Property Managers Fatality File

Mother, 2 children murdered after landlord didn’t change locks.

A New Jersey woman “begged” her apartment complex to change the locks on her door after she was granted a restraining order against her husband. The complex failed to fulfill her request, and she and two children were fatally stabbed in their home, a lawsuit filed on the family’s behalf claims.

The woman, Ruth Esther Reyes de Severino, and her children, Eurianny, 5, and Eury, 2, were killed on Feb. 5, 2020. Police found the bodies in the family’s Penns Grove Gardens apartment after they discovered the remains of Reyes de Severino’s husband, Eugenio Severino, in a nearby park.

Eugenio Severino died by suicide after he murdered his family. Penns Grove police did not immediately reply to a request for comment Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed last month in Salem County Superior Court, alleges wrongful death, negligence, breach of contract and negligent hiring. It lists the defendants as Penns Grove Gardens, its operator, Housing Management Resources, and Roger J. Gendron, identified in the suit as “managing member” of Penns Grove Apartments and Penns Grove Gardens.

The apartment complex and its operator did not immediately reply to a request for comment Tuesday. Gendron could not be reached at phone numbers listed for him.

In January 2020, just weeks before the slayings, Reyes de Severino was granted a restraining order against her husband, ousting him from their apartment. The suit alleges that Eugenio Severino had threatened to kill his wife numerous times.

Reyes de Severino informed the apartment complex about the restraining order and asked for her locks to be changed because her husband still had a set of keys.