Patrick Maupai
A man fatally beat his elderly mother with a fire poker before calling 911 about what he did, according to authorities in Bergen County, New Jersey.
Suspect Patrick Maupai, 40, faces murder and other charges after authorities found Linda Maupai, 79, dead at their New Milford Avenue home in the borough of Dumont.
“At 11:53 p.m. on Saturday, July 23, 2022, the Dumont Police Department received a 911 call from a male stating that he had attacked his mother with a fire poker,” the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office said. “Officers responded to 124 New Milford Avenue and observed a male on the front lawn on the phone with dispatch. The male identified himself as PATRICK MAUPAI, and responding officers immediately took him into custody. Upon entering the front door of the home, the officers observed an elderly female on the floor of the living room with multiple lacerations on her face, which was covered in blood. An investigation conducted by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit and the Dumont Police Department revealed that PATRICK MAUPAI killed his mother with a fire poker.”
Responding officers found the fire poker bent, according to authorities in a Daily Voice report. This allegedly showed how forcefully defendant Maupai swung it.
The victim was reportedly pronounced dead at the hospital.
Authorities did not suggest a motive. Regarding Patrick Maupai’s background and situation, they only described him as single and unemployed.
He remains at the Bergen County Jail on no bond as of Monday, online records show. He faces charges of first-degree murder, third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon.
“I am reeling,” neighbor Jean Nichols told North Jersey. She reportedly expressed bewilderment.
Nichols said she could not remember ever talking to the woman who lived at the home in question. She believed that family moved there within the past five or 10 years because her daughters were friends with the previous family’s children.
Boris Eydlish, another neighbor, said he woke up to the sound of ambulances and police blocking off his road.
“Nothing like this has ever happened around here,” he told the outlet, saying he lived in the neighborhood for 14 years.
Similar to Nichols, he said he never interacted with the victim. He said he saw activity in the home driveway on Saturday, and he believed there could have been a family gathering. He described that residence as always being quiet, however, and the woman rarely stepped out. There was never any visible activity in the home, he said.
Nichols likewise described the neighborhood as peaceful. She said she lived in the same house for 55 years. She was shocked, she said, when her daughter called her about the incident Sunday morning. Nichols, who lives in the home diagonally across from the Maupai home, said she slept through the night. She described the area as a “tiny, bedroom community” where everyone keeps to themselves.
“This doesn’t happen in Dumont,” she said. “I bought this house new 55 years ago, and this community has been wonderful to live in. There has never been any crime here.”
[Booking photo via Bergen County Jail]
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