A neighbor revealed that he noticed “unusual” behavior from a family before a father killed his wife and daughter in a murder-suicide at their New Jersey home.
“I thought the house was No. 1 in the [neighborhood for] maintaining their lawn. I think a couple of months or more they were not maintaining it. It was very unusual. It disturbed me,” neighbor Mian Helaly, who lives a few doors down from the Grodnick family, told the New York Post on Friday, October 9.
As Us previously reported, David Grodnick fatally shot his wife, Lora Grodnick, and their adult daughter, Sloane Grodnick, at their home sometime before October 2 before he died by suicide.
Helaly, 73, told the outlet that the family appeared to be perfect from an outsider’s perspective.
“This couple used to keep their lawn very neat. They were spending a lot of money planting new trees and whenever I would do my morning walk, I’d say hello,” he said, noting both David, 61, and Lora, 62, worked on the home’s landscaping. “All of a sudden, I noticed that in recent months they were not focusing on the lawn.”
He continued, “The grass was growing out. They were not trimming the trees.”
Helaly said that the lawn presentation made him think “something was not right” or “not going their way.”
Despite his concerns, Helaly said it was “very, very shocking” to learn about the murder-suicide. “You would never believe a terrible thing like this would happen,” he said.
Authorities launched an investigation into the matter when a mystery caller requested a welfare check for the family. Officers were initially unable to reach the Grodnicks when they visited their home on October 1.
Officers returned to the home on October 2 and entered the residence. They then found David, Lora and Sloane, 24, dead in different bedrooms. Lora and Sloane’s deaths were ruled as homicides, while David’s death was ruled a suicide.
“The investigation, which remains ongoing, has yielded that the homicide deaths of both Lora and Sloane Grodnick were an isolated incident and there are no threats to the public from this tragic occurrence,” the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office said in the news release about the tragedy. “No further information will be available for release at this time.”
David worked as the senior vice president and underwriting counsel for Land Services USA at the time of his death. The Philadelphia-based company is an insurance agency that works on commercial real estate deals.
The family moved to Skillman, New Jersey, from Princeton, and they were members of the exclusive clubs Bedens Brook Country Club in Skillman and TPC Jasna Polana in Princeton.
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