Amy, Molly & Gregory Friedlander Massacre in Cross River

The house was on the market for $800,000. The owners, a criminal defense attorney and his wife a private tutor.

The couple was scheduled for a meeting on their pending divorce. When Amy did not show up for work it caused enough of a red flag to contact law enforcement and request a wellness check at the home.

A gruesome discovery, Amy Friedander, beaten and murdered with the leg from a piece of furniture. The children Molly, 10 and Gregory, 8 years old, each in their pajamas, found shot to death with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Samuel Friedlander wiped out his entire family before turning the gun on himself.

I read comments on some of the news sites that defended Samuel from he was a "loving father" to how "Amy was turning the children against their father." My favorite, "he was a great and loving man and that wasn't him inside who shot them, he snapped."

Whether you personally know the parties involved in cases of intimate partner homicides, make no mistake, the individual pulling the trigger knows exactly what they are doing. It boils up inside over time and escalates when the individual is unable to control their environment. They do not want the relationship to end, nor their family to be split apart. To think of anyone we knew personally as a killer won't compute in our minds, those are the "other" people we read about.

This is the other people. This violence and family murder is happening to respected and successful individuals with whom we attended law school, or those who have great careers and seemingly perfect lives, their abuse and violence is not dictated by their bank accounts or street address. And, in the majority of upscale homes, the only difference is police are rarely called to the home during a dispute or threat against lives for fear of embarrassment.

Intimate partner violence is a crime affecting every socio economic class. Samuel Friedlander joins the murdering family club. Membership is anger, abuse, power, control and ultimately, murder. If he was so distraught, why didn't he just take his own life? Why did he have to murder Amy?

Why, in God's name. did he shoot his own children?

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Susan Murphy Milano is a staff member of the Institute for Relational Harm Reduction and Public Pathology Education. She is a specialist with intimate partner violence prevention strategies and high risk cases and available for personal consultations through the Institute. She is also part of the team at Management Resources Limited of New York.

Susan is the author of "Time's Up: A Guide on How to Leave and Survive Abusive and Stalking Relationships,"Moving out, Moving on, and Defending Out Lives. Susan is the host of The Susan Murphy Milano Show, "Time's Up!" . She is a regular contributor to the nationally syndicated "The Roth Show" with Dr Laurie Roth and a co-host on Crime Wire.

If you would like to schedule Susan Murphy Milano for training and interviews, please contact:ImaginePublicity PO BOX 14946 Surfside Beach, SC 29587 Phone: 843.808.0859 email- contact@imaginepublicity.com