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NY Attorney Beat, Suffocated Family Over Hours
Gig was about to be up on Parente investor scam, investigators believe
By Mary Papenfuss
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Posted Apr 23, 09 3:34 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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A New York attorney beat and suffocated his wife and two daughters in a horrific attack that took hours, police told the New York Daily News. He then fatally slashed himself in a Baltimore hotel room where the four bodies were found. Investigators believe William Parente, 59, was ripping off investors in a scam he ran as part of his Manhattan tax planning business and was about to be found out. "This sick animal—why did he have to take them with him?" asked a distraught family friend.
Parente had written nearly half a million dollars in bad checks to one of his investors just days before the murders. He first killed his wife, then 11-year-old daughter, and finally his elder daughter, who was a sophomore in Loyola College in Baltimore. Stephanie Parente left campus to meet with her visiting family before they were all killed. When Stephanie's worried roommate called the hotel, her dad said she would be spending the night. She was already dead, cops told the New York Post.