Mom thwarts plan to be famous (MD)

He promised her fame, but she picked life for her and her kids! I just hope that she has a safe place to be and stay there for a while when they release him from jail!! Way To Go, MOM!!!

Mom's Actions May Have Averted Murder-Suicide

Posted on May 07, 2009

LEONARDTOWN, Md. (May 7, 2009) -- A woman and her two children may be alive today because she had the presence of mind to flee her home and seek safety after her husband allegedly violently assaulted both teenage children and then displayed a handgun saying, "I am going to make you famous, I don't have anything to lose."

The husband, Donnie Smith, Sr., 41, of Lexington Park was arrested after local police executed a search and seizure warrant at his residence Tuesday. Police say the handgun was recovered at that time.

Sheriff's office patrol deputies say they were alerted to the situation in the home on Monday.

According to police, Smith first assaulted his 13 year-old son, who wears leg braces, by pushing him down stairs several weeks ago. On Sunday Smith allegedly assaulted his 16 year-old daughter by punching her in the face several times and pointing a handgun at her. Police say Smith then showed his wife the handgun and said, "I am going to make you famous, I don't have anything to lose."

The woman told police she took her children and fled the following day, Monday, because of her husband's propensity for violence.

Detectives from the Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) picked up the investigation. The following day, Tuesday, detectives, with the assistance of the St. Mary's County Emergency Services Team (EST), executed the search and seizure warrant and made the arrest.

Smith was charged with First Degree Assault, 2 counts of Second Degree Assault, 2 counts of Child Abuse, and Possession of a Firearm by a Felon. He was incarcerated in the St. Mary's County Detention Center.

Four killed in Baltimore hotel room in apparent murder-suicide (MD)

Man kills wife and two daughters, then himself April 20, 2009

Original: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/04/21/2009-04-21_four_killed_in_baltimore_hotel_room_in_apparent_murdersuicide_were_family_from_l.html

BY Andrew Zaleski In Baltimore and Nicholas Hirshon and Rich Schapiro In New York
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Updated Tuesday, April 21st 2009, 2:20 PM

Sweeney/AP/Baltimore Sun

A Baltimore County Police officer gets supplies from a forensic van to aid in the investigation into the deaths of a family from Long Island at a Sheraton hotel tin Townson, Md.

Mother Betty Parente with daughters, Stephanie and Catherine

A beloved Manhattan lawyer killed his wife and two daughters in a Maryland hotel room and then took his own life in a sickening murder-suicide, cops said Tuesday.

A hotel worker found the bodies of 59-year-old William Parente; his wife, Betty, 58, and daughters - Stephanie, 19, and Catherine, 11 - in their hotel room in Towson on Monday, Baltimore County cops said.

Police refused to disclose the cause of death but noted the victims were not shot or stabbed; they also would not reveal ifthere was a note. It remained unclear what triggered William Parente, a tax and estate planning lawyer, to do the unthinkable.

"The why and the motive in this is just a big blank right now," said Police Cpl. Michael Hill.

Investigators were examining a complaint they received Tuesday from a Queens lawyer about William Parente's financial dealings, said state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

The Parentes' neighbors along their quiet block in tony Garden City, L.I., were stunned by the sudden and violent end to what seemed to be a picture-perfect family. "They loved each other, they loved those girls and the girls loved them," said next-door neighbor Robert Krener, 64, whosaid he was unaware of anystress - financial or otherwise - that William Parente wasunder.

The family also had a home in Westhampton Beach, L.I.

"It's completely incomprehensible," said Krener, who, with his wife, would occasionally dine with the Parentes.

Marianne Quinn, 53, who described herself as Betty Parente's "best friend," said she thought William Parente may have been depressed over his mom's death; the one-year anniversary of her passing was last week.

Most friends said the deeply religious Catholic couple was outgoing and warm - the type of neighbors who brought gifts to new families on the block.

"If you were in a bad mood, they snapped you right out of it," said Catherine Grasman, who runs a kennel in Floral Park, L.I., where the Parentes would bring their two Maltese pooches, Buttons and Cupcake.

"When they came in, they lit up the room."

Police said the family was lastspotted alive Sunday afternoon, not long after they shared what seemed to be a pleasant breakfast together. The Parentes were visiting Stephanie, a sophomore at Baltimore's Loyola College.

The teenager's death left the Catholic campus shaken."She was the last person you would think had anything wrong in her life," said sophomore Pooja Bhatnagar, 19. "I saw her Friday, before she was going to meet with her family, and she was happy. Everything seemed okay."

Betty Parente, a stay-at-home mom who moved with her family from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to Long Island a dozen years ago, was on the board of the Tri Town Auxiliary of United Cerebral Palsy of Nassau County.

"She loved her daughters with every fiber of her body," said neighbor Linda Mattei.

"This is a shock to everybody."

rschapiro@nydailynews.com

Slain mother had blogged that husband under stress (MD)

Husband kills wife, three kids, then himself April 18, 2009

Original: http://www.examiner.com/a-1969609~Slain_mother_had_blogged_that_husband_under_stress.html

Apr 19, 2009 6:56 PM (17 days ago) By ALEX DOMINGUEZ, AP

MIDDLETOWN, Md. (Map, News) - A man who killed his wife, their three young children and himself in their northwest Maryland home had a hard time adjusting to his new manager's job for a railroad and it was causing him stress, according a blog entry his wife posted last month.

The children's grandfather discovered the murder-suicide Saturday when he went to check on the family at their Middletown home, authorities said. Francis Billotti Wood, 33, and her children suffered "traumatic cuts" and each had at least one wound from a .25-caliber handgun, Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins said. Her husband, 34-year-old Christopher Alan Wood, was found at the foot of his bed, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

Francis Wood grew up in the Middletown area and the family moved back last year. Her husband had been transferred from Jacksonville, Fla., for work as an account manager in the sales and marketing group at CSX Corp. in Baltimore, a company spokesman said. In a blog under her name and photo that she appears to have started in 2006, she said she thrived on the excitement that change brings, but he didn't handle it as well as she did.

"Chris is trying to adjust but he is having a hard time with the new job which makes him more of a major player at work," a March 16 entry read.

She also said she knew he worried that his traveling for the job would keep him away from the children too much.

"But I think we should focus on Quality over Quantity," she wrote.

On Sunday, members of Holy Family Catholic Community Church, which Francis Wood's parents helped found, remembered her as someone deeply involved in the parish, teaching catechism and volunteering in the nursery.

The Rev. Kevin Farmer said Wood was "the kind of parishioner I would wish for."

Authorities found the couple's two sons, ages 5 and 4, dead in their beds, and the bodies of their 2-year-old daughter and Francis Wood were in the master bedroom, Frederick County sheriff's office spokeswoman Jennifer Bailey said. On the master bedroom floor was Christopher Wood's body, she said.

Sheriff Jenkins said Wood left behind five notes before fatally shooting himself, including an apology to family members and hints that he suffered from psychiatric problems. The sheriff also said there was evidence that Wood faced financial problems.

Francis Wood wrote in the blog that her husband needed to get out of his comfort zone, but it was causing him stress.

Her last posting, dated April 1, said: "I am thinking that Chris and I will never agree on a new house to buy." She also talks about being blessed to be able to stay at home with her children and that she could give back to the community.

Joe Parker, 64, whose daughter and Francis Wood went to school together and were members of the Girl Scouts, said he wonders if there was more he could have done to prevent the deaths.

"We need to be more involved in other people's lives and we're not," Parker said.

Neighbors placed stuffed animals, balloons and flowers along the porch railing on the Woods' yellow two-story home.

Randel Edwards, 50, placed a handwritten sign that said: "Billotti and Wood families. We love you and hold you in our prayers. Your loved ones are greatly missed. May heaven dry your tears."

Edwards said he hoped some good would come out of the tragedy and lead those who are "experiencing difficulties" to realize "that there are people that want to help."

Next-door neighbor Pat Hendricks said the family moved into the rented house in January and that there were no signs of trouble.

"There were no red flags. They were a very loving family," she said.

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Associated Press Writer Gillian Gaynair in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.