Neighbors reveal house proud executive’s strange behavior in months before he killed himself, wife and daughter in New Jersey mansion massacre
The neighbor of an executive who killed his family and himself in a murder-suicide said the once house-proud shooter’s neglect of his lawn was a possible indicator of his declining mental state.
David Grodnick, 61, his wife Lora, 62, and their daughter Sloane, 24, were all found with gunshot wounds inside the family’s Montgomery Township, New Jersey, home.
The Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office announced their identities on Tuesday, while ruling the deaths of the two women as homicides and David’s a suicide.
The New York Post has since spoken with neighbor Mian Helaly, 73, who said he suspected something was wrong after the family failed to keep on top of their landscaping.
Helaly told the outlet: ‘I thought the house was number one in the [neighborhood for] maintaining their lawn.
‘I think a couple of months or more they were not maintaining it. It was very unusual. It disturbed me.’
Helaly believed that the Grodnicks spent a small fortune on new trees and maintaining the yard, saying that both David and Lora would work on it together.
‘All of a sudden, I noticed that in recent months they were not focusing on the lawn. The grass was ground out. They were not trimming the trees’, he added.
David Grodnick, seen here, and his wife Lora had failed to maintain their once well-kept lawn in the lead up to the killings, a neighbor told The New York Post
Lora and Sloane are seen here with rockstar Rod Stewart
Helaly told the outlet that the overgrown lawn was a sign to him that ‘something was not right’ and ‘not going their way.’
He described the triple killing as ‘very, very shocking,’ adding: ‘You would never believe a terrible thing like this would happen.’
Officials said they were called to the home last Thursday after receiving a call to check on the family.
Police started investigating after failing to make contact with the family, and on Friday they made entry into the property.
A statement from the office said that officers found the two women in separate bedrooms, Grodnick was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
It added: ‘The deceased male was positively identified as David Grodnick, age 61, husband to Lora and father to Sloane.
‘His cause of death was a gunshot wound of the head, and the manner of death was ruled a suicide.
‘The investigation, which remains ongoing, has yielded that the homicide deaths of both Lora and Sloane Grodnick were an isolated incident and there are no threats to the public from this tragic occurrence.
‘No further information will be available for release at this time.’
The family’s home in Grodnick, New Jersey is pictured
Officers found the two women in separate bedrooms, Grodnick was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound
Police started investigating after failing to make contact with the family, and on Friday they made entry into the property
According to Montgomery News, Grodnick worked as a senior vice president for Land Services USA, an insurance agency.
He attended the University of Miami and had a degree in business administration from the school, the outlet reported as well as a BA in English from McDaniel College.
Sloane had graduated from The Hun School, a private boarding school in Princeton, before graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
The family had moved from Princeton to Montgomery Township and were members of the exclusive Bedens Brook Country Club in Skillman, the outlet said.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org.
