Skidmore grad suspected in murder-suicide once an assistant DA

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

A district attorney’s office says the Skidmore College graduate who apparently killed his wife and children in a New York suburb was once a criminal prosecutor.

Bob Clifford, a spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, says Sam Friedlander worked as an assistant district attorney from 1992-94.

State police said Wednesday that the 50-year-old Friedlander beat his wife to death, killed his children in their beds with a shotgun and then killed himself in their Cross River home.

Autopsy results released Thursday support that account. Police say medical examiners found gunshots to be the cause of death for Friedlander and his children, 10-year-old Molly and 8-year-old Gregory. They say 46-year-old Amy Friedlander died from bludgeoning.

Police say they are trying to determine how and where Sam Friedlander obtained the shotgun.