Deaths of NY Lawyer, 3 Family Members Were Apparent Murder-Suicide
Authorities are investigating the investment practices of a Manhattan estate planning lawyer found dead on Monday along with his wife and two children. Authorities say the deaths were the result of an apparent murder-suicide.
Employees of a suburban Baltimore hotel found the bodies of lawyer William Parente, his wife, Betty Parente, and their daughters, 19 and 11, according to the New York Times. The couple and the younger daughter had traveled to visit the older daughter, a student at nearby Loyola college.
The New York State Attorney General’s office is investigating a complaint by a Queens lawyer that he invested hundreds of thousands of dollars with Parente, but he was unable to get the money back, Newsday reports. Bruce Montague said Parente promised to repay him $450,000 but the checks bounced a day after the Parentes were found dead.
Montague said he had earned returns of 10 percent to 15 percent by investing with Parente, who claimed he used the money to fund short-term, high-interest loans, the Newsday story says.
Parente was a solo practitioner with an estate planning and tax practice, Newsday reports in a separate story.
The Parentes lived in a posh neighborhood of million-dollar homes in Garden City, N.Y., the Associated Press reports. “The house is immaculately kept,” according to the Baltimore Sun, “its lawn mowed, its flower beds neat, its hedges clipped. There is a free-standing basketball hoop in the driveway, next to a silver Volvo S40 with a Loyola College sticker in the rear window.”
The family also had a Hamptons condo, according to Newsday.
Neighbor Robert Krener described the Parentes as “a wonderful, loving, spiritual, funny family” in an interview with Newsday. The Parentes attended Catholic church and were regulars at their children’s school functions and sporting events.
Marianne Quinn, who said she was Betty’s best friend, told Newsday that William Parente had been depressed since the death of his mother a year ago last week.
