun Sook Choi, in an interview at police headquarters Wednesday afternoon, said she was told that the boy is safe and with his father in Seoul. Choi, through an interpreter, said her sister called from Korea at 4 a.m. Wednesday and told her she had spoken with the boy briefly.
“She is relieved that the boy is OK,” said interpreter Peter Lee.
“He is with his father and uninjured. He cried on the phone and said he wants to return to the United States to live with his mother,” Lee said.
The family moved from Virginia to Fort Lee in July and enrolled the boy in School 3, Orso said.
Police suspect the father fled to South Korea, fearing prosecution for bringing illegal immigrants into the United States, Orso said. A spokesman with the Newark office of the INS would not comment on the case.
Authorities spent most of Wednesday unsuccessfully attempting to arrange a phone call between the mother and boy, the chief said.
Authorities were not aware of the boy’s abduction until midnight Monday, when his mother reported it to Fort Lee police.
School 3 Principal John Caputo said school officials noticed the boy was not present at the start of school day, about 9 a.m., and immediately tried to contact his parents.
The boy’s grandmother told investigators through an interpreter that she thought the boy was with his mother. The boy’s mother was attending school all day and did not return home until 11 p.m. When she realized the boy wasn’t there, she called a friend and went to police, Orso said.
“The problem was letting all these hours pass not knowing anything was wrong,” he said.
Language and cultural barriers also hampered the investigation, Orso said.
“Had we been notified of the threat, we definitely would have taken it seriously and had the boy under close surveillance and possibly could have avoided the tragedy,” he said. “I must ask the Korean community to tell its people that we, the Police Department, are here to assist and protect them.”
Police canvassed the neighborhood at the base of the George Washington Bridge on Tuesday. Fliers with a picture of the youth were circulated in the area.
A neighbor reported seeing an Asian man drag Pyung Woo Song into a black Lincoln Town Car driven by another Asian man.
Fort Lee police suspect the boy was taken to Canada and flown to Seoul. At 10 a.m. Wednesday, a police broadcast in Canada alerted authorities to look for a black sedan with two men suspected of kidnapping a Fort Lee boy. Later in the day, police learned of the mother’s conversation with her sister in Korea about her son being there.

Keywords: FORT LEE; CHILD; KIDNAPPING; MARRIAGE; FAMILY; SOUTH KOREA

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – PYUNG WOO SONG

MOTHER, 3 CHILDREN DIE AS FIRE DESTROYS HOME

By Michael O. Allen and Laura Impellizzeri, Record Staff Writers | Wednesday, June 12, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Three Star P | NEWS | Page A18

After being driven back twice by heavy smoke and intense heat, a disoriented William McClain could do nothing but scream for help as a raging fire destroyed his home and family early Tuesday.
Four members of the family the mother, a daughter, and two sons died in the two second-floor bedrooms as a result of the 12:30 a.m. blaze at 86 Haring St. in Bergenfield.
The youngest child, Patrick, 7, was in “extremely critical condition” Tuesday evening at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.
Firefighters found Lelia McClain, 39, unconscious in bed upstairs in the master bedroom. Katie, 9, was found unconscious on the floor in that room. The mother died at 5:30 a.m. at Hackensack Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. Katie was admitted to Englewood Hospital in critical condition, and died before dawn.
The two oldest sons William “Billy” McClain, 16, and Brian, 13 were found, with Patrick, huddled in the northwest corner of their bedroom, said Lt. Robert Kops, chief of the prosecutor’s arson investigation unit. They were dead on arrival at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck.
Kops said the fire started in the kitchen, in the southwest corner of the house, spread into the dining and living rooms, and sent a thick wall of smoke and intense heat up the stairs. The heat and a black haze apparently prevented the father from crossing the tiny upstairs hallway to the children’s bedroom when he heard one of them yell “fire,” Fahy said.
The house was gutted. Tuesday afternoon, its powder-blue siding, though melted and bent around the charred kitchen window, was still mostly intact, hiding the devastation within.
Bergenfield Deputy Fire Chief Edward Kneisler said there was no smoke detector in the 75-year-old house, where the McClains had lived since 1977. The alarms are not required.
“When we got there it was fully involved,” he said. “A $20 smoke detector in this house and it might have saved someone’s life.”
Kneisler said about 30 Bergenfield firefighters, with standby support from Dumont, Closter, and Tenafly, extinguished the blaze in about 30 minutes.
Bergenfield Police Officer Pete Murphy said he was in the area about 12:35 a.m. Tuesday on an unrelated investigation when he heard someone screaming.
Murphy said that when he turned the corner at West Clinton Avenue onto Haring Street, black smoke blanketed the whole block. He found McClain, 39, sitting on the first-floor porch’s roof, which forms a sloped ledge outside his bedroom window, screaming that his family was trapped inside. Murphy said he could not talk him into jumping from the roof.
Murphy and Bergenfield Police Officer Owen M. Rynn, who is also a volunteer firefighter, tried to go into the house.
“We kicked in the front door,” Murphy said. “We got into the living room, about halfway through, but the smoke was too thick and the heat.”
“We came out and it went up,” said Rynn. He could see flames in the kitchen as he crawled several feet into the living room beneath the acrid, knee-level smoke.
Neighbors Peter Field, 23, and Matt Gelis, 21, rushed over with a ladder when they heard McClain shouting, and saw smoke billowing out of the house.
“The father was on the roof and my first reaction was to grab the ladder and help him down,” said Gelis, who has known the family since the younger children were babies.
“It’s horrifying,” Gelis said. “You’re just sitting there, and you can’t get in the house and you’re just waiting for firefighters.”
The police helped McClain from the roof. Field and Gelis brother Jason ran to the back of the house yelling the children’s names, but got no answer, the youths said. The police officers then climbed the ladder and tried to go into the master bedroom, but were again beaten back by the heat. Seconds later, firefighters arrived.
Murphy said McClain was suffering from shock and smoke inhalation and appeared to be “completely devastated.”
“I don’t know how this guy is going to make it,” Murphy said.
Fahy said the cause of the fire was not determined, but it did not appear suspicious. Neighbors said a planned two-room, one-story addition on the back of the house was nearing completion; Fahy said the work was not a factor in the fire.
Volunteer Bergenfield firefighter Jack DeLucia, who drove the ladder truck that put out the blaze, returned to the scene about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, still shaken by the experience.
“If somebody could have seen the fire 10 minutes earlier,” DeLucia said. “It’s been said many times before, but smoke alarms, smoke alarms.”
Bergenfield Mayor Robert Gallione said the borough follows the state building code, which does not require that single-family dwellings have smoke detectors. The building department, however, began looking at ways to strengthen the codes earlier this year, he said.
“We will be getting a report regarding changes to be made,” Gallione said. “Any opportunity that we get to save just one life, we will take the appropriate action. We have relied on public education and voluntary compliance, with smoke suppression and smoke detection devices.
Record Staff Writers Tom Toolen and Linda Voorhis contributed to this article.

Keywords: FIRE; DEATH; VICTIM; BERGENFIELD; FAMILY

Caption: PHOTO – JOHN DECKER / THE RECORD – A shocked neighbor looking at house where four family members died.

Notes: 2 of 2 versions

FATAL FIRE SEVERS THE TIES THAT BIND

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, May 10, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Edition: Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

Two weeks ago, Bill and Joan Metz’s next-door neighbors and two couples from across the street brought them a cake to celebrate both their birthdays.
Despite Bill’s protests about making a fuss, they had a good time reminiscing about when their children were young, and looking at wedding photographs of the Metzes oldest daughter.
Early Thursday, the neighbors watched helplessly as Bill, 60, and Joan, 59, perished in a fire that destroyed their house at 96 Columbus Road, Demarest.
“I will never forget the sight of those flames shooting up at midnight last night,” Randi Dalaker of 90 Columbus Road said Thursday. Dalaker and her husband, Tore, had been neighbors of the Metzes for 31 years. “Our worst fears came true that they were in the house. “
Demarest Police Chief James Powderley, on routine patrol with one of his officers, reported the fire about 12:15 a.m. Thursday. Fire Chief Gerald Smithson said the house appeared to have been burning for an hour when Demarest volunteer firefighters, assisted by firefighters from Closter and Haworth, arrived.
Investigators are labeling it an accidental fire, said Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy, but he added that an investigation is continuing. Preliminary indications were that the fire started in the kitchen on the first floor, he said.
The Metzes were found dead in the second-floor bathroom, off the master bedroom. They died of smoke inhalation, Fahy said.
The two-story house in a neighborhood of neatly kept single-family homes was roped off Thursday; a police car was parked in front. Motorists stopped and talked to an officer about the fire.
Bill Metz had been a mechanic with the Otis Elevator Co. in New York City since 1950, and Joan was a former nurse at Demarest’s Northern Valley High School who still substituted there periodically.
Randi Dalaker, a month younger than Joan Metz, said that with the Metzes four children two sons and two daughters grown and departed, the neighbors savored the time they spent together.
“When the children were younger, we were constantly eating at each other’s house,” she said. “We belong to the same church, the Methodist Church, with the Greenwalds and the Garrans. Our children grew up together. We celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, picnics, Christmas; we did church activities together. “
Gary Garran of 91 Columbus Road said the neighbors often had parties, with each family trying to outdo the others.
“It was a family tie rather than neighbors, so it was quite a shock,” Garran said. “If we could relive that and put it in a movie or something, it would be a thing for the whole world to see, that this is how neighbors should live. “

Keywords: DEMAREST; HOUSING; FIRE; DEATH; FAMILY

PRESS COVERAGE OF DEAD TEEN ASSAILED

By Laura Impellizzeri and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Sunday, May 5, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A06

Fair Lawn residents said Saturday that autopsy results showing that alcohol played no role in the death of a local 15-year-old at a New Year’s Eve party also indicate that her family and the party hosts were treated unfairly by the press and the justice system.
They agreed, however, that teenage drinking is a dangerous problem and should not be ignored by parents or prosecutors.
Autopsy results released Friday show that Coleen Draney, captain of Fair Lawn High School’s junior varsity soccer team, died of heart failure while attending a party given by a classmate, Susan Gennat.
Susan’s mother, Gisela Gennat, was ordered in March to pay a $1,000 fine, perform 25 days of community service, and write an essay on “Why One Should Not Serve Alcohol to Minors,” which was published in The Record on Friday. Gennat declined to comment Saturday.
Fair Lawn Prosecutor Ira Levine said Gennat was prosecuted because alcohol was made available to minors, not because of Draney’s death. Fair Lawn police initially suspected that Draney died of an alcohol overdose after drinking and consuming “Jell-O shots” gelatin laced with vodka.
Margaret Wilde, a neighbor of both families, said: “The media . . . crucified the Gennats. That same thing that happened to the Gennats and the Draneys could have happened to anyone who has teenage kids. “
“It’s unfortunate they had to be in the spotlight for no reason,” agreed another neighbor, who would not give her name.
Prosecutor John J. Fahy said: “It’s the media that made that portrayal, not my office. We didn’t have the toxicological report, and I know I was very careful not to say what the cause of death was. “
Draney’s father, Robert, criticized the release of the autopsy report, but would not elaborate. He, too, complained about press coverage, which he said “crucified” his daughter.
Jerome Weiner, president of the Fair Lawn Board of Education, said: “I certainly hope that it’s a lesson, whether it’s a teenager or adult, what might happen when you are not careful. I would really hate to think that students would have the perception that it was OK [to drink] since it [Draney’s death] has not been related to drinking. “

Keywords: FAIR LAWN; ALCOHOL; ABUSE; YOUTH; FAMILY; DEATH; VICTIM; HEALTH; FINE

FBI ARRESTS MAN IN FAKE DEATH SCAM

MICHAEL ALLEN | Friday, April 26, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page B01

A 40-year-old North Bergen man who allegedly faked his wife’s and son’s deaths, then tried to collect on a $2 million life insurance policy, has been arrested by the FBI.
Ahmad Sadiq Mufti of 3642 Lincoln Drive was charged in U.S. Magistrate’s Court in Newark on Thursday with one count of mail fraud in a scheme to defraud Amex Life Assurance Co. of San Rafael, Calif., of the money between 1987 and 1989, FBI Special Agent William Tonkin said.
Mufti gave up without incident when FBI agents went to his home about noon Wednesday to arrest him, Tonkin said. A hearing will be scheduled to transfer Mufti to California, where he would be tried on the charge, the agent said.
If convicted, Mufti faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines, Tonkin said.
John Holford, a special agent at the Oakland FBI bureau, said Mufti’s wife and son were in Pakistan. He said he did not know whether Mufti collected any of the money.
Representatives for Amex could not be reached for comment.

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; FAMILY; DEATH; FRAUD; INSURANCE

SUSPECT HELD IN ASSAULT ON FAMILY IN FORT LEE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, April 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page B03

A 22-year-old Bronx man was being held on $250,000 bail Tuesday on charges that he was one of five men who assaulted a borough family during a robbery about seven months ago, police said.
Tri Minh Le was arraigned in Fort Lee Municipal Court on Tuesday on charges of burglary, robbery, and kidnapping, and was being held in the Bergen County Jail, Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso said.
The victims, whom Orso declined to identify because other suspects have not been arrested, saw Tri Minh Le’s face when he took off his mask during the attack, Orso said. The victims identified him in a police picture line-up, Orso said.
He said the suspects broke into the single-family home about 2 a.m. on Sept. 15 and menaced the family an Asian couple in their 50s and their teenage children. The man was beaten and required about 100 stitches on his face, Orso said. The wife also was beaten.
A breakthrough occurred in the case when Fort Lee Detective John Wemken recognized Tri Minh Le on a New York City television newscast of an arrest in February, Orso said.
Tri Minh Le was arrested Feb. 2 on automobile theft charges, but was released the following day for insufficient evidence, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said. With the cooperation of New York City police and the suspect’s consent, he was transferred to Fort Lee on Monday, Orso said.
Orso said gangs have been targeting Asians in Fort Lee and other Bergen County communities. Victims have been reticent about reporting the incidents to police. Orso has asked Asians to contact police if they are being intimidated by gangs or if money is being extorted from them.
Orso said he is trying to reach out to Chinese, Japanese, and Korean organizations in the area to see how police can gain their trust.
“They are not coming forward when something happens to them,” Orso said. “By helping us, they are helping themselves. They should not be afraid. We’ll give them all the police protection they need. But we can’t help them if they don’t come forward.”

Keywords: FORT LEE; ASSAULT; FAMILY