Jews for Allah

[Guest]

Case of Rabbi Fred Neulander
Rabbi Fred Neulander was found guilty of murdering his wife Carol


On Nov. 1, 1994, Carol Neulander was found dead in her Cherry Hill home, a victim of a beating. In a matter of months, her husband, Fred, then a senior rabbi, was named as a suspect.


(Table of contents)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



LEGAL ADVICE: Rabbi Fred Neulander listens to his attorney, Dennis Wixted, during his trial.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table of Contents:

Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves whether the resources meet their own personal needs.


The Neulander Murder - Courier Post OnLine Archive of all stories on the murder that have appeared in the Courier-Post

Full Coverage of Case - Court TV

Rabbi spared death penalty after jury unable to make unanimous decision (11/22/2002)

Rabbi begs jury to spare his life, says he can teach other prison inmates (11/22/2002)

Rabbi accused of having his wife killed on trial for second time (10/21/2002)

Rabbi On Trial

N.J. Supreme Court hears Neulander cases media dispute (03/25/2002)

Judge decides to move rabbi's retrial out of Camden (03/15/2002)

Slaying unnerves neighbors of family (11/03/1994)

Wife of Cherry Hill rabbi found bludgeoned to death (11/03/1994)

(Top)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rabbi spared death penalty after jury unable to make unanimous decision

By John Springer

Court TV - Nov. 22, 2002,

http://www.courttv.com/trials/neulander/deathverdict_ctv.html

FREEHOLD, N.J. — The same jury that convicted Rabbi Fred Neulander of arranging his wife's murder was unable to decide Friday whether he should live or die, thus leaving it up to the judge to sentence the rabbi to 30 years to life in prison.

After just 90 minutes of deliberations, the jury of seven men and five men failed to reach a unanimous decision in the penalty phase of the 61-year-old rabbi's capital murder trial. As a result, Neulander will not be eligible for parole for 30 years and could get life in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 16 by Judge Linda Baxter.

Carol Neulander

Neulander sighed as the jury forewoman announced the verdict. Earlier Friday, Neulander insisted that he loved and misses Carol Neulander, and promised jurors that he would positively impact the lives of other inmates if they spared him the death penalty.

"Personally, I had a problem with him saying he loved his wife," said one juror, who declined to be identified in an interview with Courttv.com.

Prosecutor James Lynch did not specifically ask jurors to hand down a death sentence but urged them to let their conscience guide them to "do the right thing." After the decision was announced, Lynch said he was not particularly surprised. "In my opinion, justice has been served," Lynch said. "This was not a defendant who was above the law."

If Neulander had received a death sentence, he would have become the fifteenth person to be sent to New Jersey's death row since capital punishment was reinstated in 1982.

Rebecca Neulander-Rockoff's testimony helped convict her father for arranging her mother's murder, a juror says.

Neulander's convictions on charges of first-degree murder, felony murder and second-degree conspiracy are headed for the appellate division of New Jersey Superior Court. Among other things, the defense is expected to complain that Baxter erred when she allowed jurors to listen to hearsay testimony about remarks Neulander made to his wife, Carol, and related to the couple's adult daughter, Rebecca Neulander-Rockoff.

Neulander-Rockoff testified that Carol Neulander told her in a telephone conversation that a man who asked to use the bathroom was a deliveryman sent by "Daddy." Len Jenoff, a private investigator, testified that he was the "bathroom guy" Carol Neulander referred to in the telephone call. He said Fred Neulander paid him $18,000 to kill Carol Neulander and make the murder look like a botched robbery.

The only juror to speak after the death penalty phase ended Friday said Neulander-Rockoff's testimony was crucial in the jury's decision to convict the rabbi. Because the jury believed Jenoff "was a liar about a lot of things," they looked to Neulander-Rockoff to corroborate his testimony, the juror said. "It was very critical information that played an important part in him being found guilty," he said.

"There were too many things that could not have been coincidental," the juror said.

Carol Neulander's sister, Margaret Miele, said the family would be "forever saddened" by Carol's death.

Margaret Miele, Carol Neulander's sister, told reporters after the decision that the family was relieved that the case was over after eight long years. "Though forever saddened by the permanent void in our lives, we look forward to cherishing our many wonderful memories of a warm, generous and fun-loving sister."

Matthew Neulander, the rabbi's oldest son, said he, too, was pleased with the jury's decisions. He said he was convinced of his father's guilty and disturbed by his comments earlier Friday to the jury.

"We all know Fred to be those things, arrogant beyond anyone I have ever met," said Matthew Neulander, who refers to his father by his first name. "His words this morning were so absolutely galling, absolutely so inappropriate, so frustrating and so maddening and yet so like him ... that he would sit there as a convicted felon and eulogize my mother."

He described his mother as his "closest friend and confidante" and said "the void I feel not having her in my life and the lives of my wife and new baby certainly hurts every day."

His mother's killers &mdash Jenoff and his accomplice, Paul Daniels &mdash pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and will be sentenced on Jan. 23. Jenoff faces 10 to 30 years in prison; Daniels faces 25 to 50 years.

(Top)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rabbi begs jury to spare his life, says he can teach other prison inmates

By John Springer

Court TV - Nov. 22, 2002

http://www.courttv.com/trials/neulander/112202_ctv.html


Rabbi begs jury to spare his life, says he can teach other prison inmates Rabbi Fred Neulander, left, begged jurors to spare him from the death penalty.


FREEHOLD, N.J. — He stands convicted of hiring his wife's killer, but Rabbi Fred Neulander insisted Friday that he loves and misses Carol Neulander and meant it when he told her often that he wanted to "grow old" with her.

Neulander, 61, took the witness stand to plead for his life. He promised jurors if they do not impose a death sentence, he will spend the remaining "days of the years of my life" counseling fellow inmates and teaching illiterates how to read.

Several jurors appeared uncomfortable and sat with their arms folded as Neulander expressed his love and admiration for his wife, whom jurors already concluded was brutally beaten with a lead pipe by two men who shared $18,000 provided by the rabbi.

"I am here to offer a plea for my life," Neulander said, looking directly at the jury as he began a rambling 23-minute speech that evoked sacred scriptures.

"First and foremost, I loved my wife Carol," Neulander said. "She was a remarkable woman. She was bright ... Carol Neulander had class."

Jurors scanned the gallery when Fred Neulander mentioned his three adult children, but they were not in the courtroom. Carol Neulander's two brothers, sister and other relatives wore expressions that broadcast their skepticism about the rabbi's sincerity.

"And I missed her. And I loved her. And I love her," Neulander continued.

Under the rules of a defendant's allocution, Neulander was not permitted to deny his guilt or talk about the evidence that could make him the fifteenth resident of New Jersey's death row. Judge Linda Baxter told Neulander Thursday that he had to confine his remarks to reasons his life might be worth sparing.

"Starting today, there is another sense of the days of the years of my life that will unfold," Neulander said, employing a theme he would repeat a dozen times or so. "I do not know where I will be, quite obviously. But where ever I will be there will be men who cannot read. The legacy of illiteracy is striking, and very sad, and very lyrical. I would hope that where ever I am, I will be able to teach young men to read."

Neulander choked up and stopped several times to regain control of his emotions, though he did not break down.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "if you give me this privilege to redeem, to atone, what will happen is that the days of the years of your life will indeed be made more rich because you have given me the privilege, in the days of the years of my life, to reach out and change for the better the days of the years of the lives of so many men I have yet to meet. Thank you, ladies. Thank you, gentlemen."

Defense lawyer Michael Riley, speaking to each of the jurors as if they were the only person sitting in the box, reminded them that it takes just one to spare Neulander's life. "You have a decision to make that you have to live with for the rest of your life," he told them. "The decision you set is irretrievable. You have to be able to live with that decision.

Getting in the last word, prosecutor James Lynch stopped short of asking jurors to hand down a death sentence. He merely reminded the panel of their responsibility, the intent of the legislature when reinstating the death penalty in 1982, and he again asked them to let their conscience, individually and collectively, guide them. "This is serious, serious business," Lynch said. " The defendant procured the murder of Carol Neulander by payment of money."

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating Neulander's fate Friday afternoon after receiving instructions from the judge on what they may consider.

If jurors fail to agree unanimously that Neulander deserves to die for hiring his wife's killers, he faces up to life in prison. In addition to first-degree murder, he was convicted of felony murder and second-degree conspiracy.

Carol Neulander's killers, Len Jenoff and Paul Daniels, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and are awaiting sentencing.

The penalty phase is being broadcast live on Court TV.

(Top)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rabbi accused of having his wife killed on trial for second time

By The Associated Press - October 21, 2002


FREEHOLD, New Jersey - A rabbi accused of having his wife killed so that he could carry on an affair went on trial again Monday, a year after the jury at his first trial deadlocked.

Rabbi Fred Neulander is charged with having his wife, Carol, bludgeoned to death in their suburban Philadelphia home in 1994. He could get the death penalty.

Prosecutor James Lynch said that Neulander hired two men to commit the murder so he could continue an affair with former Philadelphia radio host Elaine Soncini.

Defense attorney Michael Riley said that Soncini gave conflicting statements to police to hide her affair and protect her job, and that convicted killer Len Jenoff is testifying to get a lighter sentence.

Jenoff and another man confessed to the killing and pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter.


(Top)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

N.J. Supreme Court hears Neulander cases media dispute

By Angela Couloumbis

Inquirer Trenton Bureau - Mon, Mar. 25, 2002

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/2932703.htm


TRENTON - New Jersey's highest court will now decide whether a judge's decision to restrict the news media from interviewing jurors and publishing their names in the murder trial of Rabbi Fred J. Neulander was unconstitutional.

Appearing before the state Supreme Court today, attorneys for Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. argued that Judge Linda G. Baxter's rulings in Superior Court in Camden County interfered with the First Amendment rights of free press and free speech, and should be overturned.

"We have had 200 years of practice here in New Jersey without the need for an order restricting the interviews of jurors," said Warren W. Faulk, who represented Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., which publishes The Inquirer and Daily News.

"I think the law is clear," Faulk said. "An order to restrict publication of information that is obtained from the public record or public court is . . . unconstitutional."

Baxter, who presided over Rabbi Neulander's high-profile trial in the fall, had issued two highly unusual orders that were at the heart of today's oral arguments.

The first came in July, before the start of the trial, and effectively barred reporters from contacting or identifying prospective jurors and those selected for the jury.

At the time, it was unclear whether the order would apply after the trial, and The Inquirer challenged its constitutionality. Baxter said she had issued the order to protect jurors from unwarranted attention in anticipation of the media's overwhelming interest in the case.

Nonetheless, when jury selection began, jurors' names were part of the public record, and both prospective jurors and those selected for Rabbi Neulander's jury were identified in court.

The second order came right after jurors announced in mid-November that they were deadlocked.

At the time, Baxter said she was extending her order to bar reporters from attempting to interview jurors - which is common journalistic practice after high-profile court cases.

Baxter did not, however, forbid jurors to call the news media if they chose.

Shortly after the trial, The Inquirer published one juror's name. Four Inquirer reporters have since been charged with being in contempt of court.

Today, Dennis Wixted, Rabbi Neulander's former defense attorney, argued that the judge's decisions were correct - and that a state appeals court had upheld her order.

Wixted also said the release of information such as what jurors felt or believed about the case - or the state's witnesses - could taint the jury pool in the retrial of the rabbi, who is charged with arranging the 1994 murder of his wife, Carol, in their Cherry Hill home.

"We're more concerned about [Rabbi Neulander's] compelling interest . . . for a fair trial," he said.

Several justices asked a number of questions about how jurors in high-profile court cases can be protected from excessive press attention.

Faulk said there were remedies short of a ban on jury interviews, including instructing the jurors that they have the option to tell reporters that they do not want to speak.

"Jurors are citizen soldiers," he said, "and sometimes have to put up with irritations that soldiers put up with."

Tom Cafferty, an attorney at the hearing on behalf of several other news organizations, also cited case law to show that before judges can issue orders restricting the media, they must notify the media of their intent; hold a hearing to give the press the opportunity to argue against it; and specifically point out what concerns warrant such restrictions.

Baxter, Cafferty argued, did not follow those procedures.

The justices also questioned today whether allowing jurors in a mistrial to publicly discuss their thoughts on the case would taint future juries - as well as give prosecutors a road map on how to strengthen their case against a defendant.

Faulk countered that in the Neulander case, it was clear to the prosecutor from the start what the weak points were. And Cafferty added that no two jurors look at evidence in the same way.

Toward the end of the hearing, several justices also questioned whether Baxter had been obligated to show "good cause" before issuing her orders to the media. One justice - James H. Coleman Jr. - said he did not see any indication that she had shown good cause.

Chief Justice Deborah Poritz then asked whether some of the concerns over tainting the next jury could be addressed by changing the venue of the next trial.

The rabbi has been granted a change of venue, though it has not yet been decided in which county the next trial will be held.

(Top)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Judge agrees to move rabbi's retrial out of Camden

By Emilie Lounsberry, Inquirer Staff Writer

Philadelphia Inquirer - Fri, Mar. 15, 2002

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/2867403.htm


The rabbi retrial is hitting the road.

Camden County Superior Court Judge Linda G. Baxter agreed today to move the murder retrial of Rabbi Fred J. Neulander to another county, but postponed a decision on which New Jersey county will be the site.

Defense attorney Michael E. Riley and First Assistant Camden County Prosecutor James P. Lynch had urged the judge to move the retrial from Camden because of the extensive media coverage that surrounded the rabbi's trial last fall.

While Baxter characterized news articles during the trial as "fair," she said the case was front-page news every day. The coverage, she concluded, was "so prominent, so extensive and so unrelenting as to make it impossible to select a jury here."

Rabbi Neulander, 60, is charged with capital murder, felony murder and conspiracy in the killing of his wife, Carol, who was bludgeoned to death on Nov. 1, 1994, at their Cherry Hill home.

His case ended in a mistrial in November after a Camden County jury deadlocked on all three charges in a case that attracted national news coverage as well as extensive local and regional coverage.

Baxter scheduled a hearing for May 17 on where the retrial should be held. Ocean, Monmouth and Middlesex Counties — central New Jersey counties where trial publicity was not as pervasive — have been discussed as possible sites.

Lynch said yesterday that the trial coverage went beyond news accounts, with talk show panelists offering opinions and Court TV providing analysis to supplement its nearly gavel-to-gavel coverage.

He said some shows even offered opinion polls and a chance for callers to vote on the outcome.

"Nothing I've seen approached this in terms of the nature of the publicity and the volume," said Lynch, who has been a prosecutor for two decades.

Riley had revived the request for the trial to be moved, saying "there are very few people in this general area that have not formed an opinion about this case."

The request was first raised last year by defense lawyers Jeffrey C. Zucker and Dennis Wixted, who handled the first trial. Baxter had refused their request.

Today, Baxter said she now believed that the magnitude of trial coverage meant that it would be "extremely difficult" to find Camden County jurors who do not have opinions on the case or think they know the facts in it.

The judge said that as possible locations are examined, factors to be considered include the impact on the host court, witnesses and other parties as well as the racial, ethnic and religious demographics of a county.

She said she already has begun gathering data to determine the Jewish population of other counties in an effort to pick a county with a Jewish population similar to that of Camden County.

The former head rabbi at Congregation M'kor Shalom is accused of hiring former private investigator Len Jenoff to arrange the killing.

Rabbi Neulander testified that he had nothing to do with his wife's death, but Jenoff said that the rabbi agreed to pay him $30,000 to arrange the killing.

Riley said the retrial could begin in late summer, but may be scheduled more quickly if the state Supreme Court soon decides a Gloucester County case focusing on a novel legal issue — whether the prosecution can seek the death penalty at retrial after a capital murder trial has ended in a hung jury.

Riley and Zucker said the rabbi, who is being held without bail at the Camden County Correctional Facility, is ready for the retrial.

"It's tough to sit in jail without bail," said Zucker, who said the rabbi spends much of his time reading. "He wants to get back in court."

(Top)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rabbi On Trial

Rabbi Fred Neulander is accused of having sexual affairs and murdering his wife. The story of a spiritual leader gone bad arrived in court this week.

By Suzanne Pollak / Jewish Telegraphic Agency

http://www.jewsweek.com/society/136.htm


Jewsweek.com | It's been almost seven years since the former head of one of the largest Reform congregations in southern New Jersey walked into his living room and saw his wife of 29 years lying face down in a pool of blood, the victim of a brutal beating with a lead pipe.

· MURDER AT SHUL: A new book describes what happens when murder and sexual misdeeds rack a congregation.

Since that time, Rabbi Fred Neulander quickly sunk from a revered member of the Jewish community into an inmate confined to a small jail cell, awaiting the verdict of a jury that could sentence him to death.

Although the long-awaited murder trial only began Monday, much of the events leading up to the Nov. 1, 1994 murder of Carol Neulander are already known.

Testimony is expected to dwell around infidelity and disreputable characters allegedly hired to be hit men.

The rabbi, now 60, resigned his pulpit at M'Kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, N.J., in 1995 after the world learned of his two-year affair with a famous radio personality who had come to him for counseling.

Elaine Soncini, whom Neulander helped convert to Judaism, has told police that the two met often and wrote love poems to each other. She is not the only woman Neulander is said to have had affairs with after counseling.

In 1996, Neulander was suspended from the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Reform movement's rabbinic association.

The investigation continued and two years later, he was arrested on charges of being an accomplice to murder and conspiring to commit murder. He was freed on bail.

Then in May 2000, two men came forward and confessed to the murder, alleging that Neulander hired them to kill his wife.

In light of the confessions, a Camden County grand jury reindicted Neulander on charges of capital murder, felony murder and conspiracy, and the judge revoked his bail.

Besides lies and love, the trial also is expected to feature testimony from at least two of the rabbi's adult children — Matthew, an emergency medical technician, and Rebecca, who was on the phone to her mother shortly before her death — and employees of the Classic Cake Company, which Carol Neulander had formerly owned and still worked for at the time of her murder.

The trial has enough intrigue to bring in Court TV cameras, which are expected to roll through much of the trial and is carried across the United States.

Local Jewish reaction has ranged from initial shock to sadness and anger.

Stuart Alperin, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey, says he is not particularly concerned about the attention now that the trial has started.

"I don't think it has any effect on how it affects the Jewish community," Alperin said. "It's a controversial case, because he is a clergyman. But it would be no different if he was a prominent priest."

Through it all, Neulander has maintained his innocence. No murder weapon has been found. No fingerprints were obtained. And almost all the witnesses against the rabbi come with enough baggage to undermine their credibility.

The two confessed hit men, Leonard Jenoff and Paul Michael Daniels, have pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and await sentencing following this trial.

Jenoff, a former congregant of Neulander who says the rabbi offered him $30,000 for the killing , once told people he worked for the CIA and now admits that he lied to offset his failures and low self-esteem.

He had a "severe, severe alcohol problem," according to James Lynch, the attorney prosecuting the case for the state.

Daniels leads "a difficult life," including drug abuse, Lynch said Monday during his opening statements in the trial.

Myron "Pep" Levin, Neulander's racquetball partner who claims the rabbi told him he wished his wife was gone, has served prison time for fraud. And Soncini is now married to the Cherry Hill police officer assigned to her immediately following the murder.

The trial, expected to last four weeks, will feature testimony from these people as well as the rabbi himself.

On the trial's first day, Neulander showed little if any emotion.

Family members were obviously pained by some of the first day's proceedings, especially the airing of the 911 tape of Neulander's gasping voice as he made the original call to police.

"... The rabbi resigned his pulpit in 1995 after the world learned of his two-year affair with a famous radio personality who had come to him for counseling ..."

But Neulander's gaze was fixed. His only movements came as his fingers brushed his lips and cheeks from time to time.

Shortly before the murder, Neulander and Jenoff spoke about "how to do it neat, how to do it clean and how to keep suspicion off Mr. Neulander," Lynch said in his opening statement.

"This was no burglary ladies and gentlemen. They came into this house to kill. She opened the door to her killers. A series of blows rained down upon her head. They came to kill and they carried out their purpose," Lynch told the jury.

Lynch also worked to discredit Neulander, noting that for a time, he lied to the police about his affair with Soncini. He said Neulander is guilty, adding, "He planned it. He plotted it. He paid money to have it carried out."

But defense attorney Jeffrey Zucker said there were too many gaps in the case for any juror to find Neulander guilty.

He said Neulander may be "a person who betrayed, a person who disappointed. But that is not what he's on trial for."

He spoke harshly of the people who will testify, saying Soncini's comments "get more and more detailed against Neulander the further she went along." He accused Jenoff and Daniels of trying to lessen their jail sentences by testifying.

Of Jenoff, he said, "This is a man by his own admission could not sift out truth and fantasy. His whole life was a fantasy."

Jenoff's testimony will paint him as "a sick, demented person who was desperate for money," Zucker said.

Zucker also questioned the police investigation against Neulander, noting that a sharp knife was found beneath a cushion about three days after the murder. It was also discovered that Carol Neulander's purse with a large amount of money was missing; yet Cherry Hill police didn't learn of this until later.

Testimony is expected to continue for weeks as many people, Jews and non-Jews alike, continually monitor the TV news and check their local newspapers to see if the prime witnesses are disreputable people out to get Neulander or if the former rabbi really hired someone to kill his wife to avoid a messy divorce.

(Top)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slaying unnerves neighbors of family

By CAROL COMEGNO

Courier-Post staff - November 3,1994

http://www.southjerseynews.com/neulander/110394b.html

CHERRY HILL -- On a quiet, tree-lined, suburban street, neighbors on Wednesday discovered the horror of a violent crime amid their American Dream.

"It's horrible," said one numbed resident, reacting to the murder of longtime neighbor Carol Neulander, a businesswoman and rabbi's wife bludgeoned to death in her Wexford Leas home Tuesday night.

"This is what you expect to see on Action News and not in your neighborhood -- and especially not to a family so community-oriented," said Jack Mitchard, sweeping leaves at his home next to the Neulander residence on Highgate Lane.

Carol Neulander, the mother of three, was a bright, caring woman, a straight talker who "got the job done," said neighbors and friends.

"They were a nice family and so active," said one neighbor, who did not give his name.

The victim's husband, Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, is senior rabbi at Congregation M'Kor Shalom on Evesham Road and is well-known in the community.

Authorities suspect robbery as a possible motive in the brutal slaying.

"If they wanted money, why didn't they just take it?" asked one neighbor. "Why did they have to do this to her?"

As police combed the property and photographed the family car and other possible evidence, leaves drifted onto the cordoned-off crime scene and toward nearby homes still decorated for Halloween.

Some people in the neighborhood have alarms but others do not. A number have dogs that they say help protect their property.

Linda Folger, whose Pembroke Court home faces the victim's residence, said she's thinking about the need for a burglar alarm.

Mitchard said his wife saw Rabbi Neulander and the rabbi's grown son Matthew through a kitchen window about 6 p.m. Tuesday, just hours before the crime. The two men left home after dinner.

"Our kitchen window faces their kitchen window, so she happened to see them, but she did not see the wife and she did not notice when she came home later," said Mitchard. "We were watching TV afterward and did not hear anything."

(Top)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wife of Cherry Hill rabbi found bludgeoned to death

By CAROL COMEGNO and LOUIS T. LOUNSBERRY

Courier-Post staff - November 3,1994

http://www.southjerseynews.com/neulander/110394a.html


CHERRY HILL -- A local businesswoman, the wife of a Cherry Hill rabbi, was bludgeoned to death Tuesday night, according to authorities, who say they have "substantial leads" in the grisly crime that has stunned neighbors.

Carol Neulander, 52, was found dead inside her home in the 200 block of High Gate Lane in the Wexford Leas development at about 9:20 p.m. Tuesday, Camden County Prosecutor Edward F. Borden said at a press conference Wednesday.

Her husband, Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, found her body when he came home from Congregation M'Kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, where he is senior rabbi.

The victim, known as a straight-talking woman who spoke her mind, was found lying face down in a pool of blood in the living room of the couple's two-story home. She was pronounced dead at the scene by the county medical examiner's office.

Borden said Mrs. Neulander, a woman of medium build who was just over 5 feet tall, had been beaten on the head numerous times with an unknown blunt object. The autopsy concluded she died from "multiple incidents of blunt trauma to the head." Authorities know how many times she was struck, but Borden would not disclose the number of blows.

The prosecutor said there was no sign of forced entry into the home and no murder weapon was found. There were signs of a struggle, but the prosecutor declined to describe them.

Both Borden and Cherry Hill Police Chief William Moffett said authorities want to contact two brothers who live in the area, Daniel and Frank Spanolia, in connection with the crime. The two were paroled from state prison about two months ago for a series of burglaries committed in the area several years ago.

"They are on intensive supervisory probation. We've been alerted by neighbors about them. Attention to them is part of the investigation. I wouldn't classify them as particular targets of investigation," Borden said.

Police and prosecutor's investigators were at the scene Wednesday, interviewing neighbors and conducting an extensive search for evidence that had them combing through leaves on the heavily wooded lot and picking through the family's recycling bucket. They borrowed ladders from a Cherry Hill firetruck to check the roof for clues.

"Given the fact that our investigation is just about 14 hours old, it appears that robbery may have been the motive. We have some very substantial leads to follow up," Borden said at a mid-morning press conference Wednesday at the Cherry Hill municipal building. He wouldn't elaborate on those leads.

Borden did say Mrs. Neulander had been taking home the day's receipts from the Classic Cake Co., which she managed, since the bakery's Voorhees outlet was robbed Oct. 3. She was the founder of the Classic Cake Co. of Audubon and Voorhees. She sold the bakery several years ago, but still worked as its wholesale manager.

Borden declined to say if Mrs. Neulander had any receipts from the Eagle Plaza bakery with her Tuesday night. Authorities were still trying to determine if anything was taken from the home.

Sources close to the investigation said Mrs. Neulander's purse was missing. Other sources said police have determined the crime was committed during a period of roughly two hours between 7 p.m. to shortly after 9 p.m.

That determination was pieced together from interviews with the family, neighbors and bakery employees.

Renee Stockman, retail manager at the Voorhees store, said Mrs. Neulander was still at work when she left at about 5 p.m. Tuesday, which she described as a normal working day. Neighbors say Mrs. Neulander had not arrived home by 6 p.m. They saw her husband and son in the house around that time. The family members said they left the house by 7 p.m., Mr. Neulander to return to the synagogue, and their son Matthew to go to work. Mr. Neulander's emergency call to police was recorded at 9:20 p.m.

Cherry Hill police arrived at the scene at 9:22 p.m., followed by the ambulance squad from the Ashland Ambulance Squad. The Neulanders' son Matthew -- an emergency medical technician there -- was at work when the call came in for an injured person at his home.

His unit and another from Deer Park responded. When he arrived, police -- knowing his mother lay dead inside -- kept him outside.

The family has not been allowed to return to the home since the killing so that officials can preserve the crime scene, Borden said. There's no indication when they will be allowed to return.

The Neulanders had lived in this upscale neighborhood of well-kept homes since 1975. They have three children. Only Matthew lives at home. Son Benjamin, who attends the University of Michigan, flew home Wednesday. Daughter Rebecca lives in Philadelphia.

Bakery retail manager Stockman recalled Mrs. Neulander as "a wonderful person who was always encouraging, supportive and behind the business 100 percent. We will miss her."

Cherry Hill Mayor Susan Bass Levin, who knows the family, was called to the house Tuesday night.

"The entire community mourns their loss. The Neulanders are a close family. I'm sure they are pulling together in this time of need," Levin said. "She was very active in both the neighborhood community and the temple's community."

Mrs. Neulander served as a volunteer on the Camden County Child Placement Review Board and was active in her neighborhood and with M'Kor Shalom.

"She was a very caring and giving person," the mayor said. This is "a terrible tragedy."


(Top)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FAIR USE NOTICE

Some of the information on The Awareness Center's web pages may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.

We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/us code/17/107.shtml . If you wish to use copyrighted material from this update for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.