Cherry Hill, New Jersey – Former senior rabbi Fred Neulander, who was serving a life sentence for hiring hitmen to kill his wife so he could pursue an affair with a Philadelphia radio personality, was discovered dead in the prison where he was incarcerated. Neulander, 82, was found unresponsive in an infirmary unit at the New Jersey State Prison and was pronounced dead at the Capital Health Regional Medical Center on Wednesday at 6:13 p.m. The cause of his death has not been released.
In 2002, Neulander was sentenced to life in connection with the murder of his wife, Carol Neulander, who was found bludgeoned to death inside their home in Cherry Hill in 1994. Authorities noted that while the crime scene was staged to appear as a robbery, nothing in the home seemed to be disturbed or missing, raising suspicions at the time. Despite denying his involvement in his wife’s murder, Neulander did admit to having an affair.
During his trial, Len Jenoff, a former Collingswood resident, testified that he and Paul Michael Daniels were offered money to kill Carol. Jenoff confessed to carrying out the murder, stating that Neulander wanted his wife out of the way due to his affair with radio host Elaine Soncini. Both Jenoff and Daniels were released from prison in 2014 after their confessions.
Neulander, once a prominent rabbi in the community, was the founding rabbi of the now-closed Congregation M’kor Shalom, a Reform Jewish synagogue in Cherry Hill. He expressed remorse for his actions in a 2012 interview, acknowledging that his behavior was selfish and arrogant. Neulander’s death in prison brings a sense of closure to a long and tragic saga of betrayal and murder that shocked the community.