Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Domestic Violence Blamed For Triple Murder
WNBC.com ^ | 7/30/2002 | staff

Posted on 07/30/2002 3:32:54 PM PDT by hellinahandcart

Domestic Violence Blamed For Triple Murder

Mother, Grandmother, Aunt Stabbed To Death

POSTED: 9:27 a.m. EDT July 30, 2002
UPDATED: 4:09 p.m. EDT July 30, 2002

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Two boys found their mother, grandmother and aunt stabbed to death Tuesday morning inside their home, the Hudson County prosecutor's office said.

The killings appear to stem from domestic violence, Prosecutor Edward J. DeFazio said.

"At this point it appears it is not a stranger-on-stranger event," DeFazio said. No arrest warrants have been issued, he said.

The husband of one of the women was found at his workplace soon after police were called about 7:30 a.m., said Daniel J. Gibney, chief of detectives in the prosecutor's office. Officers have been to the workplaces of the other husbands but had not located them by midday, he said.

The boys, ages 6 and 3, lived at the home with the six adults, Gibney said.

All the victims were found on the floor: one in a back bedroom, one in a front bedroom and another in a hallway, Gibney said. They were clothed.

There were no immediate signs of a break-in, and the contents of the home did not appear to be disturbed, he said.

Officers at the two-story home could be seen measuring and taking pictures of what appeared to be blood on a picture window.

Gibney could not offer a motive. "Its going to take some time," he said, because the other husbands still had not been interviewed.

The women were last seen alive Tuesday morning, said DeFazio, a longtime assistant county prosecutor who was sworn in as prosecutor on Monday after serving for a year and a half as a state Superior Court judge.

DeFazio succeeds Frederick Theemling, who was prosecutor for five years and has become a state Superior Court judge.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: New Jersey; US: New York
KEYWORDS: domesticviolence
They have just updated the story on our local news. They have located another of the husbands and questioned him. The one they still haven't found is the husband of the pregnant woman, who was expecting twins.

They released the names of the victims, but I wasn't able to catch enough to transcribe.

The family are Guyanese and the husband they can't yet locate is a Muslim. There was apparently a dispute between this husband and the wife (who had possibly converted?) regarding in which faith the two boys, and the two children on the way, would be raised. Whether this information was revealed by the surviving husbands or by neighbors was not made clear during the broadcast..

I have waited an hour for an update to appear on the website, but it hasn't happened yet; all the local news websites seem to be pretty far behind on this story. So the details are likely to change.

1 posted on 07/30/2002 3:32:54 PM PDT by hellinahandcart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: hellinahandcart
Grrrr! If I had waited five more minutes, I'd have had that update. Here it is:

Jersey City Boys Discover Dead Bodies Of Mother, Grandmother, Aunt

(Jersey City-WABC, July 30, 2002) — Two young Jersey City boys made a gruesome discovery Tuesday morning, waking up to find their mother, grandmother and aunt murdered in their home. New Jersey Reporter Jeff Rossen has the story.

Sources close to the investigation told Eyewitness News Tuesday that it was a family member who went on a rampage, stabbing the three women to death. He was apparently angry over religion, and how the family was practicing.

Two young boys, five year-old Andrew and his three year-old brother slept through the murders. They were downstairs, the killings took place upstairs. Their mother, Sharon Yassim, their grandmother, Bernadette Seajatan, and their pregnant aunt, Marlyn Hassan were all killed.

Indrani Basdeu, Victim's Relative: "They were so nice, very kind people. Why did they have to come and do this? Taking two dauthers away, and the mother too?"

The two boys found the bodies of the three women when they woke up, at around 7:00 Tuesday morning. The two boys then went to a neighbor's house across the street, to try and get help.

Asifa Bedun, Neighbor: "'My mommy's dead. Please call 9-1-1.'"

Police sources told Eyewitness News that the murders stemmed from a fight between family members over religion. Marlyn was brought up Hindu, but converted to Islam when she was married.

Because she was pregnant, she could not pray as much. Our sources say that her husband was angry about that, concerned about how they raised their children.

Alem, Marlyn husband, is missing, and police are searching for him.

Late Tuesday, a family member confirmed that there was tension between the couple over religion.

Baldeo Seajatan, Victim's Husband: "She didn't complain to me, so I didn't have no right to interfere."

Jeff Rossen, Eyewitness News: "But were you aware of problems between them?"

Seajatan: "The only problems were how to raise the children."

In a relatively quiet section of Jersey City, a bloody hand print on the window marks the house where the murders occurred.

Madeline Lombardi, Neighbor: "I'm sick. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to think. Because we never had things like this happening around here. Never."

Prosecutors confirm that they are searching for the missing man, Alem Hassan. He has not been named a suspect, but police are looking to talk with him in connection with the vicious crime.

Last Updated: Jul 30, 2002

2 posted on 07/30/2002 3:40:04 PM PDT by hellinahandcart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: My Favorite Headache
ping
3 posted on 07/30/2002 3:45:04 PM PDT by hellinahandcart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

When I first heard this story, the relationships were: grandmother, her sister (which would be the boys' great-aunt), and her daughter (pregnant mother of the boys). Apparently I heard wrong.

And I could have sworn I heard "Guyanese", but that doesn't appear anywhere in the update.

Oh well. At least I am not responsible for "Marlyn husband" (yeesh!); that's straight off the website.

4 posted on 07/30/2002 3:57:33 PM PDT by hellinahandcart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Black Agnes
*
5 posted on 07/30/2002 4:04:00 PM PDT by hellinahandcart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: knighthawk; swarthyguy; Travis McGee; firebrand; Dutchy; rmlew; Cacique
Scary story and close by (to nyc folx) too!
6 posted on 07/30/2002 4:08:16 PM PDT by Black Agnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: hellinahandcart
Thanks for ping! This is pretty disturbing. She was pregnant with twins which probably meant she was under bedrest restrictions. No going to mosque was probably a given. Guess we have a situation of honor killing/If you're not muslim I'm gonna kill you.
7 posted on 07/30/2002 4:09:25 PM PDT by Black Agnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Black Agnes
I just can't imagine being a five-year-old and finding Mommy or Grandmommy stabbed to death in one room, then running for help only to find another dead woman, and then another. What would my littlemind have made out of that, at that age?

I hope the three-year-old is too young to remember any of this.

Meanwhile there's a very dangerous man loose in New Jersey.

8 posted on 07/30/2002 4:14:21 PM PDT by hellinahandcart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: hellinahandcart
Chalk up more victims of the religion of peace. No submission, no peace, save that of the grave.

9 posted on 07/30/2002 4:16:11 PM PDT by El Gato
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hellinahandcart
Chalk up more victims of the religion of peace. No submission, no peace, save that of the grave.

10 posted on 07/30/2002 4:16:29 PM PDT by El Gato
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: El Gato
bttt
11 posted on 07/30/2002 4:23:45 PM PDT by Black Agnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Black Agnes; El Gato; My Favorite Headache
The husband has not been found as of this morning.

But here are two articles from New Jersey sources this morning.

Mother, 2 daughters slain in home; religious issues are a possible motive in Jersey City tragedy

BLOODBATH(Yes, I know, but it's still a better title than the one I was stuck with for this thread :-/)

12 posted on 07/31/2002 4:57:27 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: elcaudillo
Like your Marco Island thread, this one suffers from "Titlenobodywillclickon" syndrome. Thought you might be interested in it, anyway.
13 posted on 07/31/2002 5:02:37 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: hellinahandcart
bttt
14 posted on 07/31/2002 5:19:51 AM PDT by Black Agnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Black Agnes
Thank you (from other thread).

I heard on WABC Radio News about 1/2 hour ago they cought one of the guys on a bus as it was about to enter Canada. Was he the one (the last one)?

15 posted on 07/31/2002 2:28:23 PM PDT by StriperSniper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: StriperSniper; hellinahandcart
Hmmm, I dunno. Maybe hellinahandcart will post something? I just can't imagine what kind of husband and father would *kill* his wife who was pregnant with *twins* and as a result too tired to pray (multiples generally have bedrest prescribed, especially for last trimester, she was 6 months pregnant)
16 posted on 07/31/2002 2:42:14 PM PDT by Black Agnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Black Agnes; StriperSniper; All
I heard about the arrest at around 4:15 but it was a teaser for the five o'clock news; in other words they would only say an arrest had been made. Turns out, yep, it was the husband of the youngest and they caught him trying to cross the Canadian border at Buffalo.

wnbc.com - News - Husband Arrested In Murder Of Wife, In-Laws

Alim Hassan, 31, was taken off the bus after authorities received an anonymous phone call Tuesday evening. The caller warned that a man who had stabbed the three women to death in their Jersey City home earlier in the day was headed to Toronto from New York City, said Prosecutor Edward J. DeFazio.

Hassan was turned over first to U.S. immigration officials, then to police in Buffalo, where he appeared in New York state court Wednesday morning, DeFazio said.

He said Hassan agreed to be extradited to New Jersey, and will be brought back to Jersey City on Thursday to be formally charged.

Bernadette Seajatan, 49, and her daughters, Sharon Yassim, 30, and Marlyn Hassan, 29, who was married to the defendant, were found dead in the home they shared with their husbands and Yassim's two sons.

The two boys, ages 3 and 6, discovered the bloody bodies of their mother, aunt and grandmother, after the three men had left the house Tuesday morning.

The family is from Guyana, on the northern coast of South America, and the defendant is not a U.S. citizen, DeFazio said.

After receiving the tip, the mounties called Jersey City police to confirmed that the crime had occurred, then notified Canadian customs officials, who also alerted their U.S. counterparts, DeFazio said.

"Needless to say, we appreciate the cooperation of all the law enforcement involved," he said.

Meanwhile, investigators already suspected that the crime was domestic in nature and had gone to interview relatives of the defendant in a Pennsylvania suburb of Philadelphia, where they found the vehicle Hassan had driven from Jersey City.

Apparently, Hassan then made his way to New York, where he boarded the bus at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, DeFazio said.

"So we knew that he wasn't in the car, and we at that point were under the assumption that he was taking public transportation. And the anonymous caller told us he was headed for Toronto," DeFazio said.

17 posted on 07/31/2002 3:03:29 PM PDT by hellinahandcart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson