Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Man kills wife and her sister, then self
Children watch as gunfire rocks quiet Delray neighborhood
Three siblings and their cousin were forced to leave their home Sunday after they witnessed a double murder-suicide that killed three of their parents.
On Sunday morning in Delray Beach, Julien Rosemberg, 44, killed his wife Pierrena Rosemberg, 43, and her sister with a semi-automatic handgun inside their home before walking out to the backyard and using the weapon on himself, according to police.
The couple’s two boys and girl and the sister’s daughter ran past the bodies as they fled the house, said Dani Moschella, spokeswoman for the Delray Beach Police Department. The sister was identified as Lourdine Cazeau, 41. The children, who range in age from 5 to 14, were not injured and are staying with relatives, Moschella said.
Approximately a dozen relatives of the slain women showed up at the small home at 37 NW 13th Ave. but could not get near the house as police conducted their investigation. The relatives live throughout South Florida and each one was awakened early Sunday by telephone calls as the news of what happened spread from one household to another.
“She was a strong woman. She would stand up to him. She always said that God would never let him do that to her,” said a cousin of the sisters, referring to Pierrena.
Moschella said all three were pronounced dead at the scene. Police said there were no previous calls to the house involving violence.
But Pierrena Rosemberg told relatives that her husband had repeatedly threatened to kill her in recent years, before carrying
through on the threat Sunday.
Police received a 911 call to the address shortly before 6 a.m. Sunday morning. It wasn’t clear where that call came from.
Pearlie McMiller, who lives directly across the street from the Rosembergs’ house, said she saw a woman face down on the ground at the front door and a man face up on the grass in the backyard, both lifeless.
“I never saw them arguing. Their kids would come and play in my sister’s yard. They used to come and sit in my sister’s yard … never thought something was going on like this,” McMiller said. “I never knew anything like this happen in this neighborhood, nothing.”
Pierrena Rosenberg worked seven days a week taking care of elderly people in their homes. She took care of the kids, paid bills, cooked and was studying to become a nurse, relatives said. She lived at the address for at least 10 years, and about five years ago she went to Haiti and brought Julien Rosenberg to the U.S. She also recently brought her sister from Haiti to live with her.
“She was a very hard worker,” said a relative. “She always had family dinners, loved to have people over.”
Police ask anyone with information to call Detective Oscar Leon at 561-243-7845.