Steven Dym, a wealthy Westchester County, NY property manager did the unthinkable on Aug. 27. He shot and killed his wife Loretta, 50, and beautiful 18-year-old daughter Caroline before turning the 12-gauge shotgun on himself. The tragedy went down inside the family’s Pound Ridge home and has left neighbors and friends in the quiet and affluent town in total shock. Here are five things to know about Steven.
1. Steven’s Queens, NY property management company Gabriel Management Corp. had been embroiled in several lawsuits.
In 2014 a property owner took him to court over botched job duties, and the case was settled out of court. In 2010 an elevator company took his corporation to court over failure to pay its invoices, and that case was settled in 2011. Steven’s company was sued in 2016 over allegedly cooking the books to hide $180,000 in tenant payments. He was also sued in 2016 for allegedly taking $21,939.75 from a bank account of a property owner colleague.
2. Steven and his wife has just sold their family home.
The family had put their $1.7 million Pound Ridge, NY home on the market and a neighbor said that the property had sold the day before the murder-suicide. According to a police source, The New York Post reports that Steven had been struggling financially.
3. Steven had been acting strangely in the days before the murder suicide.
A realtor who was dealing with him in the sale of the family home said he was acting “very weird” after being asked where the family was moving and said “not only did he not know where he was going, but he didn’t even know if he was going,” realtor Chris Shaffer, 42, told the Post. You can see pics of the beautiful family, here.
4. Steven’s son Will survived the massacre because he was away at college.
The couple’s 20-year-old son had just returned to Los Angeles to start the school year at the University of Southern California. Loretta and flown out there with Will and returned the night before Steven killed her and their daughter. Will returned to the home on Aug. 29 where his dad, mom and sister died and is being comforted by relatives from both sides of the family.
5. Steven’s neighbors never saw the tragic murder-suicide coming.
“It seemed that they were very happy,” one of Loretta’s close friends, who wished to remain anonymous told the Post. “She never really spoke about [her relationship] much. Her life was her kids. The few times I’ve met Steve Dym, he seemed like a great husband and a great father. They were both all about their kids, their kids’ futures. I would have never guessed in a million years.”
HollywoodLifers, do you think Steven’s alleged financial woes are behind his horrific act?