Parents contacted lawyer, then 911
By ALLYSON BIRD
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
UPDATED: 10:37 a.m. July 25, 2007
Jason Shenfeld's parents noticed their 26-year-old son was acting nervous, locking his bedroom door every time he left.
He wouldn't give his mother his complete set of bedsheets to wash. When his father went in to retrieve them Friday night, he saw why: Shoved into Shenfeld's bedroom closet, stuffed among sheets and clothing, was 18-year-old Amanda Buckley's body.
Shenfeld told his father that the teen overdosed on drugs and he panicked, a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office report states. Then he fled.
Investigators found duct tape in Buckley's hair, bruises on her body and evidence of rape, according to the report. They also found a garbage bag filled with duct tape and rope.
An autopsy Saturday revealed that the college-bound softball star was strangled, beaten in the head and sexually abused.
Shenfeld was arrested that night on a warrant alleging first-degree murder, sexual battery and false imprisonment.
But before calling 911, Shenfeld's father and uncle left his mother at their Ardel Drive home with Buckley's body and drove to an attorney's house to bring him back to the scene.
The lawyer had represented Jason Shenfeld before.
About eight months ago, two women, ages 18 and 19, told Palm Beach County sheriff's investigators that Shenfeld forced them to perform a variety of sex acts, both on him and on each other, at the North Palm Beach home where he formerly lived.
They had been drinking rum, passed out and awoke to find him naked and dragging them into his bedroom, a report says.
The teens told a detective that Shenfeld carried a knife with a footlong blade and threatened to sic his pit bull on them if they resisted. He bound them with duct tape, they said.
The detective saw the young women's scrapes and scratches and found DNA evidence at the scene. But prosecutors declined to file charges of armed sexual battery and false imprisonment Jan. 31, saying the allegations could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
State attorney's office spokesman Mike Edmondson declined to comment further.
Woman robbed in driveway
The family of one of the young women hired an attorney, Randy Berman, in the days since Buckley's death. Berman said investigators contacted his client because her case could factor into the new one.
"She wanted to make sure everything goes right this time," Berman said. "She's concerned with making sure this doesn't happen again."
Berman said his client met Shenfeld through friends and also knew Buckley. Friends have said little about how Buckley knew Shenfeld, saying, if anything, that the two met through friends.
Neither family could be reached for comment Monday. The Buckleys, through a close friend, said Shenfeld was not a family friend.
When he was arrested in the alleged sexual attack on the two teens, Shenfeld was on probation for a robbery conviction.
Janet Welker was driving to her Lake Park home about 11:30 p.m. Feb. 11, 2002, when she noticed a sport utility vehicle following her. Shenfeld's SUV blocked Welker as she pulled into her driveway. He approached her as she stepped out of her car, telling her nicely that he knew her neighbor, Welker remembers.
"Next thing I knew he was beating me over the head with a cellphone, saying it was a gun," she said Monday.
She told sheriff's investigators that she nearly lost consciousness during the attack.
Shenfeld took her purse but got only $13, she said.
He pleaded guilty to robbery and was placed on drug offender probation for five years.
Welker recalled the shaky, sweaty man with small pupils.
"I think he's just a drug and alcohol abuser," she said.
A few months later, John and Diane Shenfeld wrote a letter for their son's court file, describing his problems as a child.
Diagnosed with hemophilia, in which the blood fails to clot normally, Shenfeld never wanted his parents to tell anyone about his condition, they wrote.
As a seventh-grader, he was kicked out of school for behavior problems after his parents would not let him transfer to public school. They wrote that they think he started smoking marijuana soon after.
They described the many phone calls and late nights when Shenfeld was in high school, followed by his hanging around "the same people" in college. They learned from other parents that their son's crowd abused drugs.
"It took us a long time to realize that it wasn't his genetics, but that it was the Xanax," they wrote.
'He had an epiphany'
Dispatch records show that Shenfeld called investigators to his parents' house on Christmas Eve in 1998, when he was 18. He told a sheriff's deputy that he was afraid to stay at home and risk a physical fight with his father. Shenfeld said his father told him, "Those drug friends of yours are not allowed in my house."
Two years after their son's first felony arrest, Shenfeld's parents wrote another letter, thanking a judge and a drug program for helping him turn his life around.
They said Shenfeld was in the second year of an electrical apprenticeship at Palm Beach Community College and had a healthy relationship with both them and a girlfriend. They described their son's simple, wholesome existence, which included living on his own, cutting his grass, caring for his dog and maintaining a fishpond.
"Jason has shared with us that when he drives to work, he doesn't listen to the radio, but instead uses the time as his quiet time to reflect on his day," they wrote.
"He told us he had an epiphany and that he knows he has a meaningful purpose in life."
He remains without bail at the Palm Beach County Jail.
By ALLYSON BIRD
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
UPDATED: 10:37 a.m. July 25, 2007
Jason Shenfeld's parents noticed their 26-year-old son was acting nervous, locking his bedroom door every time he left.
He wouldn't give his mother his complete set of bedsheets to wash. When his father went in to retrieve them Friday night, he saw why: Shoved into Shenfeld's bedroom closet, stuffed among sheets and clothing, was 18-year-old Amanda Buckley's body.
Shenfeld told his father that the teen overdosed on drugs and he panicked, a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office report states. Then he fled.
Investigators found duct tape in Buckley's hair, bruises on her body and evidence of rape, according to the report. They also found a garbage bag filled with duct tape and rope.
An autopsy Saturday revealed that the college-bound softball star was strangled, beaten in the head and sexually abused.
Shenfeld was arrested that night on a warrant alleging first-degree murder, sexual battery and false imprisonment.
But before calling 911, Shenfeld's father and uncle left his mother at their Ardel Drive home with Buckley's body and drove to an attorney's house to bring him back to the scene.
The lawyer had represented Jason Shenfeld before.
About eight months ago, two women, ages 18 and 19, told Palm Beach County sheriff's investigators that Shenfeld forced them to perform a variety of sex acts, both on him and on each other, at the North Palm Beach home where he formerly lived.
They had been drinking rum, passed out and awoke to find him naked and dragging them into his bedroom, a report says.
The teens told a detective that Shenfeld carried a knife with a footlong blade and threatened to sic his pit bull on them if they resisted. He bound them with duct tape, they said.
The detective saw the young women's scrapes and scratches and found DNA evidence at the scene. But prosecutors declined to file charges of armed sexual battery and false imprisonment Jan. 31, saying the allegations could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
State attorney's office spokesman Mike Edmondson declined to comment further.
Woman robbed in driveway
The family of one of the young women hired an attorney, Randy Berman, in the days since Buckley's death. Berman said investigators contacted his client because her case could factor into the new one.
"She wanted to make sure everything goes right this time," Berman said. "She's concerned with making sure this doesn't happen again."
Berman said his client met Shenfeld through friends and also knew Buckley. Friends have said little about how Buckley knew Shenfeld, saying, if anything, that the two met through friends.
Neither family could be reached for comment Monday. The Buckleys, through a close friend, said Shenfeld was not a family friend.
When he was arrested in the alleged sexual attack on the two teens, Shenfeld was on probation for a robbery conviction.
Janet Welker was driving to her Lake Park home about 11:30 p.m. Feb. 11, 2002, when she noticed a sport utility vehicle following her. Shenfeld's SUV blocked Welker as she pulled into her driveway. He approached her as she stepped out of her car, telling her nicely that he knew her neighbor, Welker remembers.
"Next thing I knew he was beating me over the head with a cellphone, saying it was a gun," she said Monday.
She told sheriff's investigators that she nearly lost consciousness during the attack.
Shenfeld took her purse but got only $13, she said.
He pleaded guilty to robbery and was placed on drug offender probation for five years.
Welker recalled the shaky, sweaty man with small pupils.
"I think he's just a drug and alcohol abuser," she said.
A few months later, John and Diane Shenfeld wrote a letter for their son's court file, describing his problems as a child.
Diagnosed with hemophilia, in which the blood fails to clot normally, Shenfeld never wanted his parents to tell anyone about his condition, they wrote.
As a seventh-grader, he was kicked out of school for behavior problems after his parents would not let him transfer to public school. They wrote that they think he started smoking marijuana soon after.
They described the many phone calls and late nights when Shenfeld was in high school, followed by his hanging around "the same people" in college. They learned from other parents that their son's crowd abused drugs.
"It took us a long time to realize that it wasn't his genetics, but that it was the Xanax," they wrote.
'He had an epiphany'
Dispatch records show that Shenfeld called investigators to his parents' house on Christmas Eve in 1998, when he was 18. He told a sheriff's deputy that he was afraid to stay at home and risk a physical fight with his father. Shenfeld said his father told him, "Those drug friends of yours are not allowed in my house."
Two years after their son's first felony arrest, Shenfeld's parents wrote another letter, thanking a judge and a drug program for helping him turn his life around.
They said Shenfeld was in the second year of an electrical apprenticeship at Palm Beach Community College and had a healthy relationship with both them and a girlfriend. They described their son's simple, wholesome existence, which included living on his own, cutting his grass, caring for his dog and maintaining a fishpond.
"Jason has shared with us that when he drives to work, he doesn't listen to the radio, but instead uses the time as his quiet time to reflect on his day," they wrote.
"He told us he had an epiphany and that he knows he has a meaningful purpose in life."
He remains without bail at the Palm Beach County Jail.
