STORE IS ROBBERY’S SECOND FATALITY; SHOP CLOSING AFTER N.J. MAN IS KILLED

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, October 6, 1991

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

Daisy Benitez says being held up is something the merchants in her area learn to live with. But after a robbery claimed the life of a Tenafly man in her store, she says she’s closing up shop.
Benjamin Braddock Peisch, 24, of Oak Street was shot and killed Thursday night when he walked in on a robbery of the Daisy Bariete clothing store in Upper Manhattan and intervened.
Benitez, 34, of Queens said Saturday that she would sell her stock T-shirts, jeans, socks and close her doors for good.
“If he hadn’t had a fight with them, they wouldn’t have shot him,” Benitez said in Spanish, translated by her 24-year-old niece, Florence Ramos. “They threw him on the floor twice and told him to stay there. He kept getting up.”
John Mullin, a Tenafly High School social studies teacher, said Peisch was just the kind of person to intervene if he saw something amiss.
“This kid was a gentleman through and through; he’s always stood up for the underdog,” Mullin said. “It would have been a surprise to me that something wrong was going on and he didn’t try to set it right.”
Tenafly High School Vice Principal Bernard Josefsberg said the death was a shock to everyone at the school.
“This was really a great kid,” he said.
On graduation from the school in 1986, Peisch was given a $500 scholarship by the Tenafly Lions Club, in part for demonstrating seriousness of purpose and civic consciousness, Josefsberg said Friday.
His family declined to comment.
Peisch, a junior at Montclair State College, first came to the store about two weeks ago and stopped to talk with one of the saleswomen, Benitez said. He seemed to like the woman and returned to talk to her twice, she said.
The three robbers came in about 6 p.m. Thursday, put guns to the backs of three employees, and herded them into the back of main area of the store, in the basement of a residential building at 568 W. 171 St.
“He came down in the middle of all this and went to the girl’s defense,” Benitez said.
The robbers knocked him to the ground twice, Ramos said, the second time hitting him with the butt of a handgun and opening a gash in the back of his head. In the ensuing struggle, as the three men ganged up on Peisch, one shot him in the chest, she said.
No one else was injured, and the men escaped with an unspecified amount of money. Benitez said the employees working in the store at the time of the robbery had quit and would not return.
Police on Saturday were looking for witnesses, said New York City police Sgt. Tina Mohrmann.

Keywords: ROBBERY; STORE; CLOSING; NEW JERSEY; MURDER; TENAFLY; SHOOTING; NEW YORK CITY; CLOTHING; BENJAMIN BRADDOCK PEISCH

ROBBERS KILL N.J. SHOPPER; TENAFLY MAN INTERVENED

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, October 5, 1991

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

A 24-year-old Tenafly man who walked in on an armed robbery at a New York City clothing store and intervened was shot and killed by one of the robbers, police said Friday.
Benjamin Peisch of 91 Oak St. died at the scene on Thursday, 34th Precinct Detective Matthew Fallon said.
“He had an altercation with one of the people committing the robbery. They hit him a couple of times, then shot him,” Fallon said.
Peisch was shot once in the chest as he struggled with one of three men during the robbery, which occurred about 6:25 p.m. in the basement of Daisy Bariete Store, a unisex clothing store at 568 W. 171 St., Fallon said.
Peisch was an innocent bystander who “seemed to have walked into an apparent robbery in the store” and decided to get involved, Fallon said, adding that police were looking on Friday for witnesses.
No one else was injured, and the men escaped with an amount of money police would not disclose.
Peisch is believed to have been a 1986 graduate of Tenafly High School.
Sgt. Norris Hollmon, a police spokesman, said police used identification in Peisch’s wallet to trace him to Tenafly late Thursday. Tenafly Police Chief Allen Layne said he was called by New York police about the death at 10:19 p.m., and that his officers notified the family. Hollmon said the family identified Peisch’s body later that night.
A man reached at the family residence on Friday declined to comment.

Keywords: TENAFLY; ROBBERY; NEW YORK CITY; SHOOTING; MURDER; CLOTHING; STORE

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

100-MPH CHASE, DRUG ARRESTS REPORTED BY PARKWAY POLICE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, April 28, 1991

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

Two men were arrested on drug charges and a third led police on a 100-mph chase in three unrelated incidents on the Palisades Interstate Parkway, parkway police said.
In the first incident, police saw motorcyclist Charles Cherry, 25, of Manhattan traveling at a high rate of speed in Englewood Cliffs about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, said parkway Police Chief Vincent Arfuso, who gave this account of the incidents:
After a five-mile chase at speeds reaching 100 mph, Officer Vincent Cammarata stopped Cherry in Alpine. Cherry was issued several traffic summonses, including one for reckless driving, and released on $4,000 bail.
In the second incident, Officer James Paul stopped a car near Tenafly for a broken headlight about 1:50 a.m. Friday. A passenger, Juan Rodriguez Jr., 37, of Newburgh, N.Y., was charged with possession of about an ounce of cocaine and four small packets of marijuana. He was being held in Bergen County Jail on $11,000 bail.
The driver was issued traffic summonses and released.
Ariel Torres, 31, of the Bronx, was arrested about 2:50 a.m. on a charge of illegal possession of a weapon and drugs.
Officer Charles Jones stopped Torres northbound car in Alpine because of broken taillights. When Torres was unable to produce a valid license, Jones ordered him out of the car. Inside the auto, the officer found a loaded, 20-shot 9mm automatic pistol, 10 packets of heroin, and a small amount of cocaine and marijuana.

Keywords: DRUG; POLICE; ROAD; MOTOR VEHICLE; ALPINE; ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS; TENAFLY

SUSPECT IN BURGLARY SPREE WAS OUT ON BAIL

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, October 26, 1990

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

The chief suspect in more than 40 cat burglaries in four Bergen County communities over the past two months had been arrested on burglary charges in one of the towns in July and freed on bail.

Celious Lee Harmon of Teaneck, who was arrested Monday night on burglary charges, had spent nearly a month this summer in the Bergen County Jail after being arrested on burglary charges in Englewood, police said.

Harmon, who was captured Monday as he tried to flee from police at the Port Authority’s George Washington Bridge bus terminal in Manhattan, is fighting extradition to New Jersey, said Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso.

Police say that after Harmon posted $5,000 bail on the Englewood charges, he began burglarizing homes in Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Fort Lee, and Tenafly in early September.

Orso said Harmon, 28, often rode the bus from New York City into affluent sections of the communities, broke into homes and stole valuables, and then rode the bus back across the bridge to the bus terminal, where he sold the stolen goods to support a crack cocaine habit.

Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley of Englewood said that when the four-town burglary spree began Sept. 5, the Englewood Police Department knew who its chief suspect was. So did the Fort Lee Police Department.

“We knew who we were looking for because we had a set of footprints and a set of fingerprints,” Orso said. “We also knew he was traveling by bus between New York and New Jersey. “

The four communities formed a 30-person task force to track him down, but he eluded them. By the time he was captured Monday, he was suspected of more than 40 home burglaries in the four towns.

He was arrested after a chase by two Fort Lee and two Port Authority police officers at 180th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan.

Tinsley said that Harmon’s arrest in Englewood in July came after a chase. He allegedly had broken into a home in the East Hill section of city. Police also found property stolen from a residence on Gloucester Street strewn along the path of the chase.

Harmon was arrested in Fort Lee in 1985 and sentenced to five years in prison after conviction on three counts of burglary, two counts of receiving stolen goods, two counts for possession of burglary tools, and two counts of resisting arrest. He was also a suspect in 18 other burglaries in Fort Lee, Orso said. He was paroled in 1988.