Sis’ frantic call
Phoned bro, who found parents felled by car fumes
BEFORE AN NYPD sergeant raced to his parents’ Queens home — where he later found them and two others dead — his sister stopped by to drop off her two dogs.
When no one answered the door, neighbors said, she feared the worst and called her brother, Sgt. Robert Hugel. The veteran cop drove to the house in Floral Park and made the heart-wrenching discovery around 3:15 p.m. on Friday.
Jerry Hugel, 83, his wife, 80-year-old Marie Hugel, their tenant 70-year-old Gloria Greco and friend Walter Von Thadden, 76, were found dead in the two-story home. While a spoksewoman for the city medical examiner’s office said the initial autopsies were inconclusive, it appears the four people died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Fire officials revealed on Saturday there were no carbon monoxide detectors in the home.
Authorities believe a Buick accidentally left idling in a basement garage filled the house with the odorless fumes, sources said. Jerry Hugel was found slumped over in the passenger seat of his car in the garage. His wife of 60 years was found a room away in a basement kitchen, sources said.
Von Thadden was in the firstfloor living room and Greco was found near the top of the stairs on the second floor, sources said.
Cops were trying to determine how long the Buick had been left running. Police reiterated on Saturday that the deaths appeared accidental.
Thomas Cipriano, who lives across the street from the Hugels’ home on 86th Ave., was shaken by the loss of two neighbors he considered dear friends.
“They were full of life,” Cipriano said. “It’s a tragedy. It was horrible. I feel sorry for the family, and it’s going to be a loss for the neighborhood.”
Cipriano said he often shared a laugh with Jerry Hugel over a Hofbrau, his favorite German lager.
“The guy was in his 80s, but it was like hanging out with a 25-year-old. The guy was unbelievable,” he said.
Hugel, a retired beer salesman, and his wife, a retired teacher, had five adult children, according to neighbors and friends.
Sgt. Hugel, 57, a 31-year veteran, is a member of the NYPD’s Technical Assistance and Response Unit. Relatives declined comment on Saturday. Funeral arrangements were pending. Neighbors are stunned. “Very nice people, it’s very sad, very tragic, unbelievable really,” said neighbor Bon Poncel, 58, an FDNY firefighter “I get chills just thinking that they’re gone.”
The couple frequently traveled to Germany and had a trip to Munich planned for the end of the month, a friend said.
A neighbor said the Hugels’ upstairs tenant, Greco, lived on Long Island but worked as a nurse in Queens and rented the apartment to be closer to her job.
The fourth victim, Von Thadden, was a close friend of the Hugels and would often join them at a German dancehall. “He was the most kindest person I know,” said a devastated Maria Collier, 84. “You never know when it’s your time.”
Von Thadden lived in Whitestone, but often visited the Hugels, friends and neighbors said.
“He was a good friend of the family. I’ve shared a couple of beers with him,” Cipriano said. “They drank Hofbrau. That was Jerry’s drink of choice.”