Sam And Amy Friedlander And Two Children Found Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide

CROSS RIVER, N.Y. — A family of four was found dead in their sprawling home in an affluent New York City suburb after what appeared to be a murder-suicide, state police said.

The bodies of Amy and Sam Friedlander and their children, 8-year-old Gregory and 10-year-old Molly, were discovered in their four-bedroom Colonial-style house in Cross River on Tuesday afternoon, according to police Maj. Michael Kopy.

Sources tell CBS Sam Friedlander is likely responsible for the murder-suicide.

Cops arrived around 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, according to WABC-TV, after getting a call to check in on one of the Friedlanders. The officer who arrived entered the home and immediately saw two of the bodies. He called for backup. It was then that the two other bodies were discovered.

Sources tell WABC-TV that the couple was in the middle of a bitter divorce and had placed their house on the market. No reports of domestic violence had been logged by local police, the station reported.

The neighborhood, called Michelle Estates, was developed by financier Carl Icahn and has homes valued at around $800,000 to $1 million, the Journal News reported. The Friedlanders' home is listed for sale at $799,000.

The couples' wedding announcement said Sam was an associate counsel of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in Manhattan. He graduated from Skidmore College and received a law degree from Western New England College, according to LoHud.com.

A wedding announcement also listed the former Amy Jo Perez, 46, as a Cornell and University of Pennsylvania-educated banker who once worked for Chase Manhattan Bank in Manhattan. LoHud.com reports that currently she was a partner in John Jay Prep, an academic and college test prep tutoring service.

The Lewisboro school district said the children attended its elementary school.

Lewisboro Police Chief Frank Secret said he knew of no reports of domestic violence.

"This is devastating in our community," he said. "This is something we are not used to."

Comments

[njoytday]

02:32 AM on 11/22/2011

This is sad and predictable outcome. It does not matter if people were stable before. The husband asked his wife to have an abortion three years earlier which should have been an indication that the marriage was flawed. I know nothing will be learned from this unless lawyers learn to stop taking advantage of someone else's misery during divorce. But they cash in on it.
My advise is to never encourage teh sale of the marital home and try to have one of the parties keep it for the sake of the children and sanity. It does make one snap to have so many changes all at once. But if you do sell, they will try to use up your money with battles of any type possible.So hold the home until you are settled and have the attorneys out of the picture. Easier said than done, as the RE brokers are looking at every divorce as a feather in their cap to sell the home. Vultures one and all.

[veek61]

03:42 PM on 10/21/2011

this is so tragic. it's unfathomable and heartbreaking that *anyone* had to die and that anyone could be in such incredible pain that they either snapped or felt this was their only option. none of us knows the story of this family, nor what led up to this horrific event. my heart breaks for all of them.

[ebanks84]

10:16 AM on 10/21/2011

"This is devastating in our community," he said. "This is something we are not used to."

Is there anybody who is "used" to this sort of thing?

[TraceyMichelle]

01:01 PM on 10/20/2011

He really could have just taken his own life and leave the family alone. But i guess he really didnt want anyone to take his place, a new husband or a new father, where he might have failed in. Its like: if I cant have them, no one else can. Men can be very territorial, its nature in this way.

[kidsmom]

12:50 PM on 10/20/2011

This story is so sad but after reading an article in the Lewisboro Ledger, I am enraged! This poor little boy's baseball coach was convicted of felony charges in 2006 and indicted again this past April for identity theft amongst many other crimes. How can a town hire someone with a criminal record to coach our kids? I hope these boys don't go to him for advice if they are experiencing problems at home. If it takes a village to raise our children, the town of Lewisboro is in big big trouble!

[SusieQTX]

11:34 AM on 10/20/2011

Why do they always have to take someone with them?? If you're so hung up on killing yourself, then kill YOURSELF and leave everybody else out of it!!!! Pitiful!!!!!

[TraceyMichelle]

12:56 PM on 10/20/2011

I always say the same thing! why take others with you?? If you hate your life and really contemplating killing yourself.... just, kill yourself and let other people who choose life to live.

[SusieQTX]

01:34 PM on 10/20/2011

It's the old selfish attitude of "If I can't have you, nobody can".....or "If I go, we all go". Pathetic and disgusting!!!!!

[sis14slf]

08:22 AM on 10/21/2011

He was selfish to the very end. b^$t%rd

[UserNameJane]

11:26 AM on 10/20/2011

This world is just going to insane, Why did he have to kill his kids, They had nothing to do with how his life was shaping, they did not ask to be born unto him. Just sick, I wish any remaining family peace throughout all of this mess.

[wonderfullone]

01:49 AM on 10/20/2011

The bottom line is if you want to end your life you have to be more responsible about it.-------Don't take someone elses life before you take yours.

[casaverde100]

12:57 AM on 10/20/2011

All I have to stay is holy crap..how sad..My cousin lives on this block and my cousins are the same age of the daughter who was murdered..Its a very affluent community..where things like this hardly happen...I work with children who are the same age as these children and I cant imagine these poor lives being cut so tragically..

[aguadecoco]

11:47 PM on 10/19/2011

" not use to it", well, you will have to get use too it, it's not over~marriage too the end, this guy was not going away at all, till he juaned too take reverge

[ineedabreak]

08:58 PM on 10/19/2011

Divorce makes people do terrible things. My heart is broken especially for the children. So very sad.

[allisonmkramer]

11:19 PM on 10/19/2011

There is no excuse to kill your soon to be ex and especially your children. Unless they find out this man was seriously mentally ill, I have absolutely no compassion for him. His wife cannot recover & find new love. His children cannot learn, grow and make a life for themselves. Let us not for a minute get comfortable with this behavior.

[aguadecoco]

11:51 PM on 10/19/2011

this has been going on, sorry too say~ many murders take place everyday in America, where domestic violence/famicide is not slowing down at all, it's happening every 7 seconds, check it out~marriage comes with liabilities, death for instance

[Learical]

05:20 PM on 10/19/2011

Why names in headlinesand a ton of useless info?

[lopsidedly]

04:58 PM on 10/19/2011

....i think it's time to dump antidepressants into the drinking water supply

[mother10]

12:17 AM on 10/20/2011

nice

[chazgoodman62]

04:54 PM on 10/19/2011

And the lawyers will have no problem sleeping tonight. The lawyers are the ones that should be held accountable for these tragic outcomes. They drive the wedge between people even farther than it aready is, and the judges let it go on in their court rooms like it's some kind of circus.. At the end of the day, they don't give a damn whole gets hurt, or "Dies," in this case.

[Learical]

05:20 PM on 10/19/2011

What?

[octavia ash]

09:10 PM on 10/19/2011

Do go blaming lawyers and judges, although they share in this violence. Blame it on gold-digging women that want to destroy the father by taking all he has. Money killed her, no the want of money killed her. People get divorced everyday, but they don't kill the whole family. If the father did it, there is a lot more to this divorce than is first being told. One of these parents wanted to totally destroy the other; and one of them succeeded. And I am female, not male.

[mercedes1947]

10:44 PM on 10/19/2011

You could be a eunuch. Blaming not just the woman in this case but a blanket accusation, based on a sketchy report, of an entire gender is preposterous.

The woman is capable of doing OK on her own holding two degrees, one from Cornell and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania.

If his actions were caused by fear of loss of material wealth to me, that makes his act more heinous.

[mercedes1947]

10:45 PM on 10/19/2011

http://bedford.patch.com/articles/police-seek-clues-in-lewisboro-murder-suicide#c?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing10%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk1%7C105736

[renee4326]

04:36 PM on 10/19/2011

Another problem I have seen is that judges are not taking their jobs very seriously. I know a couple going through a very nasty divorce. They've had two hearings. Both times the judge says "have you come up with a settlement?" I thought that was his job. Then it's "go to medication" and come back with a settlement. Ok, there the lawyer fees and now mediation fees, neither can afford. Two people who can barely look at each other, due to one of them having an affair, are forced to sit and chat! It's a big mess and only makes bad matters worse. If they can't settle, then the judge needs to do it as fairly as possible and get it over with. I have waited for one to snap.

[njoytday]

02:24 AM on 11/22/2011

Probably judges getting a little on the side, or else they would do more than stand on the sidelines , well on the bench, watching the parties fight endlessly and put in ridiculous motions, just to rack up the bill as high as the poor couple have been estimated they can be taken for. That is exactly what they do. They determione how much of teh assets they are entitled to and put in senseless maliscious harmful and degrading motions until they have exhausted as much as they have predetermined they can. And you thought they wanted to know your assets to divvy it up between the couple? No. It is to see how much they can exhort from them. Only in this case they pushed it a little too hard and fast and although it got to the point of having the home up for sale, th eemotional consequence of this trauma manifested in murder/suicide. The judges and lawyesr need to stop this !

[njoytday]

01:25 PM on 11/22/2011

It states that Friedlander was once a DA assitant, and he is a lawyer who graduated with honors. he must have known the sytem, but previously only from teh other end of it, where he was calling teh shots and others were getting the consequences of his decision. Let this be a warning about how flawed the judicial sytem is, with those in need of help trying to dispense it to others. Many of teh law clerks have their own issues, foisted on unsuspecting couples, as they see things from an incorrect untruthful perpective. They belive lies from other attorneys and do not belive truth from litigants, all teh time forcing the couple to deal with their viewpoint. This just proves it. There is a saying, Physician heal thyself," And in this case we need a saying similar, applying to lawyers and judges. Maybe what goes around comes around, and he felt the sting on teh arrows that courts regularly shoot at innocenty people, becuase they were unfortunate enough to go to court expecting protection and help. All courts do is meet out punishment for imagined wrongdoing and then cash in on that process, not looking at the danger inherent in their doing so. More often the weaker or poorer one gets the brunt of it, not the one deserving of it. But usually both litigants are hurt while the lawyers walk away, never looking back at the damage caused to the family, including the children. Lawyers are bullying litigants.