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Apparent Murder Suicide Leaves Three Dead in Edgewater

Edgewater

An apparent murder suicide that took the lives of three people in a luxury high rise building has Bergen County authorities investigating a motive.

The Bergen County Prosecutor said Melissa Stasko, 49, and her 8-year-old daughter, Nellie, were in a bed when Michael Stasko, 52, shot them dead with a .45-caliber handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets.

Its barrel was wrapped in a cloth, which likely partially muffled the sound of the gunshots, the prosecutor said.

Police got a call just after 8 p.m. Friday from Melissa Stasko's concerned brother in Missouri, who said "his sister and her family were to have arrived approximately 1 o'clock today" for Christmas and weren't answering their cellphones, the prosecutor said late Friday.

The Bergen County Prosecutor's office said, the bodies were located at 1 Tower Center Drive, a luxury high-rise in Edgewater.

Dozens of police vehicles arrived to the scene Friday night at the Windsor at Mariners Tower, a complex on the Hudson River overlooking the George Washington Bridge.

The investigation is active and ongoing the prosecutor said.

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