A police car is parked by a home in Cross River, N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011 where police say a man apparently killed his wife and two young children and then took his own life. 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, blue-gray, Colonial-style house in Cross River on Tuesday afternoon, according to police. (AP Photo/The Journal News, Frank Becerra, Jr.)
A police car is parked by a home in Cross River, N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011 where police say a man apparently killed his wife and two young children and then took his own life. 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, blue-gray, Colonial-style house in Cross River on Tuesday afternoon, according to police. (AP Photo/The Journal News, Frank Becerra, Jr.)
In this Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011 photo, police guard a home in Cross River, N.Y. where police say a man apparently killed his wife and two young children and then took his own life. 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, blue-gray, Colonial-style house in Cross River on Tuesday afternoon, according to police. (AP Photo/The Journal News, Frank Becerra, Jr.)
In this Feb. 26, 2010 Friedlander family photo provided by the Lewisboro Ledger/Hersam Acorn Newspapers on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, Gregory and Molly Friedlander play in the snow at their home in Cross River, N.Y. A family of four was found dead in their sprawling home in an affluent 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, blue-gray, Colonial-style house in Cross River on Tuesday afternoon, according to police Maj. Michael Kopy. (AP Photo/Sam Friedlander/Lewisboro Ledger/Hersam Acorn Newspapers)
CROSS RIVER, N.Y. (AP) ? A man in the middle of a divorce fatally shot his two children and bludgeoned his wife before killing himself in their sprawling home in an affluent suburb, police said Wednesday.
The bodies of Amy and Sam Friedlander and their children, 8-year-old Gregory and 10-year-old Molly, were discovered Tuesday afternoon, hours after their deaths, in Cross River, north of New York City.
The couple had a divorce proceeding scheduled for Thursday, according to state police Maj. Michael Kopy.
The children were found dead in their beds, shot and then placed under the covers.
Their mother, who had fought back, lay dead on the floor of the master bedroom, a furniture leg nearby. Police recovered the shotgun the father used; his body was in the basement.
Counselors were summoned for the officers who encountered the carnage.
Police had been alerted by the wife's worried business partner.
"She was aware that Mr. and Mrs. Friedlander had been involved in divorce proceedings and that she had not heard from Mrs. Friedlander during the day," said Kopy. "She felt that was unusual and she asked troopers to go out to the residence."
Kopy did not name the business partner. However, Deborah Bernstein posted a notice on the website of John Jay Prep, an academic and college test prep tutoring service.
"We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Amy Friedlander and her children Molly and Gregory," it said. "Amy was not only a business partner but a personal friend and loving mother. She will be truly missed by us and the community at large."
Kopy said a domestic incident was reported at the house in 2006, with no arrest. He said it was "an argument over the children, certainly not indicative of what transpired here Monday night into Tuesday morning."
The father worked as an attorney in the Bedford-Katonah area, handling "minor criminal matters," Kopy said.
"There was some indication that Mr. Friedlander had been acting somewhat irrationally. His behavior over the past weeks and months had been inconsistent with his previous behavior," Kopy said. "People noticed some changes."
But he added: "No one has said anything that would lead us to believe, or would have led them to believe, that this would have occurred."
On Wednesday, police parked their vehicles in front of the Friedlanders' four-bedroom, blue-gray, Colonial-style house and challenged anyone who tried to linger; crime-scene tape was stretched across the driveway.
The Journal News (http://tinyurl.com/3hxp9m3) said a May 2000 wedding announcement in The New York Times had described Amy Friedlander as a vice president for Chase Manhattan Bank. The wedding announcement said her husband was an associate counsel of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in Manhattan.
Kopy, asked whether the couple had financial problems, declined to speculate on any contributing factors.
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.
A small "For Sale" sign stands at the curb in front of the Friedlanders' home, which is listed for $799,000. It's located on a long, looping road that features some even larger houses on elegantly landscaped properties. But it's clearly a family neighborhood: Some residents have decorated for Halloween, with pumpkins on their porches and fake spider webs across the shrubs.
One neighbor' house has a sign taped to the storm door, with the request, "Please respect privacy."
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