July 3, 2025 • 19 mins
Season 22 : Family Annihilators Part 2
When the entire Parente family was found dead in a hotel room, investigators quickly learned that murder was not the only crime they were looking into.
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When the entire Parente family was found dead in a hotel room, investigators quickly learned that murder was not the only crime they were looking into.
Our Regular Merch Hosted by FourthWall! : https://thisismonsters.com/
GTFOH Doormats : https://this-is-monsters.printify.me/
Socials:
LinkTree : https://linktr.ee/thisismonsters
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thisis_monsters/
Threads : https://www.threads.net/@thisis_monsters
My other shows:
This is Monsters YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@thisisMONSTERS
Vlog : https://www.youtube.com/@jileswithaj
Somewhere Sinister Podcast :
Somewhere Sinister YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@SomewhereSinister
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Baltimore County nine one one hit, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm calling from the Sheraton, Baltimore night yet sair.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Yeah, a dead body in one of our us. Okay,
I can help you. Let me take some information so
we can go ahead and get the help out there.
What's the address?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The address is nine zero three.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
The Lady Valley Roads, the Sheridan Hotel. Correct, that's correct, Okay,
nine or three the Lady Valley Road off of Fairmunt
Avenue's what room number ten twenty nine ers in your name, sir?
My name is Roger and your work here sairy name? Okay,
and what do you know if it's the male or female?
Hit the mail and but they're definitely beyond help. Yeah,
(00:39):
any idea of how this might have happened? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I'm not going further into the room than what I
just saw on the floor on the entrance.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay. I would have let you know that we have
ever since the call for police, fire and the ambulance
to be on the way up there. If you do
find any more information and we're not out, just give
us a call back in if you don't want to
go in the room, definitely don't you'll have to be
They'll be there soon, the big hand to help you
all right.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
On April twentieth, two thousand and nine, a family of
four was staying in Room ten twenty nine at the
Sheridan Hotel and Tows in Maryland. Stephanie Parente was a
student at nearby Loyola University, and her parents and younger
sister took an unexpected trip to visit her. When the
young woman didn't show up to a very important exam
(01:24):
that morning, friends and faculty were concerned enough to contact
the police, who then called the hotel and asked them
to do a welfare check on the family. When the
manager made entry into the room, he would be horrified
to find an entire family annihilated right there in his hotel.
This is monsters. William Parente was born on July twentieth,
(02:12):
nineteen forty nine, in Brooklyn, New York. He was the
only child to William, who went by Willie and Rosslyn Parente.
Willie was a New York State Police trooper, so law
and order was an important aspect of their home. Unsurprisingly,
William ended up attending Brooklyn Law School and after graduating,
(02:32):
started working for a big wall Street law firm. William
met Betty Mazzarella at a local bar, and the couple
married in nineteen seventy seven. Since the couple were planning
to start a family, he left the Wall Street firm
and went on to start his own firm, specializing in
real estate and tax law. When Betty became pregnant with
(02:53):
their first child, it hadn't come easy. They had undergone
several rounds of fertility treatments before she finally became pregnant.
They moved to Garden City, a suburban area on Long Island.
William started acting as a financial advisor for a number
of clients. He started offering something called a bridge loan
(03:15):
to developers who were unable to get a traditional loan
from a bank. Those were off in high risk loans
that a developer generally working to build malls at the time,
needed before the permitting processes were complete. William explained to
his investment clients that the loans consistently paid returns of
twelve percent. He said that the developers always paid the
(03:38):
loan back with interest once their bank financing had come through,
which usually happened pretty quickly. He also told his clients
that the developer had to provide collateral in the amount
of one hundred and fifty percent of the loan, so
the investment was basically risk free. While that was going on,
Betty spent her time taking care of the children. They
(04:00):
had two daughters by then, Stephanie and Catherine. Since Betty
had had such difficulty getting pregnant the first time, her
second pregnancy eight years later came as a bit of
a shock. As the children grew older, Betty spent more
time fundraising for local charities. By two thousand and nine,
Stephanie was attending Loiola University near Baltimore, Maryland, which was
(04:24):
about three and a half hours away from Garden City.
She was studying speech pathology, and she was well liked
by her professors and classmates. All of that added to
the image of the parentes being a good and wholesome family.
William was known to be very square, so much so
that people pointed out that he didn't even swear. The
(04:46):
large gap between the two sisters' ages mean Catherine was
only eleven years old and still in middle school. By
the late two thousands, William was managing millions of dollars
of his client's money, and he was now provided them
with statements that showed a consistent twelve percent return on
their investments. Now, a good and honest financial advisor will
(05:09):
usually tell you that an investment that seems too good
to be true is a no risk investment that always
pays a decent return doesn't exist, so if someone presents
you with one and asks you to invest, it's a scam.
Bruce Montague was an attorney based out of Queen's and
he had given many people that very advice. But when
(05:31):
William suggested he invest in his Bridge loan program, he
said yes, despite being told it was a no risk investment.
Despite not having taken his own advice in the beginning,
it didn't take him long to become suspicious of the investment.
As a test, he asked William for some of the
profits from his investment money, but to his surprise, William
(05:52):
handed it over. That could have been a sign that
everything was on the up and up, but it could
also mean the investment was actually a Ponzi scheme. Charles
Ponzi was a nineteen twenties con artist who had convinced
people to participate in an investment where he claimed he
was purchasing discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and
(06:13):
then redeeming them for face value in the US. He
promised investors a fifty percent profit within forty five days
or a one hundred percent profit within ninety days. What
he was really doing was paying the earlier investors with
the buy in money from the later investors. Of course,
if everyone wanted their profits after the agreed upon time period,
(06:36):
the scheme would have burned out quickly, but most people
agreed to reinvest their profits, so as Charles took in
millions of dollars, he basically just kept it for himself.
He used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle, never
making any effort to actually bring in any profits for
any investments. Once the scheme was revealed, Charles Ponzi had
(06:58):
stolen about twenty million dollars of investor money, which would
be over three hundred million dollars today. He wasn't the
first person to implement that type of scam, but his
was the most well known, and the swindle became known
as a Ponzi scheme. Bruce Montague's suspicions continued even after
receiving a payout from William Then in December of two
(07:20):
thousand and eight, Bernie Madeoff was arrested for operating what
would become one of the largest ponzi schemes in history.
Investors lost billions of dollars, and the news gave Bruce
the kick he needed to finally ask for his funds.
That might have been something William could have handled had
it just been Bruce, but the made Off story made
the other investors worry, and with the economy not doing
(07:43):
so well, they also wanted their money from William to
turn their virtual funds liquid. He paid a few people,
but stalled many others. He wrote checks and told people
to wait to cash them. Bruce received two checks from
William worth four hundred thousand dollars each, but he was
told not to cash them until after tax day. A
(08:05):
few days later, a client named Dorothy Shimmel arrived at
William's office to have her taxes filed, and she noticed
that the lawyer did not look well. He was disheveled
and seemed nervous. Dorothy had known William since he was
a child, as she had been friends with his mother,
so he confided in her. He told her that he
had lost millions of dollars of his client's money and
(08:26):
that someone had threatened his life. Dorothy would later tell
the police that William said he had become involved with
the wrong kind of people, whatever that meant. Stephanie had
been home for the Easter break from school, so it
was a surprise to many when her family decided at
the last minute to drive to Loyola to visit her
two days after she had returned. It seemed as though
(08:50):
Stephanie was also surprised by the sudden trip, as she
had an important chemistry exam coming up that she was
trying to study for. Though annoyed by the distraction of
having her family visit, Stephanie spent time with them after
her classes before she went home to study. Then she
planned to spend a few hours with them on Saturday,
(09:10):
April eighteenth, go to watch a lacrosse game and do
more studying before the exam that was scheduled for the
following Monday. Sunday morning, a surveillance video showed the whole
family arriving at a local restaurant where they ate breakfast.
Stephanie returned to her apartment to study, but she left
in the afternoon and went to the hotel where her
(09:31):
family was staying. One of Stephanie's roommates knew that she
was stressed about the exam, and she called her a
little while later, but got no answer on her cell.
That evening, the roommate called the hotel to see if
the parentes had checked out, but without warning, the receptionists
connected the call to their room. William answered the phone
(09:52):
and sounded like he had been asleep. When she asked
about her roommate, William responded, quote, Stephanie is with her
family staying here. Good night. The next day, when Stephanie
didn't show up for her exam, student services notified the police.
The police called the hotel and asked them to do
a welfare check on the parente family. That's when the
(10:14):
bodies of all four family members were found. The maid
was sent to the room and when she knocked, there
was no answer, so she tried to open the door,
but the dead bolt on the inside was locked. The
manager finally got the door open and as soon as
he stepped inside, he saw William laying just inside the bathroom.
(10:34):
He was face up, his eyes were open, and he
was clearly deceased. That's when he backed out of the
room and called nine one one. When detectives arrived, they
entered the room and found the other three members of
the Parente family lying on the bed covered with a blanket.
All three were dead. There was a broken lamp and
(10:55):
blood spatter on the wall and the headboard of the bed.
There was more blood in the bathroom. William had died
from multiple lacerations to his wrists and neck. Betty, Stephanie,
and Catherine were all beaten and strangled to death. Investigators
believed that Betty was killed first, sometime on Sunday the nineteenth.
(11:18):
She was struck with a lamp so hard that decorative
embossing on the lamp left an in print on her skull.
William then strangled her to death. Catherine might have been
out of the room or in the bathroom while Betty
was attacked. It's unknown, but next William suffocated Catherine and
placed her body on the bed next to her mother.
(11:39):
When Stephanie arrived that afternoon, Based on injuries on her body,
it looks like she fought hard against her father. He
beat and strangled her to death, just like he had
with Betty, and put her on the bed, covering them
all with a blanket. Stephanie's roommate called that evening, not
knowing that her friend was already dead. Based on the autopsy,
(12:00):
it's believed that William took his own life early the
following morning. After killing his family, he walked to the
local mall and purchased a set of kitchen knives from
a Creighton barrel store. Then he returned and used the
knives to cut his wrists and neck in the bathroom.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
We do have some developments from overnight, and literally they
really just came this morning. It is with some sadness, though,
that we report that a whole family is dead. They
were from the Garden City area of New York. They
are identified as William Parente. He was a fifty nine
year old, his wife, Betty Parente, a fifty eight year old.
(12:41):
His daughter, Stephanie was a student at Loyola a nineteen
year old, and also Catherine, a eleven year old daughter
that they had brought down. I can't go into a
lot of details, remember we're still in a lot of
the initial stages of this investigation. But I do want
to let you know that that this direction of this
(13:01):
investigation is that of emerged suicide. At this point. We
don't have a motive for why that occurred. It's all
very very unfortunate. Arcadoleances do go out to the family
and friends of this family. Again, they are at the
Medical Examiner's office today. They are scheduled for autopsies this
morning that is being conducted. We are not going to
(13:23):
release at this point the cause or manner of death
on any of these people at this point until we
have a confirmation from the Medical Examiner's office of the
nature of their injuries and their cause of death. We
know that they were together Sunday morning for breakfast. We
know some other things later in the day that progressed
as far as what time was the last time that
(13:45):
their car key was used for that particular room.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
During the investigation, it was revealed that another couple staying
in the hotel reported hearing a woman's scream and then
gurgling sounds like someone was being being strangled. Hotel management
said they investigated the report but couldn't determine which room
the sound had come from. While the parentes had been
in Tosin, William's investors were gradually learning that they had
(14:13):
been swindled. One by one, they would try to cash
checks he had written, and they would all bounce when
they learned that William was dead. That was the end
of the line for most of them. They didn't have
the knowledge of resources to do much, but Bruce Montague did.
He was a lawyer, and he and his partner contacted
the state's attorney in the FBI. Once news of the
(14:36):
financial fraud broke, investors of Williams begin submitting affidavits about
their dealings with the financial adviser. An investigation revealed that
there was not a single developer who had ever received
a bridge loan from William. He had not made any
investments with any of the money, and all of his
investors' money was commingled with his own personal accounts. William
(15:00):
had about thirty different businesses registered with the state, many
of them being used as fake companies that were getting
loans from William. After the investigation, no co conspirators were
found to have worked with William. His claim to Dorothy
Schimmel that someone had threatened his life or that he
had been involved with the wrong kind of people did
(15:21):
not seem to be true. In the end, thirty six
million dollars in claims were filed against William's estate. He
had a five million dollar life insurance policy which had Betty, Stephanie,
and Catherine as the beneficiaries, and it would pay out
in the event of suicide. Most people don't know that
a life insurance policy can only deny payout in the
(15:44):
result of suicide for the first two years of the policy.
After the two year period, a life insurance policy is
required to pay out for almost everything, the exception as
if a clause is specifically written into the policy from
the beginning that a specific instance is not covered by
the policy. So the five million dollars in life insurance
(16:06):
was withheld from Betty's family, and besides, five hundred thousand
dollars all of that money and the money from the
sale of property went to the victims he defrauded. The
total amount has not been disclosed. It's unfortunate that William
decided that death was preferable to facing up to his wrongdoings.
(16:26):
It's even more unfortunate that he decided that his wife
and daughters should join him. He was described as a
good natured person who loved his family, but in secret,
he stole from his clients and then killed his family
before he could be caught. He wasn't willing to take
responsibility for his crimes, but he believed that his family
shouldn't go on without him. Some people think he wanted
(16:49):
to save them from the disappointment of finding out about
what he had done, but at the end of the day,
it's just an excuse for selfishness. He selfishly stole from
his clients, and he selfishly took his family out of
a world that he wasn't going to be in. On
top of that, Betty, Stephanie and Catherine's murders were overshadowed
by the financial fraud that the killer had carried out.
(17:13):
Instead of mourning the loss of a family, the focus
turned to money making the actions of their monster of
a husband and father, or victimize them one more time.
If you're the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out
to someone for help. Please talk to your local shelter,
call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred
seven nine nine safe that's one eight hundred seven ninety
(17:36):
nine seven two three three, or you can go to
the hotline dot org to chat with someone online. If
you're having feelings of harming yourself or someone else, or
even just need someone to talk to. Please contact your
local mental health facility call nine one one, or call
the National Suicide Prevention Hotline by simply dialing nine eight
eight in the United States, they're available twenty four hours
(17:58):
a day, seven days a week, and we'll talk to
you about any mental health issue you might be facing.
If you're a member of the LGBTQ plus community and
suffering from discrimination, depression, or are in need of any support,
please contact the lgbt National Hotline at one eight eight
eight eight four three four five six four, or go
to LGBT hootline dot org. Thanks so much for letting
(18:20):
me tell you this story. If you're a fan of
true crime, you can subscribe to this show so you
don't miss an episode. My other show, Somewhere Sinister is
no longer getting new episodes, but you can check it
out if you like interesting stories from history that aren't
necessarily true crime, but true crime adjacent. It's available anywhere
that you listen to podcasts. You can also check out
(18:41):
my personal vlog, Giles with a Jay, which is sporadically
updated with stuff about my personal life, travel and music.
It's available on YouTube. If you'd like to support the show,
check out our merchandise at thisismonsters dot com. A link
is in the description. Thanks again and be safe.
Baltimore County nine one one hit, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm calling from the Sheraton, Baltimore night yet sair.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Yeah, a dead body in one of our us. Okay,
I can help you. Let me take some information so
we can go ahead and get the help out there.
What's the address?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The address is nine zero three.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
The Lady Valley Roads, the Sheridan Hotel. Correct, that's correct, Okay,
nine or three the Lady Valley Road off of Fairmunt
Avenue's what room number ten twenty nine ers in your name, sir?
My name is Roger and your work here sairy name? Okay,
and what do you know if it's the male or female?
Hit the mail and but they're definitely beyond help. Yeah,
(00:39):
any idea of how this might have happened? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I'm not going further into the room than what I
just saw on the floor on the entrance.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay. I would have let you know that we have
ever since the call for police, fire and the ambulance
to be on the way up there. If you do
find any more information and we're not out, just give
us a call back in if you don't want to
go in the room, definitely don't you'll have to be
They'll be there soon, the big hand to help you
all right.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
On April twentieth, two thousand and nine, a family of
four was staying in Room ten twenty nine at the
Sheridan Hotel and Tows in Maryland. Stephanie Parente was a
student at nearby Loyola University, and her parents and younger
sister took an unexpected trip to visit her. When the
young woman didn't show up to a very important exam
(01:24):
that morning, friends and faculty were concerned enough to contact
the police, who then called the hotel and asked them
to do a welfare check on the family. When the
manager made entry into the room, he would be horrified
to find an entire family annihilated right there in his hotel.
This is monsters. William Parente was born on July twentieth,
(02:12):
nineteen forty nine, in Brooklyn, New York. He was the
only child to William, who went by Willie and Rosslyn Parente.
Willie was a New York State Police trooper, so law
and order was an important aspect of their home. Unsurprisingly,
William ended up attending Brooklyn Law School and after graduating,
(02:32):
started working for a big wall Street law firm. William
met Betty Mazzarella at a local bar, and the couple
married in nineteen seventy seven. Since the couple were planning
to start a family, he left the Wall Street firm
and went on to start his own firm, specializing in
real estate and tax law. When Betty became pregnant with
(02:53):
their first child, it hadn't come easy. They had undergone
several rounds of fertility treatments before she finally became pregnant.
They moved to Garden City, a suburban area on Long Island.
William started acting as a financial advisor for a number
of clients. He started offering something called a bridge loan
(03:15):
to developers who were unable to get a traditional loan
from a bank. Those were off in high risk loans
that a developer generally working to build malls at the time,
needed before the permitting processes were complete. William explained to
his investment clients that the loans consistently paid returns of
twelve percent. He said that the developers always paid the
(03:38):
loan back with interest once their bank financing had come through,
which usually happened pretty quickly. He also told his clients
that the developer had to provide collateral in the amount
of one hundred and fifty percent of the loan, so
the investment was basically risk free. While that was going on,
Betty spent her time taking care of the children. They
(04:00):
had two daughters by then, Stephanie and Catherine. Since Betty
had had such difficulty getting pregnant the first time, her
second pregnancy eight years later came as a bit of
a shock. As the children grew older, Betty spent more
time fundraising for local charities. By two thousand and nine,
Stephanie was attending Loiola University near Baltimore, Maryland, which was
(04:24):
about three and a half hours away from Garden City.
She was studying speech pathology, and she was well liked
by her professors and classmates. All of that added to
the image of the parentes being a good and wholesome family.
William was known to be very square, so much so
that people pointed out that he didn't even swear. The
(04:46):
large gap between the two sisters' ages mean Catherine was
only eleven years old and still in middle school. By
the late two thousands, William was managing millions of dollars
of his client's money, and he was now provided them
with statements that showed a consistent twelve percent return on
their investments. Now, a good and honest financial advisor will
(05:09):
usually tell you that an investment that seems too good
to be true is a no risk investment that always
pays a decent return doesn't exist, so if someone presents
you with one and asks you to invest, it's a scam.
Bruce Montague was an attorney based out of Queen's and
he had given many people that very advice. But when
(05:31):
William suggested he invest in his Bridge loan program, he
said yes, despite being told it was a no risk investment.
Despite not having taken his own advice in the beginning,
it didn't take him long to become suspicious of the investment.
As a test, he asked William for some of the
profits from his investment money, but to his surprise, William
(05:52):
handed it over. That could have been a sign that
everything was on the up and up, but it could
also mean the investment was actually a Ponzi scheme. Charles
Ponzi was a nineteen twenties con artist who had convinced
people to participate in an investment where he claimed he
was purchasing discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and
(06:13):
then redeeming them for face value in the US. He
promised investors a fifty percent profit within forty five days
or a one hundred percent profit within ninety days. What
he was really doing was paying the earlier investors with
the buy in money from the later investors. Of course,
if everyone wanted their profits after the agreed upon time period,
(06:36):
the scheme would have burned out quickly, but most people
agreed to reinvest their profits, so as Charles took in
millions of dollars, he basically just kept it for himself.
He used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle, never
making any effort to actually bring in any profits for
any investments. Once the scheme was revealed, Charles Ponzi had
(06:58):
stolen about twenty million dollars of investor money, which would
be over three hundred million dollars today. He wasn't the
first person to implement that type of scam, but his
was the most well known, and the swindle became known
as a Ponzi scheme. Bruce Montague's suspicions continued even after
receiving a payout from William Then in December of two
(07:20):
thousand and eight, Bernie Madeoff was arrested for operating what
would become one of the largest ponzi schemes in history.
Investors lost billions of dollars, and the news gave Bruce
the kick he needed to finally ask for his funds.
That might have been something William could have handled had
it just been Bruce, but the made Off story made
the other investors worry, and with the economy not doing
(07:43):
so well, they also wanted their money from William to
turn their virtual funds liquid. He paid a few people,
but stalled many others. He wrote checks and told people
to wait to cash them. Bruce received two checks from
William worth four hundred thousand dollars each, but he was
told not to cash them until after tax day. A
(08:05):
few days later, a client named Dorothy Shimmel arrived at
William's office to have her taxes filed, and she noticed
that the lawyer did not look well. He was disheveled
and seemed nervous. Dorothy had known William since he was
a child, as she had been friends with his mother,
so he confided in her. He told her that he
had lost millions of dollars of his client's money and
(08:26):
that someone had threatened his life. Dorothy would later tell
the police that William said he had become involved with
the wrong kind of people, whatever that meant. Stephanie had
been home for the Easter break from school, so it
was a surprise to many when her family decided at
the last minute to drive to Loyola to visit her
two days after she had returned. It seemed as though
(08:50):
Stephanie was also surprised by the sudden trip, as she
had an important chemistry exam coming up that she was
trying to study for. Though annoyed by the distraction of
having her family visit, Stephanie spent time with them after
her classes before she went home to study. Then she
planned to spend a few hours with them on Saturday,
(09:10):
April eighteenth, go to watch a lacrosse game and do
more studying before the exam that was scheduled for the
following Monday. Sunday morning, a surveillance video showed the whole
family arriving at a local restaurant where they ate breakfast.
Stephanie returned to her apartment to study, but she left
in the afternoon and went to the hotel where her
(09:31):
family was staying. One of Stephanie's roommates knew that she
was stressed about the exam, and she called her a
little while later, but got no answer on her cell.
That evening, the roommate called the hotel to see if
the parentes had checked out, but without warning, the receptionists
connected the call to their room. William answered the phone
(09:52):
and sounded like he had been asleep. When she asked
about her roommate, William responded, quote, Stephanie is with her
family staying here. Good night. The next day, when Stephanie
didn't show up for her exam, student services notified the police.
The police called the hotel and asked them to do
a welfare check on the parente family. That's when the
(10:14):
bodies of all four family members were found. The maid
was sent to the room and when she knocked, there
was no answer, so she tried to open the door,
but the dead bolt on the inside was locked. The
manager finally got the door open and as soon as
he stepped inside, he saw William laying just inside the bathroom.
(10:34):
He was face up, his eyes were open, and he
was clearly deceased. That's when he backed out of the
room and called nine one one. When detectives arrived, they
entered the room and found the other three members of
the Parente family lying on the bed covered with a blanket.
All three were dead. There was a broken lamp and
(10:55):
blood spatter on the wall and the headboard of the bed.
There was more blood in the bathroom. William had died
from multiple lacerations to his wrists and neck. Betty, Stephanie,
and Catherine were all beaten and strangled to death. Investigators
believed that Betty was killed first, sometime on Sunday the nineteenth.
(11:18):
She was struck with a lamp so hard that decorative
embossing on the lamp left an in print on her skull.
William then strangled her to death. Catherine might have been
out of the room or in the bathroom while Betty
was attacked. It's unknown, but next William suffocated Catherine and
placed her body on the bed next to her mother.
(11:39):
When Stephanie arrived that afternoon, Based on injuries on her body,
it looks like she fought hard against her father. He
beat and strangled her to death, just like he had
with Betty, and put her on the bed, covering them
all with a blanket. Stephanie's roommate called that evening, not
knowing that her friend was already dead. Based on the autopsy,
(12:00):
it's believed that William took his own life early the
following morning. After killing his family, he walked to the
local mall and purchased a set of kitchen knives from
a Creighton barrel store. Then he returned and used the
knives to cut his wrists and neck in the bathroom.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
We do have some developments from overnight, and literally they
really just came this morning. It is with some sadness, though,
that we report that a whole family is dead. They
were from the Garden City area of New York. They
are identified as William Parente. He was a fifty nine
year old, his wife, Betty Parente, a fifty eight year old.
(12:41):
His daughter, Stephanie was a student at Loyola a nineteen
year old, and also Catherine, a eleven year old daughter
that they had brought down. I can't go into a
lot of details, remember we're still in a lot of
the initial stages of this investigation. But I do want
to let you know that that this direction of this
(13:01):
investigation is that of emerged suicide. At this point. We
don't have a motive for why that occurred. It's all
very very unfortunate. Arcadoleances do go out to the family
and friends of this family. Again, they are at the
Medical Examiner's office today. They are scheduled for autopsies this
morning that is being conducted. We are not going to
(13:23):
release at this point the cause or manner of death
on any of these people at this point until we
have a confirmation from the Medical Examiner's office of the
nature of their injuries and their cause of death. We
know that they were together Sunday morning for breakfast. We
know some other things later in the day that progressed
as far as what time was the last time that
(13:45):
their car key was used for that particular room.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
During the investigation, it was revealed that another couple staying
in the hotel reported hearing a woman's scream and then
gurgling sounds like someone was being being strangled. Hotel management
said they investigated the report but couldn't determine which room
the sound had come from. While the parentes had been
in Tosin, William's investors were gradually learning that they had
(14:13):
been swindled. One by one, they would try to cash
checks he had written, and they would all bounce when
they learned that William was dead. That was the end
of the line for most of them. They didn't have
the knowledge of resources to do much, but Bruce Montague did.
He was a lawyer, and he and his partner contacted
the state's attorney in the FBI. Once news of the
(14:36):
financial fraud broke, investors of Williams begin submitting affidavits about
their dealings with the financial adviser. An investigation revealed that
there was not a single developer who had ever received
a bridge loan from William. He had not made any
investments with any of the money, and all of his
investors' money was commingled with his own personal accounts. William
(15:00):
had about thirty different businesses registered with the state, many
of them being used as fake companies that were getting
loans from William. After the investigation, no co conspirators were
found to have worked with William. His claim to Dorothy
Schimmel that someone had threatened his life or that he
had been involved with the wrong kind of people did
(15:21):
not seem to be true. In the end, thirty six
million dollars in claims were filed against William's estate. He
had a five million dollar life insurance policy which had Betty, Stephanie,
and Catherine as the beneficiaries, and it would pay out
in the event of suicide. Most people don't know that
a life insurance policy can only deny payout in the
(15:44):
result of suicide for the first two years of the policy.
After the two year period, a life insurance policy is
required to pay out for almost everything, the exception as
if a clause is specifically written into the policy from
the beginning that a specific instance is not covered by
the policy. So the five million dollars in life insurance
(16:06):
was withheld from Betty's family, and besides, five hundred thousand
dollars all of that money and the money from the
sale of property went to the victims he defrauded. The
total amount has not been disclosed. It's unfortunate that William
decided that death was preferable to facing up to his wrongdoings.
(16:26):
It's even more unfortunate that he decided that his wife
and daughters should join him. He was described as a
good natured person who loved his family, but in secret,
he stole from his clients and then killed his family
before he could be caught. He wasn't willing to take
responsibility for his crimes, but he believed that his family
shouldn't go on without him. Some people think he wanted
(16:49):
to save them from the disappointment of finding out about
what he had done, but at the end of the day,
it's just an excuse for selfishness. He selfishly stole from
his clients, and he selfishly took his family out of
a world that he wasn't going to be in. On
top of that, Betty, Stephanie and Catherine's murders were overshadowed
by the financial fraud that the killer had carried out.
(17:13):
Instead of mourning the loss of a family, the focus
turned to money making the actions of their monster of
a husband and father, or victimize them one more time.
If you're the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out
to someone for help. Please talk to your local shelter,
call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred
seven nine nine safe that's one eight hundred seven ninety
(17:36):
nine seven two three three, or you can go to
the hotline dot org to chat with someone online. If
you're having feelings of harming yourself or someone else, or
even just need someone to talk to. Please contact your
local mental health facility call nine one one, or call
the National Suicide Prevention Hotline by simply dialing nine eight
eight in the United States, they're available twenty four hours
(17:58):
a day, seven days a week, and we'll talk to
you about any mental health issue you might be facing.
If you're a member of the LGBTQ plus community and
suffering from discrimination, depression, or are in need of any support,
please contact the lgbt National Hotline at one eight eight
eight eight four three four five six four, or go
to LGBT hootline dot org. Thanks so much for letting
(18:20):
me tell you this story. If you're a fan of
true crime, you can subscribe to this show so you
don't miss an episode. My other show, Somewhere Sinister is
no longer getting new episodes, but you can check it
out if you like interesting stories from history that aren't
necessarily true crime, but true crime adjacent. It's available anywhere
that you listen to podcasts. You can also check out
(18:41):
my personal vlog, Giles with a Jay, which is sporadically
updated with stuff about my personal life, travel and music.
It's available on YouTube. If you'd like to support the show,
check out our merchandise at thisismonsters dot com. A link
is in the description. Thanks again and be safe.
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