...Before joining the FDNY, he worked as a deputy sheriff in the auto-theft unit of the city Sheriff's Office in Manhattan... The couple's marriage was rocky. They had been separated and the police commissioner said there was one reported domestic incident in the home, resulting in a harassment claim against the husband...
Fire marshal murdered
by Staten Island Advance
Tuesday December 04, 2007
He was a city fire marshal, a rising star in the FDNY... But three bullets to the head shattered a seemingly picture-perfect life, and now detectives are investigating who killed Douglas J. Mercereau in his Oakwood home on Sunday morning. Cops found Mercereau, 38, dead in his bed... Janet Redmond-Mercereau, called 911 and told authorities she'd discovered the body... His family, who gathered last night in his older brother Tom's house, a few blocks from the crime scene, refused to talk about the circumstances of the shooting. "He was a fabulous kid," said his oldest sister, Betsy Gallo... Before joining the FDNY, he worked as a deputy sheriff in the auto-theft unit of the city Sheriff's Office in Manhattan...(Full story here)
City Fire Marshal Found Shot To Death Inside Home WCBSTV, NEW YORK (CBS)
John Slattery
Dec 4, 2007
...He had worked as a supervising fire marshal in Brooklyn, and was a 12-year veteran of the FDNY... "Officers responding found Mr. Mercereau with a sheet over his head and shot three times in the head," said Commissioner Ray Kelly. About ten feet away from the bed, police found a 9mm handgun, the victim's own gun, issued to him by the fire department. Yet it wasn't found in plain sight. A police source said it was found lodged between the dresser and the wall. Two daughters, 5, 6, were home, but did not witness the shooting... Janet Mercereau, a schoolteacher, was questioned by police, and retained a lawyer. The couple's marriage was rocky. They had been separated and the police commissioner said there was one reported domestic incident in the home, resulting in a harassment claim against the husband...
(Full story here)
DOUGLAS MERCEREAU, 38
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
By JOHN ANNESE
December 05, 2007
...Before joining the FDNY in October 1995, Mr. Mercereau worked as a deputy sheriff in the auto-theft unit of the city sheriff's office in Manhattan... Mr. Mercereau was an active part of the recovery efforts at Ground Zero. He was stationed at Engine Co. 54 in Manhattan for one year and had worked with several members of the FDNY who had died in the Sept. 11... After his appointment as a marshal, he became certified as a firearms instructor and range master for the Fire Marshals, and received special training at the FBI's firearms instructor school... In addition to his brother, Thomas, surviving are his wife of 12 years, Janet Redmond-Mercereau; his two daughters, Melanie and Renee; three more brothers, James D., Brian and Thomas, and two sisters, Betsy Gallo and Cindy Thompson...
(Full story here)
Telltale Blood In FDNY Slay
New York Post
By Murray Weiss, Larry Celona and Andy Geller
December 6, 2007
When cops arrived at the Staten Island home of a slain fire marshal, they saw blood on his wife's fingernails and found her freshly dried clothes in the dryer... When the cops asked Janet Redmond-Mercereau, 38, how the blood got there, she said it came from her menstrual period and not from contact with her dead husband... One neighbor said Redmond-Mercereau said "vicious things about her husband. She said really mean things about him... She couldn't be happy with what she had." The neighbor refused to elaborate but said the comments were so mean she cut off contact with Redmond-Mercereau... Police have twice questioned Redmond-Mercereau, who called 911 to report her husband's death at 8:20 a.m., more than two hours after Mercereau's approximate time of death, according to the medical examiner... Police subsequently determined that Redmond-Mercereau, a high-school teacher, had showered twice and washed her clothes... Crime-scene investigators are combing through the house, dismantling drains and pipes in an effort to find blood and brain matter, the sources said...(Full story here)
Slay 'Reshoot' Si Gun Firing To Test Alibi Of Marshal's Wife
New York Post
By Murray Weiss, Lorena Mongelli And Andy Geller
December 7, 2007
Detectives plan to re-enact the fatal shooting of a Staten Island fire marshal today to check out his wife's alibi that she slept through it, law-enforcement sources said yesterday... Neighbors have told cops they thought they heard shots at 6:20 a.m. The fatal bullets were fired from Mercereau's service revolver... News of the re-enactment came as the sources revealed that Redmond-Mercereau, 38, is no stranger to violence - her sister was the victim of an attempted murder-suicide. In February 1991, Mary Anne Redmond was shot in the head and back by her fiancé, Michael Morrisey, an NYPD cop who then blew his brains out... Redmond, 41, was critically wounded, but survived...
(Full story here)
'Suspect' Respects Wife At SI Fire Marshal's FuneralNew York Post
By LORENA MONGELLI and SAMUEL GOLDSMITH
December 8, 2007
Slain Staten Island fire marshal Douglas Mercereau's full-figured wife - who some believe was driven to murder by humiliating fat jokes he made at her expense - was the elephant in the room at his funeral yesterday as detectives spent the day trying to build a case against her. Mercereau's funeral at St. Charles Church in Oakwood drew more than 200 firefighters, friends and relatives... Meanwhile, detectives yesterday scrutinized the financial records of Janet Redmond-Mercereau, the sole suspect in the execution-style shooting in their Oakwood home Sunday, on the suspicion that she could have paid someone to help kill her husband...
(Full story here)
Bravest's widow is prime suspect
New York Daily News
BY JOE GOULD and JONATHAN LEMIRE
Saturday, December 8th 2007
Slain Fire Marshal Douglas Mercereau was laid to rest in an emotional funeral Friday, but the FDNY wouldn't give his helmet to his stone-faced wife - the prime suspect in his murder... tension and suspicion filled St. Charles Church on Staten Island. Janet Mercereau, whose stoic demeanor broke only when she tossed a rose on her husband's casket, was ostracized by many of her husband's friends and relatives. That prompted the Fire Department Ceremonial Unit to bypass the traditional presentation of his FDNY helmet... "It was uncomfortable," said family friend Claire Hogan, who noted that the fire marshal's relatives kept their distance from Janet Mercereau inside the church. "I didn't take notice of [Janet Mercereau] too much," said friend Donna Long. "I have no feelings for her right now." Janet Mercereau, who has not been charged in the slaying, told investigators she had taken painkillers and was in a deep sleep in the next room when her husband was shot at 6:30 a.m...
(Full story here)
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COPS PROBE FIRED MAN IN MARSHAL SLAY
ReplyDeleteNew York Post, NY
By JAMIE SCHRAM and ANDY GELLER
December 11, 2007 -- Cops are eyeing a fired construction supervisor in the murder of a Staten Island fire marshal, the lawyer for the victim's wife said yesterday.
About a week before his death, Fire Marshal Douglas Mercereau axed the supervisor of day laborers doing renovation on the second floor of the couple's home in Oakwood, lawyer Mario Gallucci told The Post.
"I understand the guy who was replaced was very disgruntled about it," the lawyer said. He said the worker could had gotten into the home via a ladder left by the current crew.
The NYPD had no comment.
Gallucci is the lawyer for Janet Redmond-Mercereau, whom authorities have said is the leading suspect in the Dec. 2 killing of her husband. Douglas Mercereau was shot in the head three times at about 6:20 a.m. with his service revolver as he slept. His wife has said she was sleeping in another room and didn't hear the shots.
Authorities said Redmond-Mercereau was angry at her husband because he made remarks about her weight.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12112007/news/regionalnews/cops_probe_fired_man_in_marshal_slay_14379.htm
A deadly riddle in vicious murder of Staten Island fire marshal
ReplyDeleteby Staten Island Advance
Wednesday December 12, 2007, 11:35 PM
[Excerpts] ...An initial examination of Mercereau's death inside his Oakwood home on Dec. 2 suggested suicide... An autopsy quickly dispelled that assumption. The city medical examiner concluded that three shots from that 9 mm handgun had been fired into Mercereau's head at close range while he slept in his bed, and placed the time of death at about 6 a.m., or two and a half hours before his wife, Janet Redmond-Mercereau, called 911... A day laborer who showed up that morning to carry out renovations to the home allegedly told detectives that Mrs. Redmond-Mercereau dismissed him before she made the 911 call... But while the 38-year-old widow is the sole suspect in her husband's killing, she has yet to be charged, and sources said the case won't be presented to a grand jury until after the new year, at the earliest. A similar case on Long Island -- in which an NYPD officer [Alexis Chaparro] is also the sole suspect in the Sept. 29 killing of his fiancee [NYPD Officer Sonia Garcia] -- has just recently gone to a grand jury after an investigation of more than two months. An arrest has yet to be made in that case... As with most cases, the Mercereau killing hinges on circumstantial evidence rather than direct evidence or eyewitness testimony. Investigators will have to make their case by disproving every other theory and eliminating every other suspect but Mrs. Redmond-Mercereau, sources said. With a combination of DNA tests, crime-scene analysis (like the sound test of the bullets fired during a re-enactment at the Tarring Street home this past weekend), legal documents and testimony from key witnesses, they hope to provide strong evidence of motive and opportunity... Most killers are sloppy and leave a mountain of evidence at the scene. However, most also know their victims, which explains why some evidence -- like skin cells, blood or hair found at the scene -- can be inconclusive. That's one of the reasons why only about half of all homicides yield convictions...
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2007/12/a_deadly_riddle_in_vicious_mur.html
Wife gave kids ear plugs before Bravest husband slay? Detectives think so
New York Daily News
By BOB KAPPSTATTER and JONATHAN LEMIRE
Friday, December 21st 2007
[Excerpts] Investigators believe the wife of a slain FDNY fire marshal gave her daughters earplugs so they would sleep while she allegedly pumped three bullets into her husband, sources said Thursday. Detectives found two earplugs in the bedroom that Janet Mercereau - the prime suspect in the murder - shared with her children the morning her husband Douglas Mercereau was killed, law enforcement sources said. "The belief is that she gave the kids the earplugs so they wouldn't hear the gunshots," a law enforcement source told the Daily News. "She didn't want them waking up while she was pulling the trigger." If prosecutors prove Janet Mercereau gave her children the earplugs, it could suggest the murder was premeditated... Detectives believe she used the two hours between the shooting and the 911 call to clean up the scene, put a blanket over her husband's head and place the murder weapon - the marshal's service revolver - back on a shelf. She also sent away a day laborer who showed up at the Oakwood house to work before she called 911... "If she was asleep like she says, how could she be telling this guy there wouldn't be work that day?" the source said... Janet Mercereau filed for divorce last year only to stop the proceedings months later, officials said. She told detectives her husband was abusive and that she took out an order of protection against him last year.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2007/12/21/2007-12-21_wife_gave_kids_ear_plugs_before_bravest_-2.html
PLEASE GO EASY ON JANET. NO ONE REALLY KNOWS THE DYNAMICS OF A TYPICAL FAMILY, UNLESS YOU'RE LIVING WITH THEM 24/7.
ReplyDeleteGo easy? No matter how bad things are, you don't murder the father of your children.
ReplyDeleteyou get divorced. my prayers are with the children.