A Manhattan tax lawyer bought a knife after beating and asphyxiating his wife and two daughters in a Maryland hotel room, police said Friday. He later was found dead with self-inflicted cuts in the room, near their bodies.
The FBI and the New York attorney general have said they are investigating allegations that William Parente was in a financial bind and may have owed millions of dollars to investors.
Parente bought the knife at a Towson, Maryland, store after the killings at a hotel north of Baltimore last weekend, Baltimore County police said in a report Friday.
In addition to Parente, 59, the dead were identified as the man's wife, Betsy, 58, and their daughters Catherine, 11, and Stephanie, 19. Police said the knife and store receipt were found among Parente's belongings at the hotel.
Police said Betty and the daughters, who were found on a bed, died of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. Police spokesman Cpl. Michael Hill said Wednesday that William Parente, who was found in the bathroom, died by cutting himself.
Authorities say they haven't yet determined if there was a struggle with family members or whether objects found in the room were used in the killings.
The couple and their younger daughter were in Maryland to visit Stephanie, a sophomore at Loyola College in Maryland in Baltimore.
A hotel manager forced entry into Towson, Md., hotel room Monday and called police soon after spying William Parente's body on the floor of the quarters at the Sheraton Baltimore North, police said.
"We've got a dead body in one of our rooms," the hotel manager is heard telling a police dispatcher in call excerpts released Friday.
"Do you know if it's a male or female?" the woman dispatcher asks.
"It's a male," the man responds.
"... Any idea how this might have happened?" the dispatcher says.
"I don't know," he answered. "I'm not going further into the room."
Police said hotel workers called the room repeatedly after the 11 a.m. Monday checkout without getting a response. The family was pronounced dead Monday afternoon.
A Monday wake and Tuesday funeral Mass are planned for Betty Parente and her daughters.
At the request of Betty Parente's relatives, a private funeral for William Parente will be held separately, said the Rev. Joseph M. Schlafer, pastor of St. Joseph's Church, where they were parishioners for years. No date for his funeral has been set.
"They had many, many friends and I think the whole community is going through a tremendous sense of loss and shock," said Schlafer, who is to preside Tuesday.
Bob Krener, a real estate broker who sold the Parentes their home 11 years ago and moved next door 2 1/2 years ago, has said there was no indication that anything was amiss with them. The family lived in Garden City, a New York City suburb on Long Island, in a million-dollar house across from a golf course.
"All I heard was laughter and fun" coming from the Parente's back yard, he said. "It's shocking beyond any comprehension."
A spokesman for state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Friday that only one complaint of alleged wrongdoing had been filed with his office, but said any additional calls would be referred to the FBI.
"What he did to his family is unforgivable," said attorney Steven B. Drelich, whose law partner claims to have invested $450,000 with Parente.
Drelich said three people quickly came forward saying they lost at least $4 million.
Drelich's partner, lawyer Bruce Montague, said he learned Tuesday that two of six checks he recently received from Parente had bounced _ and that the losses from the two checks totaled $245,000.
The FBI has confirmed it is investigating Parente's financial dealings.
Montague declined interviews but another law partner, Craig Gardy, said the events prompted several calls to his office from others who suspect they may have lost money.
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Associated Press Writer Frank Eltman in Garden City, New York, contributed to this report
