January 20, 2007
UPSTATE HOMICIDE
(photo by Bill Johnson/ Hackensack Fire Dept.)
Dutchess County's medical examiner revealed today that the five bodies discovered by firefighters responding to a house fire early Friday morning were all shot and or stabbed, making the incident the worst multiple homicide the small town of Fishkill has seen in its longer-than-200 year history.
It was unclear Friday night how the family had been killed, or where the bodies were found in the house. A Fishkill police official at the scene said there had been reports of gunfire before the fire broke out, but he would not elaborate. “It’s definitely being investigated as a homicide,” said the official, who would not give his name.
Maj. William Carey of the state police told The Associated Press that the fire was set “to cover the killing” of the family. “We’re just starting the investigation at this point,” Major Carey said.
Other officials said the youngest child had been bludgeoned and the middle child stabbed.
The state police identified the victims Friday night as Manuel Morey, 33, known as Tony; his wife, Tina, 30; and their three sons: Manuel, 13, also known as Tony; Ryan, 6; and Adam, 10.
The New York Times account basically goes the distance in describing the family as white trash without actually employing the term, which is real nice considering they were all just murdered:
Neighbors said the Moreys moved into a rented rundown Cape-style home on Route 82, a busy two-lane highway, a year ago. Most neighbors said they knew the family members mostly for their raucous summer barbecues and their fondness for riding noisy all-terrain vehicles late at night. The house has a dirt yard, and a woodsy plot in back abuts a 20-foot-wide stream.
Neighbors described the Morey sons as rough-and-tumble kids who liked to help their father fix their all-terrain vehicles, and played in the woods in the back of the house. Manuel was in the seventh grade. The other sons attended elementary school. Neighbors said the elder Manuel and Tina Morey grew up in the area. One neighbor, Cheryl Bianchini, said Mr. Morey irritated the neighbors by riding his A.T.V. “up and down the block at all hours of the night.”
“It was really loud and annoying, and the police were called on him a few times, but he kept doing it,” she said. A police sergeant said he could not verify that claim on Friday.
“The family had problems, troubles,” said Ms. Bianchini, whose daughter Alyssa attended Brinckerhoff Elementary School with Adam.
So much for not speaking ill of the dead. Even their landlord couldn't resist a few parting jabs about the lack of care for his lawn and his propensity to entertain:
“He tore up that lawn with his A.T.V.,” Mr. Skaarva said. In the summer, he installed a wooden stockade fence and began having raucous barbecues every weekend, he said.
“They would pull all the furniture outside,” he said. “There was a lot of drinking. We couldn’t believe how many empty cases of beer they’d put out in the garbage every week.”
Hey buddy, seriously, shut the hell up would you? A family including three children are butchered and burned and this is what you have to say to reporters? "That guy ruined my lawn!"
The WNBC story is a little more sympathetic, both to the family and the surrounding community. Video of that channel's report can be seen here. Currently, police investigators are proceeding with the assumption that the quintuple homicide was motivated by money, drugs, or both. In the meantime, there's an extremely cold-blooded person on the loose in town.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at January 20, 2007 3:22 PM
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