RDAUTBMag2026

No Sense Captain Cummings and a quickly assembled team of homicide detec- tives began sifting clues. The position of the bodies and manner of hanging was like no murder Cummings has ever seen. The rope around Renee’s neck was tied with a slipknot and attached, incredibly, to a knob on a five-drawer chest. Renee was lying flat but the few inches elevation caused by the rope. Leslie was in the sitting position, her but- tocks just inches off the floor. A rope was looped around her neck several times and tied to a verti- cal beam about a metre above the floor, within her reach. Both women were dressed in bathing suits, and had obviously been sunbathing on the patio before their deaths. The top of Renee’s suit was pulled down around her waist; the right side of Leslie’s suit was also low- ered. But the medical report showed that neither woman had been sexu- ally assaulted. In fact, although Renee had a small cut on her cheek, no signs of physical assault were found. The women had died of stran- gulation. The cut and the bathing- suit tops could be explained if one assumed that in the final moments of life the women had thrashed about. There were no signs of forced entry into the house, nothing to indicate the presence of another person. A check for fingerprints turned up only those of family. Upstairs, Renee’s purse was open on her bed, three dollars still in her wallet. None of the jewellery, furs and other expensive objects in the house seemed to have been touched. To Cummings it made no sense for a criminal to commit two capital crimes for the purpose of robbery and then to leave so much behind, unless he was frightened away. But the autopsy seemed to contradict that possi- bility. The women had died around noon. Neighbours had seen no-one around the house between noon and 5 pm, when Jonna had come home. She had showered, changed clothes, and was carrying he laundry to the base- ment washing machine when she discovered her stepmother’s body. Shaking with fright and unable to reach Cali, who was on his way home from his office, she had jumped in her car and driven to the Montclair police headquarters. Cummings’ job was made all the more difficult by the apparent absence of a motive for the killings. As he mulled over the odd case, he There were no signs of forced entry into the house, nothing to indicate the presence of another person. reader ’ s digest 8   may 2026 began to speculate. The rope around Renee’s neck was tied in a slipknot. The rope on Leslie’s neck was looped and tied where she could have reached it. Perhaps, he thought, Les- lie was depressed over some aspect of her pregnancy, her marriage or her family situation. Perhaps she and her mother had argued. Leslie could have thrown that slipknotted rope around Renee’s neck and strangled her. Then, repelled by what she had done, Leslie might have hanged her- self. Or, perhaps, Leslie and Renee had made a suicide pact. Either the- ory would account for nearly all the facts on hand and supply the only motive that seemed to make sense. ArmedWith Faith John Cali received the news of Cummings’ preliminary findings with astonished disbelief. “It has to be murder,” he insisted. “There was absolutely no reason for my wife and daughter to end their lives.” Renee, he pointed out, was an attractive, popular woman, active in commu- nity affairs, close to her family and known to be happy in her marriage. There were no financial problems - he was the head of a highly success- ful real-estate development firm. Leslie and her husband Michael Grant were sharing the Cali home while searching for a place of their own. “Leslie was looking forward to the birth of her baby,” Cali said. “How can anyone suggest that this is any- thing but cold-blooded murder?” As the next days passed and no new evidence was uncovered, nei- ther the police nor the county prose- cutor could see any solid reason to change their conclusion of the murder-suicide. It became clear to Cali that he must persuade them to his point of view if justice were to be done. He shook off the paralysis of grief and went to work. First, he convened family meet- ings; Grant, a mortgage broker; Jonna, a nursing student; and Jo Ann Skinner, an older married stepdaugh- ter. For literally hundreds of hours they discussed all possible motives that they could imagine for the kill- ings. They listed the names of 64 peo- ple who had been to the house over the preceding few years. They dis- cussed what they knew of the mental state of Leslie and Renee. Jo Ann had talked to Renee on the phone the morning of May 14. Renee had seemed in fine spirits. Finally, Cali called on Essex County prosecutor Joseph Lordi. “To me the most impressive thing about Cali was his absolute faith in his fam- ily,” recalls Lordi. “It was just too strong to be dismissed, too well rea- soned.” But Lordi’s high regard for Cali didn’t change the facts on hand. Something more than faith and logic readersdigest.com.au     9 RD Classics