Parente Family Slain | 04/22/2009 11:05 am
Parente Family 'Murder-Suicide' Spurs Shock, Sadness and Questions
Police describe the startling deaths of four family members as a "murder-suicide" after the Parente family was discovered dead in a hotel outside Baltimore, MD.
Hotel staffers at the Sheraton in Towson, MD, found the bodies of William Parente, 59; wife Betty, 58; daughters Stephanie, 19; and Catherine, 11, Sunday afternoon after the family failed to check out.
Friends and neighbors are startled by the news, and only had kind words to say about the family members.
Nineteen-year-old daughter, Stephanie, was a student at Loyola College in Baltimore and her family was apparently in town visiting her for the weekend. Students gathered Tuesday at a campus chapel to mourn the loss of a young woman classmates described as a dear friend and active student. A former dorm-mate of Parente described her as energetic and fun.
"She was always full of life and happy and smiling," Stefanie Spain told the Baltimore Sun. "She was always making people laugh."Neighbors of the Parentes described a similar picture of the whole family to New York’s Newsday.
"I can’t imagine a more wonderful, loving, spiritual, funny family," said Robert Krener, who lived next door to the family and sold them their Garden City home 12 years ago.
Youngest daughter Catherine’s basketball coach, Michael Rix, also shared kind words with Newsday about the family and parents. Rix, whose daughter starred in the school play with Catherine said:
Regardless of whatever transpired over the weekend, they were a great family to be associated with in town. They were big supporters of their children. They were at every game rooting, good or bad, and always had nice words to say about the opponents, the coaches, everyone.
Reports describe William Parente as a Manhattan tax lawyer, and Betty as a housewife involved in the PTA.
Investigators have provided few details as to the cause of the death. Evidence of a murder weapon was found, but we don’t yet know whether a suicide note was left, the cause of death or who killed whom.
"The direction of this investigation is that it was a murder-suicide," said Baltimore County Police Cpl. Michael Hill. "We just don’t have a motive at this point."
Autopsy results are expected today and will hopefully provide more explanations.























4 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
If you are so overwhelmed that you have to kill yourself, that is bad enough. Even worse is killing your wife but your children? Unthinkable. It is so tragic - and unbearable for the family and friends they leave behind. May they rest in peace.
According to news reports the father in this case was accused of at least one quite large and shady fraudulant investment scheme. Additionally a neighbor is reported to have stated that Mr. Parente had been depressed since his own mother passed away some months ago.
During this time of severe economic downturn/correction we are seeing (what seems to me) ever increasing numbers of immediate family murder suicides. I wonder if wOw would consider having a psychological profiler describe what typifies the "reasoning" behind such acts, or if there are any red flags for families to watch for, or what the usual psycological make-up of someone who does this is. Suicide is hardly the answer to anyone’s problems but it is not so difficult to understand that one consider it as a way of escape from problems. However murdering your spouse and children to escape your own mess … it is just impossible to absorb.