MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Out of the mouths of . . .

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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.

February 26, 2008
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FT. LEE DAD KILLS CHILD, 5, AND SELF

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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.

ID: 17376727 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

May 9, 1992
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FAMILY ID’S SON’S BODY, THEN LEARNS HE’S ALIVE

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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.

ID: 17374130 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

April 12, 1992
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2 BROTHERS SHOT, THIRD IS CHARGED; Family Argument Erupts Into Gunfire

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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.

ID: 17370170 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

March 1, 1992
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GLOBAL SEARCH FOR FORT LEE BOY; DAD SUSPECTED IN ABDUCTION

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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

ID: 17357730 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

October 10, 1991
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