ZAIN and MUITABAH LODHI - 9, 13 yo - / Murderer: Father, Abbas Lodhi - Pleasant Valley, NY

Husband, wife and two sons found dead in upstate New York murder-suicide


Abbas Lodhi, 49, killed his two young sons and his wife Sarwat Lodhi, 43, on Thursday cops say. Sarwat Lodhi was not found until Friday, 15 miles south of where the other three were found dead.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, November 22, 2013, 4:16 PM
Updated: Friday, November 22, 2013, 7:31 PM


In this photo downloaded from the New York State Police website, Sarwat Lodhi, is shown. She was found dead around 3 p.m. Friday after her husband and two young sons were found shot dead on Thursday.

Four family members are dead after a grisly triple murder-suicide in a small upstate New York town.

Abbas Lodhi, 49, and his son Zain, 9, were found dead in a Pleasant Valley supermarket parking lot Thursday morning, prompting cops to set off a frantic search across Dutchess County for two other members of the Lodhi family.

Mujtabah Lodhi, 13, was found dead at the family home and cops said evidence there showed that his mother, Sarwat Lodhi, 43, had been injured. Her body wasn't found until 3 p.m. Friday, when she was spotted off Route 376 in Wappingers Falls.

RELATED: NY STATE COPS PROBE SHOOTING DEATHS OF FATHER, SONS

Google Maps
Map of the A&P supermarket in Pleasant Valley, where police said that a man and one of his two school-aged sons were found dead from gunshot wounds. The man’s wife was found dead in Wappinger, about 15 miles south of Pleasant Valley.

She was “the missing piece we were looking for all day”  New York State Police Trooper Melissa McMorris said Friday after the body was found 15 miles south of Pleasant Valley.

Cops say Abbas Lodhi killed all three family members and himself with shotgun blasts to the chest.

The shotgun used in the slayings was found in the car with the two bodies around 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

“I think it’s one of the most or more tragic things I have seen,”  Capt. John Ryan said at a news conference. “I find myself having two young boys that – it’s emotional seeing what has happened to these kids. I couldn’t even put into words how tragic it is for all of us.”

sgoldstein@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/missing-mom-found-dead-upstate-new-york-cops-article-1.1526203#ixzz2lRJq5yrn

Police say former Goshen man killed wife, two children and himself

By The Associated Press


Published: 6:53 PM - 11/22/13
Last updated: 10:53 PM - 11/22/13

PLEASANT VALLEY - Police are now saying that a Dutchess County man who used to live in Goshen murdered his wife and two sons before killing himself.

State police said Friday that Abbas Lodhi, 49, killed his wife, Sarwat Lodhi, 43, and sons Zain, 9, and Mujtabah, 13.

The father and Zain were found shot to death Thursday morning in a car parked at a supermarket in Pleasant Valley. A shotgun believed to have been used in the killings was found with the car. Police said they later found Mujtabah at the family's home, also dead from a gunshot wound. Sarwat's body was found Friday, on the side of a road in Wappingers Falls, also shot to death.

Abbas Lodhi has held a pharmacy license since 1993, and had owned a pharmacy in Hyde Park for the past several years.

The Lodhis bought a home on Colonial Drive in Goshen in 2009, and sold it this summer; their sons had attended Goshen schools. Abbas Lodhi lived in the Albany area and in Brooklyn before that, according to public records.

Goshen Superintendent Daniel Connor sent a letter out to parents Friday regarding both these deaths and the deaths of Manuel and Ada Lara on Thursday. Manuel Lara shot his wife to death and then killed himself in a domestic dispute early Thursday morning at their McVeigh Road home in the Town of Wawayanda; their two children attend Goshen schools.

Connor wrote that the district's crisis intervention team had been mobilized and would remain in place as long as necessary, and that counselors are available.

“Please remind your child that it is important for all of us to acknowledge our grief and encourage them to approach their teacher, principal or guidance counselor if they would like to talk about their feelings with counselors,” he wrote.

Business owners near the pharmacy who knew Lodhi told the Poughkeepsie Journal he was a native of Pakistan and a fan of soccer and cricket. Jean McArthur, owner of Pay-less Oil and McArthur's Wine and Liquors, said she learned three weeks ago that Lodhi was selling his business.

“He was just an average guy trying to make a living,” she said.

The Arlington Central School District, where the boys were in the fourth and eighth grades, said it was providing grief counseling for students and staff.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131122/NEWS/131129885