A Cornell University administrator shot and killed his 11-year-old daughter and ex-mother-in-law earlier this month before turning his gun on himself.
Lawrence Mancuso, assistant dean for human resources at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, was apparently upset that daughter was being cared for by her maternal grandmother and not him while the mother was out of town and had called police the day before to complain about it, WHAM reported.
“It was pretty benign, really,” Brighton Police Chief David Catholdi said of an officers conversation with the 53-year-old dean. “There’s nothing that would lead us to indicate that anything like this would happen.”
But it did happen, 24 hours later. Neighbors found 11-year-old Anne Mancuso bleeding on the front porch and called 911, the Cornell Sun reported. The girl was rushed to a hospital, where she died, while officers went into the home and found the bodies of 74-year-old Mary Laccini and Mancuso.
Mancuso had been on leave from Cornell, where he had worked since 2022, since October, the Sun said, although the university did not say why he was placed on leave.
Catholdi told WHAM that Mancuso made two stops for his arrival to kill his daughter and her grandmother — one at a liquor store, where he bought alcohol, and another at a relative’s home where he stole “several firearms,” one of which he used in his murder-suicide.
Catholdi said there were “no red flags” leading up to the incident and police may never know why it happened.
