Slays ‘not random’
POLICE WORKED Wednesday to try to unravel the mystery of who killed a woman, her lover and her two young children, whose bodies were found in an upstate riverfront apartment house the day after Christmas.
“After being in this business for 43 years, I can’t describe the savagery of a person who would do this,” said Troy Police Chief John Tedesco.
The victims were found bound with their throats slashed, law enforcement sources not involved in the investigation told the Albany Times Union.
Investigators revealed little about the deaths. But the chief said the slain children were an 11-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl. The mother was 36 and in a relationship with a 22-year-old woman whose body was also found in the basement apartment, the chief said.
Tedesco declared during a news conference that the killings were “not a random act,” but wouldn’t say why he believed that was the case.
A property manager found the bodies Tuesday after being asked to check on the welfare of the people in the apartment, one of five in a house located in the city’s Lansingburgh section along the Hudson River just north of Albany, police said.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that a person who committed this crime is capable of anything,” Tedesco said, adding that police don’t believe there was an imminent danger to the public. The victims’ names were being withheld pending notification of relatives, he said.
Police didn’t know when the slayings occurred, but Tedesco said he hoped autopsies being conducted Wednesday would provide clues. State police were involved in the investigation along with New York parole officials, Tedesco said.
“This will be a full-court press, if you will, until we bring someone to justice,” he said.