Maryland: William Parente Kills Wife, 2 Daughters & Self

FBI searches office of lawyer in hotel murder-suicide case

  • Story Highlights
  • William Parente killed wife, daughters and himself in Maryland hotel
  • Parente reportedly involved in deals that left $27 million missing
  • FBI investigating what might have happened to the money
updated 6:56 p.m. EDT, Wed April 29, 2009

By Susan Candiotti and Ross Levitt
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) — FBI agents on Wednesday searched the law office of William Parente, the lawyer who killed his wife and two daughters before committing suicide April 19 in Maryland.

Police say Stephanie Parente's father killed his family and himself in a Baltimore hotel April 19.

Police say Stephanie Parente’s father killed his family and himself in a Baltimore hotel April 19.


Agents removed business records that might help explain what led Parente to take the life of his family in a hotel room near Baltimore, said FBI spokesman James Margolin. At least four agents left Parente’s office carrying dozens of boxes and computer hardware, he said.
The FBI, at the request of Baltimore County police, is investigating what happened to money that might be missing.
CNN has learned that officials are investigating whether Parente lost at least $27 million of client’s funds. Some clients said Parente encouraged them to invest in short-term real estate loans that he claimed would yield high returns

A source familiar with the investigation said authorities are looking at more than one bank Parente used, allegedly to deposit clients’ funds.

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One client, through a spokesman, has said Parente wrote him checks just before he killed his family and committed suicide, but the checks bounced.

Police have said Parente’s wife, Betty, 58, and daughters Catherine, 11, and Stephanie, 19, were killed by asphyxiation and blunt force trauma. Parente, 59, bled to death after cutting himself.  

Police describe methodical killings in hotel

By Julie Bykowicz | julie.bykowicz@baltsun.com

April 23, 2009

The phone in the Parentes’ 10th-floor hotel room rang just before midnight. By then, a mother and two daughters staying there had been beaten and asphyxiated by the man who answered the phone. Not long after taking that call – from a college roommate of his older daughter – the man used a knife to commit suicide.

On Wednesday, Baltimore County police sketched a timeline for the murder-suicide of a Long Island family in a room at the Sheraton hotel in Towson. Officials described methodical killings over a period of hours Sunday, but a crime with no clearly defined motive since the killer left no suicide note.

William Parente, 59, a New York lawyer, asphyxiated his family members one by one, likely beginning with his wife, Betty, 58, a homemaker and charity fundraiser. Catherine, 11, was probably killed soon afterward. Then came Stephanie, a 19-year-old sophomore who abandoned her studies at the Loyola College campus late Sunday afternoon to make the five-mile trip north to the hotel, police believe.

Their bodies were laid out on a king-size bed. William Parente’s body was found in the bathroom. He killed himself hours after his family, sometime early Monday morning. Police said there were no obvious signs of a struggle or that anyone had been drugged or restrained.

Taking notice of Stephanie Parente’s absence from classes Monday, Loyola officials alerted the Sheraton Baltimore North hotel. Employees entered the locked room about 3 p.m. that day and found the bodies.

Investigators found no note, Baltimore County Police Chief James W. Johnson said, but they have learned about William Parente’s “questionable financial dealings.” County police are forwarding information, which Johnson would not describe, to the FBI‘s New York office.

“We continue to interview family, friends and work associates to determine the motive and the circumstances behind these violent acts,” Johnson said.

An FBI spokesman in New York said an investigation into William Parente’s financial dealings is under way. Also, a lawyer in Queens has written to the New York state attorney general’s office alleging that he was defrauded by Parente.

Police said it was not unusual for the Parentes, a Roman Catholic family with Italian roots in Brooklyn, to make the 215-mile drive from Garden City to Loyola, where Stephanie was a speech pathology major. She was studious, friends said, and wanted to be a dentist.

The family checked into the hotel, near Towson Town Center mall, April 15; they were due to check out Monday morning.

Stephanie was surprised by her family’s visit, said friend and fellow sophomore Gabrielle Paige, 19. Loyola had just resumed classes a day earlier, after a brief Easter break. Stephanie was preparing for final exams, Paige said. And the Parentes were scheduled to visit this Friday for an on-campus meeting about a study-abroad program in England, for which Stephanie and Paige had signed up, Paige said.

“None of it made sense,” Paige said. “They just called her and said they were here in Baltimore. It seemed like they decided on a whim to come out here.”

But once they were here, Stephanie’s friends said, the family’s visit was ordinary. “Nothing was amiss as far as her roommates could tell,” said the Rev. Brian Linnane, Loyola’s president.The family had breakfast together Sunday near the campus, a Loyola spokeswoman said, and Stephanie came back to her dorm room afterward. Stephanie had a chemistry exam Monday and was planning to study Sunday, friends said.

But she was nowhere to be found that night, though her chemistry book lay open on her dorm-room desk. Friends were concerned enough to call the hotel, Paige said.

One of Stephanie’s roommates got through to the room about midnight, and William Parente told her that Stephanie would be staying the night with them.

The medical examiner listed the manner of death of the wife and daughters as homicide, police said, and the cause for all three as asphyxiation and blunt force trauma. Asphyxiation is the obstruction of normal breathing, but police did not say whether the three were strangled or smothered.

There were several objects in the room that could have been used to inflict the trauma, said Johnson, the county police chief, but investigators have not concluded what exactly William Parente used.

The mother and youngest daughter were killed “relatively close in time,” said police spokesman Bill Toohey, though Johnson said evidence showed the mother died first. It is unclear whether the 11-year-old was in the room at the time.

Stephanie Parente was apparently killed later Sunday, police said.

“We might never know the exact sequence of what went on in that room,” Toohey said.

William Parente’s death was determined by the medical examiner to be a suicide caused by cutting with a knife. Police would not say where on his body he was cut.

On Long Island and on the Loyola campus, those who knew the Parentes were grieving.

“This continues to be a very difficult time for the entire campus community,” said Courtney Jolley, a Loyola spokeswoman. She said there would be a private campus vigil Thursday night, and Loyola is continuing to provide counseling and support services.

Paige said Stephanie’s four roommates were especially close to her. She said some of the women are putting on a brave face while others are not handling their friend’s death as well.

“You would never see her without one of her roommates,” Paige said. “Their hearts are just broken.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Stephen Kiehl contributed to this article.

April 19, 2009
Categories: Betty Parente, Catherine Parente, Maryland, Murder-Suicide, Stephanie Parente, William Parente . Tags: . Author: Murder Suicide . Comments: Leave a comment