"It's horrible," said one numbed resident, reacting to the murder of longtime neighbor Carol Neulander, a businesswoman and rabbi's wife bludgeoned to death in her Wexford Leas home Tuesday night.

"This is what you expect to see on Action News and not in your neighborhood -- and especially not to a family so community-oriented," said Jack Mitchard, sweeping leaves at his home next to the Neulander residence on Highgate Lane.

Carol Neulander, the mother of three, was a bright, caring woman, a straight talker who "got the job done," said neighbors and friends.

"They were a nice family and so active," said one neighbor, who did not give his name.

The victim's husband, Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, is senior rabbi at Congregation M'Kor Shalom on Evesham Road and is well-known in the community.

Authorities suspect robbery as a possible motive in the brutal slaying.

"If they wanted money, why didn't they just take it?" asked one neighbor. "Why did they have to do this to her?"

As police combed the property and photographed the family car and other possible evidence, leaves drifted onto the cordoned-off crime scene and toward nearby homes still decorated for Halloween.

Some people in the neighborhood have alarms but others do not. A number have dogs that they say help protect their property.

Linda Folger, whose Pembroke Court home faces the victim's residence, said she's thinking about the need for a burglar alarm.

Mitchard said his wife saw Rabbi Neulander and the rabbi's grown son Matthew through a kitchen window about 6 p.m. Tuesday, just hours before the crime. The two men left home after dinner.

"Our kitchen window faces their kitchen window, so she happened to see them, but she did not see the wife and she did not notice when she came home later," said Mitchard. "We were watching TV afterward and did not hear anything."

Back to Index