Friday, July 14, 2006

Still Shaken Up

New details came out about the suicide/murders. The father pressed the gun to the heads of his children. Unspeakable. He didn't kill himself until a couple hours later. Unbelievable. It is just so unthinkable, unjustifiable. Just plain awful.

Last night my bus had to detour just before my stop because the main road the funeral home was on was closed off by police. I can't imagine what it was like to be there. The father there too?!? I keep thinking about this tragedy, can't get it out of my head. That poor mother and daughter who have to live with this the rest of their lives. The girlfriend. It's just so sad. Those boys never knew just a few days ago that this is how they'd "spend their summer vacation."

This article appeared in today's paper:

 

Hundreds attend wake for father, two sons he killed
Friday, July 14, 2006



WESTWOOD -- Hundreds of mourners -- many of them stunned teenagers in tears -- paid their respects Thursday to two young men and the father who chose to end their lives.

By evening, a line of red-eyed adults and shaken adolescents had wrapped around the Becker Funeral Home, three days after Thomas Frazza of Washington Township shot his sons, John, 20, and Kevin, 14, in their beds before turning the gun on himself.

Some sobbed and embraced as they stood before the bodies of John and Kevin, which lay in open caskets.

FUNERAL IS TODAY
  • The funeral for Kevin, John and Thomas Frazza is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. today at the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Washington Township.

  • Burial is to follow in Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington.

  • The cafeteria of Westwood Regional Junior and Senior High School will be open after the funeral for parents and children, with professional counselors and staff members on hand to offer support.

  • Kevin's casket held a stuffed teddy bear, a Rosary Novena and the jersey of his favorite New Jersey Nets player, Jason Kidd. A Toronto Blue Jays jersey and a heart-framed picture of John with his girlfriend of two years, Theresa Finnelli, were in the older brother's casket.

    To the left of the boys in the same room was the closed coffin of their father, the polished wood adorned with a spray of red flowers.

    Young girls and boys hugged, at times collapsing in tears. Some left the viewing with their hands over their mouths.

    "To deal with death at this age -- and one of their own ..." one mourner said.

    "It's just so unimaginable," said another.

    Investigators have been stumped for clues as to what prompted the killings. Those who knew Thomas Frazza well said he'd become increasingly distressed the past year by his failing pay telephone business. He was also upset over having to sell the family's home at the New Jersey Shore.

    "No one knew he was in trouble," someone at the wake said. "He hid it very well."

    Throughout the day, Beatrice "Betty" Frazza and her 19-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, accepted -- and at times delivered -- words of comfort as they embraced friends and neighbors. Both were at the Shore house when the shootings occurred early Monday at their Washington Township home.

    "How are you guys? You guys doing all right?" Betty asked a group of shaken young girls.

    Slideshows playing on two televisions, framed pictures and various collages in the funeral parlor belied the tragedy. They showed a happy family and smiling children at different stages of their lives -- at the beach, on holidays, at birthday parties.

    In one, Kevin as a baby is dressed as a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween. Another shows Betty and Thomas on their wedding day. Another has them holding each other and laughing years later at the Shore. There was also a photo of Kevin and John together in a frame with the words "Me and My Little Brother."

    Finnelli, John's girlfriend, had apparently assembled candid shots of him for one of the collages, each with a handwritten message or memory. Comic strips she drew for him were on display on another. At one point, she stood before it and broke down sobbing.

    "I just don't understand this," she said, "and I never will."

    The comics had a special note to John, telling him that someday, when her comic strip gets published, it will feature the character she created for him: "The Pirate."

    "You will continue to live on in my heart forever," she also wrote.

    Photos of John showed the outgoing Ramapo College student at pool parties, the ice skating rink and what friends called his favorite place on earth -- the Pascack Theatre, where he worked as a projectionist.

    Theater owner Spiros Papas said he respected John not only as an employee but as a friend.

    When he gave his condolences to Betty at the wake, she told him, "Are you Mr. Papas? John spoke very highly of you."

    "I was happy to hear that because I worked with John for 4½ years, and I treated him like my son," Papas said.

    Papas said he and John had a Monday lunch ritual.

    "I would say, 'John, you hungry?' And he always said yes. So we would go out for Greek food sometimes and other times cheeseburgers."

    A few nights before he died, Papas gave John a ride home after a late showing of "Superman Returns."

    John appeared depressed that night, Papas said.

    "He said, 'I'm having a little problem with my father. He doesn't want me to go to school,' " Papas recalled. "I asked him if a raise would help and he said, 'Yes, Mr. Papas.' "

    Tuesday, July 11, 2006

    Murder/Suicide in a Small Town

    A father killed his 14 and 20 yr old sons then himself. This was in my Jay's town, Washington Township, NJ,where he still lives with his family and is only a couple blocks behind him. We pass this creepy looking house all the time in the car, on our bikes... Its all wood with no windows seen from the street at all - only on the back facing the lake. The wife and 19 yr old daughter were in South Jersey at the time.

    So tragic. Why did he have to take those boys with him???

    Article and news footage here: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=4353999

    This is a quiet lil' suburban town. Things like this just don't happen here..

     

     

    EDIT: The older boy's myspace page. He last logged on on Sunday : (

     MySpace URL: 

     

    EDIT:

    Another longer article:

    http://tinyurl.com/lvuhm