Parents

Published by The New York Times, January 15, 2005

Parents and 2 Daughters Found Slain at Home in Jersey City

By JOHN HOLL

JERSEY CITY, Jan. 14 - It had been more than two days since the Armanious family of Oakland Avenue had been seen or heard from. So early on Friday, Jersey City police officers, acting on a request from relatives, broke down the door to their house and made a gruesome discovery: someone had slit the throats of the couple and their two children, leaving the bodies bound and gagged throughout the two-story house.

The Hudson County prosecutor's office identified those killed as Hossam Armanious, 46; his wife, Amal Garas, 36; and their daughters, Sylvia, 16, and Monica, 8.

An officer said that investigators were looking into the possibility that there had been a dispute between the family and a former tenant. The authorities said that there was no sign of a forced entry and that it was likely that the Armanious family knew their killer or killers.

Prosecutors refused to comment on a motive or possible suspects, saying the investigation was continuing.

"We have four people that are dead, and whoever did this is subject to very severe punishment. And we hope they are captured and believe they will be," Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy said.

Ms. Garas's brother, Ayman Garas, said he contacted the Jersey City Police Department early Friday after he had not heard from his sister in several days. He said he went to the two-story olive green wood-frame home around midnight, and when no one answered and he was unable to make his way through a front porch window because of security bars, he contacted officers. They broke down the door around 4 a.m.

"I didn't expect they would be killed," Mr. Garas said. "My sister, to get killed, my sister and everyone, I just can't believe it."

Officials believe the family was killed on Tuesday night since neither Mr. Armanious, who worked in Princeton, nor his wife, who worked for the United States Postal Service in Kearney, showed up for work on Wednesday or Thursday.

"She was very kind person," Mr. Garas said of his sister. "From her church to her home to her job, that's all she knows. I just can't believe it happened to her. She had no problem with nobody."

On Friday afternoon, as investigators took photographs of the house still decorated for Christmas with lights, red bows and garlands, several of Sylvia's classmates gathered outside in the rain and spoke of their friend. They recalled Sylvia, a 10th grader, as a dedicated student who was involved in many extracurricular activities at Dickinson High School and was always eager to speak her mind.

"She was a person who was really going to do something with her life," said a friend who asked not to be identified.

Jersey City school officials said that grief counselors were on hand at the high school and at J. W. Wakeman School No. 6, where Monica was a third grader.

Richard V. Messano, Wakeman's principal, described Monica as a "bubbly and always happy girl" who had a perfect attendance record, was part of the gifted and talented program and was "a joy to have in class."

"They were both fantastic students," said Dr. Sharon Bartley, a spokeswoman for the Jersey City Public Schools. "They were bright and outgoing, interested in performing arts, and this is just an awful event that has all of our students, parents and faculty so sad and upset. It is a true loss for the schools."

The family, devout members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, had celebrated Little Christmas, or the Feast of the Three Kings, last Friday and was planning to celebrate Sylvia's 16th birthday on Saturday.

The family had immigrated from Egypt about 10 years ago in hopes of building a better life, said Fred Ayad, a deacon at St. George & St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church, where the Armanious family worshiped regularly.

"They attended church every Sunday," he said. "They were all very nice, very quiet, very good. This is so awful."



Volume 7 Number 3 - Tuesday, January 18th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY