A small Cape Cod home in Hempstead, Long Island became a house of horror early Saturday, when three women inside were bludgeoned to death with a hammer, possibly by a relative who also lived there.
Dead in the home on leafy Perry Street — now a blood-splattered crime scene — were Lynn Vanderhall, 58, her daughter Melissa, 28, and family friend Janel Simpson, 29.
Hours after the carnage, cops were seeking to question Bobby Vanderhall, described by neighbors as the eldest victim’s 300-pound mentally ill son.
Police did not immediately release the name of a second friend of the family who escaped with apparently defensive wounds to her hand. She was in stable condition at a local hospital, police said.
“This is basically a targeted event,” said Det. Lt. Richard LeBrun, commanding officer of the Nassau County Police Public Information Office.
“It was not a random event,” he said. The cause of death for all three victims was blunt force trauma, he said.
The person of interest was identified as Bobby Vanderhall, who was Lynn’s son and Melissa’s brother, sources said.
“Bobby had good days and bad days,” said one neighbor, E. Jerry, 50.
“On his bad days he doesn’t talk. He would look at you as if he had never seen you before. On his good days, he will say ‘Hi, how are you.’ He didn’t talk much.”
Added Jerry, “One cop said it is a disastrous scene. A mess in there.”
At the crime scene, Wendy Simpson was visibly distraught over the death of her daughter Janel.
“She was beautiful,” the mom said, sobbing. “She was my sweetheart…I’m numb.”
The mom added that her lost daughter had always been there for her, “through thick and thin.”
“She was there for me, my Janel,” the mom said through her tears.
Her husband, Denis Simpson, 66, looked away in pain as his wife became inconsolable.
“This is bigger than us,” he said, with resignation. “We have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and keep on chucking because, you know what? That’s what my daughter would want.”