Tears for Long Branch fire victims, possible murder-suicide

LONG BRANCH The loud "boom" caught Confesor Perez off guard. Moments later, he heard a second, duller, "bang." He walked outside of his second-floor apartment at the corner of Joline and Rockwell Avenues to investigate.

“I think that was a shot,” Perez told his wife as he walked downstairs.

He headed toward the sounds as curious neighbors emerged from their homes around midnight Tuesday.

The scene quickly turned frantic. Smoke and flames were visible from inside the two-family home at 245 Joline Ave. Neighbor Manny Jones tried to break down the door, without success. Beneath the gap of the entryway, Jones said he saw flames spreading inside.

Arriving firefighters swarmed the scene. They broke into the house from a side door to quickly knock down the blaze.

Then firefighters discovered what prosecutors are now calling a triple murder and possible suicide.

Found inside a second-floor bedroom were 30-year-old Lyndon Shane Beharry, his common law wife, 29-year-old Amanda Morris, and their two children, 7-year-old Brandon and 4-year-old Brian, according to First Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Marc LeMieux. One unidentified family member appeared to have survived, but later died at Monmouth Medical Center, according to authorities.

As authorities try to piece together the last moments of the family, they said they found injuries on the bodies unrelated to the fire and traces of flames breaking out in several spots throughout the house. They would not describe the injuries.

"This fire does not appear to be accidental," LeMieux said Wednesday morning during a news conference. "We are not ruling out the potential that there was a homicide and then an ultimate suicide."

Many questions remain unanswered about who may be the suicide victim, whether a weapon was recovered at the scene and what type of injuries the victims suffered.

"This is one (case) that is totally incomprehensible,” said Mayor Adam Schneider, who knew the family. “None of this is making any sense to any of us.”

Lyndon Beharry was a 16-year veteran of the city's Department of Public Works, where he worked as a mechanic.

"He was an excellent mechanic and a very good-natured person," said Fred Migliaccio, the department's director.

The young boys, Brandon and Brian, were students in the Long Branch Public School system. They were expected to start school when classes resumed Thursday.

Superintendent Michael Salvatore said in a statement that their deaths "casts a sad shadow" over the community.

"The entire LBPS family is mourning this tragedy," he said. "It is only with our collective strength and prayer that we will be able to move forward."

Wednesday night, a spontaneous memorial was set up in the front yard of the home where the four died. Crime scene tape stretched above candles, loved ones gathered and wept and prayed.

"He's a good guy," said Tony Rivera, a friend of Lyndon Beharry for 10 years. "A good father. I don't know how that happened."

Lyndon Beharry and Morris, longtime locals who were originally from Trinidad, bought the house on Joline Avenue two years ago. Records show Long Branch Police responded to 245 Joline Ave. for a fight in October. It is unclear who was involved in the fight or what it was about.

Family members remember the couple as loving and dedicated parents. Ronald Beharry, a cousin and neighbor, remembered taking his kids to water parks and the beach with the family. They would have cookouts together. Lyndon Beharry had just finished building a deck at the rear of the house.

Morris was a devoted mother who beamed in a recent photo with Lyndon Beharry and their two children as they visited the beach in Atlantic City. Neither parent seemed prone to violence or to have a gun, relatives said. There were no signs of friction within the household.

A public records search found no indication of money trouble. The only outstanding debt Lyndon Beharry had was a $4,500 lien from a finance company dating back to 2007.

Outside of his house, Ronald Beharry grappled with the possibility that their deaths resulted from a murder-suicide.

"I don't know how they (authorities) could say this," he said, surrounded by relatives wiping away tears from their eyes. "They lived very happily."

He last saw the family at 7 p.m. Tuesday at their house. Everyone seemed fine, he recalled.

One of their neighbors, Rosa Rijo, brought a carton of coffee and cookies to grieving family members at a nearby relative's house.

"I heard about it this morning," Rijo told the Press in Spanish after returning from the Beharry residence. "I feel for them because they are such good people, they're like family."

"It's a huge tragedy," she added before heading back inside to prepare food to bring the family later.

Multiple 911 calls reporting a fire came in around midnight Tuesday, LeMieux said. Firefighters from Long Branch, West Long Branch, Sea Bright, Oakhurst and Eatontown responded to the second-alarm fire.

Jones, who lives next-door, said even firefighters had trouble breaking down the front door.

"They were trying to get in," Thomas Penn, who lives across the street from the house, said Wednesday morning. "They had a hard time getting in."

Steph Solis: 732-643-4043; ssolis@gannettnj.com