That's not consistent with at least one news account:
Meanwhile, a county medical examiner performed an autopsy on Lehmann, who was married and the father of five children. Results revealed that Lehmann was shot once in the leg and three times in the head, the prosecutor said. A county medical examiner is expected to conduct an autopsy on Chalem today.
Kaye said that it appeared that Chalem was sitting in a chair when struck with the first of numerous shots. One of the shots was a contact wound to his left temple, Kaye said.
Detectives, who dusted the entire residence for fingerprints, found bullets and casings in various areas of the house, which was sparsely furnished, Kaye said.
The bodies were discovered by two friends of Chalem's who arrived at 1 a.m. A source identified one of the men as Allen L. Conkling, Fort Lee. The other was not identified. Kaye said the friends got together frequently and it was not unusual for one of them to spend the night at the Bluebell Road home.
The two visitors, who spent Monday working at a North Jersey tanning salon one of them owns, had been in touch with Chalem many times during the day, Kaye said.
Their last conversation with him was at 8:30 p.m., the prosecutor said. After that, Chalem no longer answered their calls, so the men decided to drive to Colts Neck.
They found the bodies, called 911, and departed, frightened the killer or killers might still be there. They waited for police in their car at the end of the street.
Chalem had told his friends that he planned to drive to Tennessee Tuesday to meet a friend who was chartering a plane to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., so he could vacation with Scarola at the couple's condominium, the prosecutor said.
Scarola, who was in Florida when Chalem was shot, had left Colts Neck on Friday, Kaye said. Her son was staying with his father in Staten Island, N.Y., Kaye said.
Message 11788371
From the above bolded material, here is what I deduce:
-- Bullet casings around the house means the men probably realized their lives were at risk and tried to run away. Lehmann was probably shot first in the leg as he tried to run away. Chalem was told to sit down and not move after that.
-- Something important must have been going down for Conklin to have been in contact with Chalem throughout the day and to have gotten worried once contact was cut off.
-- The fact that Conklin worked in his tanning salon all day, told authorities he went to check on his friend, and came with a co-worker probably means they were not planning to stay the night nor travel with Chalem
-- The *two* men arrived at 1am, so since they were together they probably came from work in Fort Lee.
-- Working backwards from their arrival time of 1am (based on 48 mi highway and 7 mi local, and sparse late night traffic), I estimate it would take the men 1.25 hours, meaning they would have left at 11:45pm. It does seem plausible to me that they didn't get alarmed until after 11pm figuring maybe he went out.
-- The were genuinely scared which is why they met police down the street.
-- Since Kimberly Scarola left on the prior Friday for Florida, I doubt she was involved in the murder planning or else she'd have stayed around until just before the fateful day to lessen the chance of a surprise.
It was also reported that the police were duplicating the computer hard drive. This implies that computers were not smashed. There were papers everywhere, the police didn't get the impression it was a robbery, there was no arson, and the two men were not found in the office, so I doubt the thieves were looking for hard copies of information. It seems likely they were there for only one reason: to commit murder. Either they were hired to do the job or they were so severely pissed off they just wanted revenge. I'm leaning toward the former. I'm also guessing the killers didn't think their names were on any paperwork so this may slow the investigation down quite a bit.
Just guesses, of course.
- Jeff |
