Body Found In Sullivan May Be Man Who Shot Judges Son, Husband – Mid Hudson Valley, NY Patch

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — A body found in the Hudson Valley may be the lone gunman who fired into the foyer of a federal judge’s home Sunday evening in northern New Jersey, killing her 20-year-old son and critically wounding her husband, authorities said.

U.S. District Judge Esther Salas’ son, Daniel Anderl, 20, was killed and her husband, Mark Anderl, 63, was shot multiple times, officials said. Mark Anderl underwent surgery and was in stable condition Monday morning at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

The body of a man was found in Sullivan County and its connection to the New Jersey shooting is currently being investigated, a New York State Police spokesman told Patch. His body was found in the town of Rockland near Roscoe, a hamlet in the Catskills wilderness area.

Sources identified the man as attorney Roy Den Hollander, NBC New York reported.

Hollander was an anti-feminist who had a history of legal cases on related topics. “Contact Roy to help battle the infringement of Men’s Rights by the Feminists and their fellow sisters the PCers,” he says on his website, which lists among other things a “trilogy” of men’s rights cases.

On his website, he also says, “The future prospect of the Men’s Movement raising enough money to exercise some influence in America is unlikely. But there is one remaining source of power in which men still have a near monopoly—firearms. At some point, the men in this country will take the Declaration of Independence literally.”

The Daily Beast reported that Hollander had a case pending before Salas, challenging the military’s men-only draft.

The FBI, which is handling the case, said anyone who may have relevant information should call it at 73-792-3000. The U.S. Marshals Service is also working with the FBI at the scene, while a vehicle the man was thought to have been using is being searched at a nearby State Police barracks.

The man was dressed as a FedEx delivery driver, sources told NJ.com, and at 5 p.m. Sunday he arrived at the family’s home on Point of the Woods Drive, which is in the Hidden Lakes development in North Brunswick. Salas’ husband answered the door and was shot multiple times, sources said; the couple’s son ran down the stairs to help him and was shot as well.

Salas was in the basement at the time and uninjured in the attack, according to media reports.

“The last thing I heard is that the father ran for the door, Daniel ran down the stairs to get him — and I would believe that, that he would run down to help his father,” neighbor Marion Costanza told Patch. She lives three doors down from the Salas family.

“They are very-close knit. That’s the kind of family they were,” she said. “He wanted to be a lawyer just like his parents — he was clerking in different law offices.”

Mar Anderl served as an assistant prosecutor in Essex County and now works as a criminal defense attorney. Salas is a Newark-based federal judge who presided over the convictions of “Real Housewives” stars Joe and Teresa Giudice, among other cases. She got her start working as a public defender, Costanza said. She was the first Hispanic woman to be appointed as a federal judge in New Jersey.

“Daniel was the love of their life; he was their only child, 20 years old,” she said. “Daniel played baseball for St. Joe’s (Catholic high school) in Metuchen and he was a very big baseball fan. Just a good, loving, caring family. I’ve never heard one thing negative about any of them.”

“They are of the very highest caliber,” said North Brunswick Mayor Francis “Mac” Womack of the family. “They are just the kind of real wonderful kind of people you want to have living in your town. You would meet them in the park walking their dogs.”

Womack works as a municipal prosecutor in Sayreville, and he and Anderl were often “on opposite sides of the courtroom,” said Womack.

“We probably had had some cases together this week, in fact,” he said. “Mark is the most straightforward attorneys you’ve ever met. A real upstanding guy. If Mark tells you something you can take it to the back. And as long as I’ve known him, it’s been his favorite subject to talk about his son, Daniel. He was so proud to talk about Daniel playing baseball for St. Joe’s. It’s an unreal tragedy.”

Daniel was a student at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

The school released a statement about his death:

Gov. Phil Murphy and Sen. Robert Mendendez, who recommended Salas for appointment as a federal judge, both released statements. Menendez and Salas both grew up in the same tight-knit, Cuban-American community in Union City, and they are both graduates of Rutgers Law School.

“I know Judge Salas and her husband well, and was proud to recommend her to President Obama for nomination to New Jersey’s federal bench,” Menendez said. “My prayers are with Judge Salas and her family, and that those responsible for this horrendous act are swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.”

“Judge Salas and her family are in our thoughts at this time as they cope with this senseless act,” Murphy said in a statement. “This tragedy is our latest reminder that gun violence remains a crisis in our country and that our work to make every community safer isn’t done.”

Costanza said that when she learned of the shooting Sunday night, and that the son had been killed, “I was hysterical — I actually sat down on the ground outside house and cried. My husband cried. We were supposed to go out for dinner with them next Friday as a couple.”

Costanza, who is herself a lawyer, said that Salas had mentioned to her several years ago that working as a federal judge made her nervous at times.

“But that was a few years ago,” she said. “I know she had some heavy cases. But who knows? Maybe they could have been after Mark; maybe it was a disgruntled client. I know at times a police officer would drive through Point of the Woods, drive past her house, and that relaxed her. I don’t think anybody recently gave her reason to be concerned.”

Costanza said the case Salas most recently spoke of to her was when she presided over the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” case, when she sentenced Teresa Giudice and her husband, Giuseppe Giudice, to prison after the couple pleaded guilty to fraud.

“She loved that show, and here she was responsible for the lives,” said Costanza.

St. Joseph’s released a statement confirming Daniel’s death. He graduated in 2018.

“It is with utmost sadness that we inform you that Dan Anderl ’18 was taken from us last night,” the statement said. “Dan was a true friend, a proud Falcon, and an overall wonderful human being. He will be truly missed. We pray for Dan’s family and friends during this unbelievably difficult time — please know, we are mourning with you.”

Costanza also said that in addition to working as a high-profile federal judge, Salas was also a caring neighbor and loved to cook.

“During a snowstorm three or fours year ago, she made a bunch of food, and got a bunch of groceries and homemade soup, and here comes Mark and Daniel schlepping it over to us,” she recalled. “That’s just who she was. She was a fantastic hostess. Every year, she would have a Christmas party and invite her clerks and her former clerks.”

Initial Patch report: Federal Judge’s Husband Shot, Son Dies At No. Brunswick Home: PD

By Carly Baldwin, Patch Staff. Patch editor Lanning Taliaferro contributed to this report.