Tearful second-graders in Short Hills, N.J., yesterday were asking grief counselors the same question that had veteran investigators stumped:
“Why?”
Why did a local father, an unemployed Wall Street investment banker, strangle his 7-year-old son and then take his own life?
The counselors at Hartshorn Elementary School could provide no answers; they just tried to help the traumatized youngsters cope with Monday’s loss of popular classmate Eric Josephs.
While the kids struggled with the unfathomable, detectives started to piece together the last day in the life of Eric’s father, Richard Josephs.
What they know so far is that the out-of-work Wall Streeter killed his adopted son early Monday morning some time after his wife, Vivian Pliner-Josephs, left for Manhattan and her job at the United Nations.
They also know that about eight hours later, at 4:15 p.m., Josephs ended his own life by crouching down on railroad tracks a half-mile from his home as a rush-hour train rounded a blind curve, heading toward him.
Eric’s body was discovered at 5 p.m., when police, investigating his father’s suicide, went to the family’s $1 million Tudor style house on winding Hobart Gap Road.
The youngster was in his bed, lying face up, still in his pajamas.
His mother learned of the murder-suicide from police when she returned home from work.
Sources said no suicide note was found.
Millburn police and the Essex County prosecutor’s office would not comment on the tragedy or what could have triggered it.
Neighbors on Hobart Gap Road said they had little contact with Josephs and his wife, who moved into the upscale area 12 years ago.
They described Josephs, who has been out of work for several years, as “stand-offish,” and said they rarely saw his wife.
Eric, who played soccer, was well-liked at school, where an employee said he was friendly, well-mannered and popular with his classmates.
“This was a lovely, lovely child. We are all terribly saddened,” said Millburn School Superintendent Richard Brodow.
Also shocked and heartsick were workers at the U.N., where Pliner-Josephs was a committee secretary.
A colleague said Pliner-Josephs “absolutely adored her son – he was her life. She must be devastated.
“He was a very bright and sweet boy, a very special kid.”