Friends, neighbors mourn Holbrook couple found dead

Friends and neighbors struggled to make sense Wednesday of the suicides of a Holbrook couple found shot in their basement.

Police say Steven Kuper, 69, and his wife, Susan Kuper, 56, found Tuesday in their home, took their own lives.

“Both commited suicide,” a police release said Wednesday evening.

The deaths confounded those who knew the Kupers, who had owned a pet-grooming shop in the neighborhood. The couple was known as loving and generous in spirit.

When neighbor Susan Minerly lost her husband and broke her hip on the same day four years ago, Steven Kuper lent a hand with her pet.

“Steve started feeding the dog. Actually he took the dog to his house for two nights,” said Minerly, 60.

The squad cars and a police command center outside the Kuper home Tuesday rattled those living along this quiet section of Patchogue-Holbrook Road.

Suffolk police went to the Kuper home Tuesday afternoon at the request of the couple’s daughter, who lives out of state and couldn’t reach her parents. When no one answered the door, officers entered the unlocked home and found the couple in the basement, said Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer, head of the homicide squad. Officers also found a handgun.

At the Clean as a Whisker pet-grooming store, workers said the couple had sold the business in February as they prepared to retire to Florida.

“They were my family,” said Nicole Kennedy, 29, who had worked for the couple at the shop for years. “They were happy together — well adjusted people.”

The Kupers had owned the shop since 2001, she said. They were dog lovers, but they had also had a cat and birds.

Police said the couple had health problems, which was confirmed by Kennedy and the owner of a nearby restaurant.

Susan Kuper had a thyroid condition that caused her to lose weight, Kennedy said.“She wasn’t feeling well,” she said.

Steven Kuper watched his diet because he had a heart condition, said Andreas Parpounas of the Greek-Cypriot restaurant Mesoyios.“He had heart surgery in 2009,” Parpounas said. “I always had to make him dry chicken and dry broccoli.”

Two customers described the couple as sweet and unassuming.

“Two loving people,” said Dan Larberg, 51, a former neighbor. “If they had problems, they were not the kind to share it.”

— With Ellen Yan

By Craig Schneider

craig.schneider@newsday.comScraigo

Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.