Planned sale of Parente family belongings canceled

The porcelain figurines haven't moved from the well-appointed dining room. The sheet music is open on the girls' Baldwin baby grand. A tiny doll still sits in a dollhouse, holding a teddy bear.

It's what William and Betty Parente and their daughters, Stephanie, 19, and Catherine, 11, left behind in their Garden City home before their deaths in Baltimore last year.

Authorities say William killed the entire family and then himself in a Maryland hotel room, leaving behind a trail of angry creditors, a $5 million life insurance trust and a mystery as to why.

"It's very upsetting to go in there," said Betty's cousin, Joseph Mazzarella, a North Bellmore funeral director. "It's 90 percent the way they left it. It's where my cousin lived."

The family's belongings were set to be sold Saturday to help settle the estate. But the sale was canceled abruptly Thursday night, with organizers citing the weather and other undisclosed factors. It's unclear when it will be rescheduled.

"We don't know yet whether we're going to go forward at this point," said Eric Milgrim, the Nassau public administrator, appointed by the Surrogate's Court to oversee William Parente's estate after his surviving relatives didn't want to be involved.

He said there might be an auction instead of a tag sale in the future. "We're just re-evaluating a few things," he said.

Mazzarella said Thursday night he wasn't notified of the sale and found out from friends on Monday.

"I should have been notified," Mazzarella said.

The sale was set up by Tag Sales by Mona. Owner Mona Scavo declined to comment.

Milgrim said: "We will be cooperating with Mr. Mazzarella as we have been doing throughout the case in rescheduling an auction."

The sale was one of several efforts the county was making to wind down the family's legal affairs. Milgrim's office is also dealing with angry investors who say they lost millions when Parente died and sifting through records the FBI seized in a resulting investigation. Agents can't look at the documents because of attorney-client privilege, an FBI spokesman said Thursday.

Setting up an auction might not be easy. Richard Maltz, of the auctioneer David R. Maltz and Co. in Plainview, said his company had already passed on a chance to auction off the Parentes' belongings because it was worth less than $20,000 - the minimum needed to make a profit. Court records say the house's contents are worth $14,385.

Any sale or auction will likely make up a small part of what's distributed to heirs or creditors, compared to the Parentes' $1.5 million in real estate and the $5 million insurance trust.

A full-scale court battle over the money is raging between Betty's family and those who invested with Parente.

At least 35 investors say in court papers they lost about $31 million, money they say they were told was being loaned to Parente's construction company clients. They were promised returns of 12 percent to 14 percent. It's unknown what happened to the money.

The insurance trust presents complicated legal questions. Betty and the children were beneficiaries, but the trust had no provisions for them all dying before William, court records show. No will for either William, 59, or Betty, 58, has been found.

For Betty's family to inherit anything, Nassau Surrogate's Court Judge John Riordan must hold a hearing to determine William's culpability in his family's demise, court papers say. Though a Baltimore County police investigation concluded Parente was at fault, his guilt must be found in court, court papers say. A hearing hasn't been scheduled.

The judge could award the insurance without a hearing - separate from the real estate and property - to Parente's estate and the investors by deciding that William's guilt doesn't matter under state law. Betty's heirs lost all rights when she died first, Milgrim's attorney said in court papers.