Dan's Papers - August 22, 2008 - Gunfight In The Night In Northwest. 2 Die.

Deep in the forest of the Northwest section of East Hampton Town, under a full moon and just before dawn on Monday morning, two people were shot to death in circumstances that so far have baffled both the authorities and the neighbor in that area.

What is known is this. At 5:45 a.m., a call came into 911, but when it was answered there was no one on the line. Two minutes later, a second call came in, but before it could be answered, the caller hung up. Two minutes after that the 911 phone rang again. And this time, a male voice said this:

"Shots fired at 28 Cedar Trail."

And then that was it.

The police arrived at this home - a grand, two-story brick residence beautifully appointed, with gardens and a swimming pool - at just before 6 a.m. They rang the doorbell. No one answered. Then, finding the door locked, they broke it down.

Downstairs, it appeared no one was home. But upstairs, in the master bedroom, they found Georgiana Stockel, age 64, in bed, still alive but unconscious from a gunshot wound in her head.

Next to her was her husband, Lester Stockel, also 64 and also with a gunshot in his head. He was dead, and in his hand was a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol.

Mrs. Stockel was taken to Stony Brook Hospital, but soon died there.

That is all anybody knows.

Living in homes on wooded lots elsewhere on that narrow dead-end street are numerous prominent East Enders, including Pat Trunzo, the builder, whose house, coincidentally, caught fire several weeks ago. Also on the street lives a physician, Dr. Arthur Goldberg, and his wife. And also on the street are Ed Van Dyke, an accountant, and John Fierro, who owns Fierro's Pizza on Newtown Lane in town.

All of them said the Stockels had lived there, not as locals but as summerpeople, for at least the last 15 years, that they knew them as acquaintances, and that was all. They were polite and friendly and neighborly.

And yes, the couple got along fine as far as they could see. None of them had ever seen or heard an argument. Trunzo said that when he last saw Mr. Stockel a few days ago, Stockel asked how he was after the fire. Fierro said he saw Stockel less than a week ago while at a bank in town. He seemed quite cheerful.

What was learned on Monday afternoon was that this house, filled with expensive furnishings and fine china, was just one of three homes that the Stockels own. Their main house is in Verona, New Jersey, and they also have a house in Florida.

Mr. Stockel made his money in the 1990s by co-founding a company in Philadelphia called CashFlex. What it did, and still does, is process incoming checks for large retail operations that sell things through the mail. It cashes the checks and then deposits them in the appropriate accounts and gives the approval that the merchandise can be sent.

Mr. Stockel and his co-founder saw this opportunity when they noticed large firms in this business farming this work out to smaller firms. CashFlex was founded with over $100 million in backing.

The Stockels have two sons, now grown. They're both reportedly in their father's business.

By noon on Tuesday, the police had begun to conclude that Mr. Stockel killed his wife and then turned the gun on himself for reasons they believe they now know. They also believe it was Mr. Stockel who made the phone call.

"We arrived only minutes after the 911 call came through," Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of the Suffolk Homicide Squad told me Tuesday afternoon. "The house was locked from the inside. There was no forcible entry. The condition of the house suggested it was just the two of them. And we also have now found some items which we cannot reveal until we talk with the family to get their approval, which clearly suggest that this was a murder-suicide. In fact, we are now quite confident this is the case."