Sun Sentinel

Murder-suicide Shakes Queens Neighborhood

By KIRSTIN COLE | @colekirstin

10:40 PM EDT, August 30, 2012




Three generations of the Cale family lived at 45-41 39th Place in Sunnyside.  Neighbors say the grandmother had been here for 20 years; her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter joining her five years ago.  And while none of their next door neighbors never heard any fighting, some say their gut sense told them there was something wrong with 41 year old Amis Cale as he lurked around, smoking all day as his 37 year old wife Jennifer went to work every day.

Neighbors were rousted from their apartments by a teenager's screams for help for her dying mother, only to realize there was nothing they could do to save her mother. 

"The girl was screaming 'Please, help!  My mother is not breathing.  I got a shock in my heart, it was like an ocean of blood,'" was the way next door neighbor Anna described the gruesome early morning scene. 

Police quickly started a manhunt for Amis after learning he'd fled the apartment.

NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly debriefed reporters, "He was seen standing over her body by the daughter."

And Elias Suarez, the building superintendant, described what he saw.  "I heard noise, I heard the ambulance come and neighbors calling the police.  So I went up to te scene and saw her lying down in blood.  It's been a terrible tragedy."

It didn't take long for the police to find him.  He fled onto nearby elevated train tracks, only to jump 50 feet to the ground below.  EMS tried to resuscitate Amis, but he was pronounced dead, along with his wife, at Elmhurst hospital.