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2 SISTERS SLAIN BY MOM'S EX-BOYFRIEND; HE KILLS SELF
Investigators search for explanation for Stafford murder-suicide
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 11/10/06
BY ZACH PATBERG
MANAHAWKIN BUREAU
STAFFORD Two sisters one of them pregnant who were looking ahead to bright futures were gunned down and killed in their driveway Thursday morning by their mother's ex-boyfriend, who then turned his .45 semiautomatic handgun on himself, investigators said. The mother was not home at the time of the shooting.
Killed as they had apparently just returned to their home at 107 Mercer Ave. from a nearby Wawa store were Melissa Veitch, 21, who was four months pregnant, and Jessica Veitch, 15.
Police believe that William Cordes Jr., 52, of Tuckerton pulled in behind the victims in a black pickup and shot them as they stepped out of the car. The plumber then went inside the house and shot himself in the head, police said.
The girls' mother, Dorea Veitch, a housekeeper, was driving home from a client's house Thursday afternoon when police intercepted her.
Mayor Carl W. Block said Dorea Veitch had broken off a relationship with Cordes.
ChrissyAnne Warren, 20, of Waretown, who described herself as Melissa's best friend, said she met her while attending night school at Southern Regional High School. Melissa was looking forward to being a mother, Warren said. Other friends
said she worked as a housekeeper and had high hopes for the future.
Jessica had dreams of becoming a model. She was a sophomore at Southern Regional High School where she played the clarinet in the school band.
Warren said she had met Cordes a couple times.
"He was real quiet. He'd sit by the pool and read his newspapers,'' she said. "He had silvery gray hair. He looked like someone important.''
Many heard the shots
Shots had rung out at 11:25 a.m. in the Deer Lake Park neighborhood.
"I had come from Home Depot and was sitting in my yard when I heard two shots pow! pow!,'' recounted Thomas Niemiec, 61, an Oxycocus Road resident who lives a few houses east of Mercer Avenue. "I knew it was gunshots. I was in the service, and I know the difference between gunshots and firecrackers.''
Authorities said 911 calls came pouring in with reports of gunshots and screaming. Minutes later, emergency crews and officers from several police departments arrived at the green ranch house on Mercer Avenue and blocked off the street.
The sisters were lying on either side of a green sedan parked in the driveway, a single gunshot wound to each of their torsos. The passenger door was open with a bullet hole through the window. Items from the car littered the driveway.
Dina Deluca, a next-door neighbor, heard gunfire and then saw one of the sisters lying in the front yard.
"All I heard was gunshots and screaming,'' recalled Deluca, who said one of the sisters used to baby-sit her 4-year-old son.
Unconscious at the scene, the sisters were taken to Southern Ocean County Hospital in Stafford and pronounced dead about 12:30 p.m.
Cordes was found by police sprawled on the living room couch, the .45 pistol in his hand, said Capt. Mike Mohel of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Major Crime Unit. Cordes was also taken to SOCH and declared dead at 3:15 p.m.
He ran plumbing business
A woman who answered the telephone for Cordes' business, Bill Cordes Plumbing, said they had no comment about the killings. The address of the business, which has existed since 1981, is listed at the Veitch family home.
Warren, Melissa Veitch's friend, said she was unaware of problems in the relationship between Cordes and Dorea Veitch. While Cordes was reserved and distant, the Veitch sisters were the opposite, Warren said.
"(Melissa) was the best person. She'd give her heart to anybody. We became friends because we both were going through problems, and we'd talk to each other,'' said Warren.
Also living at the Veitch home is an older brother, John Hammel, 27, who was not present at the time of the shootings. The sisters' father is deceased.
Authorities said they did not yet have a motive for the slayings. Autopsies on all three of the dead were to be conducted today.
Staff writers Hartriono B. Sastrowardoyo and John Vandiver and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061110/NEWS/611100372
Investigators search for explanation for Stafford murder-suicide
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 11/10/06
BY ZACH PATBERG
MANAHAWKIN BUREAU
STAFFORD Two sisters one of them pregnant who were looking ahead to bright futures were gunned down and killed in their driveway Thursday morning by their mother's ex-boyfriend, who then turned his .45 semiautomatic handgun on himself, investigators said. The mother was not home at the time of the shooting.
Killed as they had apparently just returned to their home at 107 Mercer Ave. from a nearby Wawa store were Melissa Veitch, 21, who was four months pregnant, and Jessica Veitch, 15.
Police believe that William Cordes Jr., 52, of Tuckerton pulled in behind the victims in a black pickup and shot them as they stepped out of the car. The plumber then went inside the house and shot himself in the head, police said.
The girls' mother, Dorea Veitch, a housekeeper, was driving home from a client's house Thursday afternoon when police intercepted her.
Mayor Carl W. Block said Dorea Veitch had broken off a relationship with Cordes.
ChrissyAnne Warren, 20, of Waretown, who described herself as Melissa's best friend, said she met her while attending night school at Southern Regional High School. Melissa was looking forward to being a mother, Warren said. Other friends
said she worked as a housekeeper and had high hopes for the future.
Jessica had dreams of becoming a model. She was a sophomore at Southern Regional High School where she played the clarinet in the school band.
Warren said she had met Cordes a couple times.
"He was real quiet. He'd sit by the pool and read his newspapers,'' she said. "He had silvery gray hair. He looked like someone important.''
Many heard the shots
Shots had rung out at 11:25 a.m. in the Deer Lake Park neighborhood.
"I had come from Home Depot and was sitting in my yard when I heard two shots pow! pow!,'' recounted Thomas Niemiec, 61, an Oxycocus Road resident who lives a few houses east of Mercer Avenue. "I knew it was gunshots. I was in the service, and I know the difference between gunshots and firecrackers.''
Authorities said 911 calls came pouring in with reports of gunshots and screaming. Minutes later, emergency crews and officers from several police departments arrived at the green ranch house on Mercer Avenue and blocked off the street.
The sisters were lying on either side of a green sedan parked in the driveway, a single gunshot wound to each of their torsos. The passenger door was open with a bullet hole through the window. Items from the car littered the driveway.
Dina Deluca, a next-door neighbor, heard gunfire and then saw one of the sisters lying in the front yard.
"All I heard was gunshots and screaming,'' recalled Deluca, who said one of the sisters used to baby-sit her 4-year-old son.
Unconscious at the scene, the sisters were taken to Southern Ocean County Hospital in Stafford and pronounced dead about 12:30 p.m.
Cordes was found by police sprawled on the living room couch, the .45 pistol in his hand, said Capt. Mike Mohel of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Major Crime Unit. Cordes was also taken to SOCH and declared dead at 3:15 p.m.
He ran plumbing business
A woman who answered the telephone for Cordes' business, Bill Cordes Plumbing, said they had no comment about the killings. The address of the business, which has existed since 1981, is listed at the Veitch family home.
Warren, Melissa Veitch's friend, said she was unaware of problems in the relationship between Cordes and Dorea Veitch. While Cordes was reserved and distant, the Veitch sisters were the opposite, Warren said.
"(Melissa) was the best person. She'd give her heart to anybody. We became friends because we both were going through problems, and we'd talk to each other,'' said Warren.
Also living at the Veitch home is an older brother, John Hammel, 27, who was not present at the time of the shootings. The sisters' father is deceased.
Authorities said they did not yet have a motive for the slayings. Autopsies on all three of the dead were to be conducted today.
Staff writers Hartriono B. Sastrowardoyo and John Vandiver and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061110/NEWS/611100372
