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
ID: 17348591 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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