Irma Daniels Sotheby’s real estate agent beaten to death by stepson, John Daniels Jr with baseball bat at Cresskill, N.J luxury home. Suspect was long time unemployed and the son of revered local lawyer.
A high flying real estate agent for Sotheby’s was bludgeoned to death by her 30 year-old stepson with a baseball bat at her luxury gated community home, New Jersey police announced.
Irma Daniels, 48, was beaten to death at her $864,000 home in Cresskill, New Jersey on Wednesday. Cops identified the victim’s husband’s son, John Daniels Jr, 30, as the assailant.
Investigators said Daniels died from blunt force trauma, and launched an urgent search for her stepson who officials say fled the scene after the vicious attack.
Who is John Daniels Jr?
The man who was arrested Thursday, made an initial court appearance Friday in which reports told of the stepson ‘breaking down’ before a judge, who ordered him to be held without bail.
He faces a slew of criminal charges including first-degree murder, unlawful possession of a weapon, and lying to investigators.
Daniels’ LinkedIn profile has him listed as an investment banker, and his social media is littered with shirtless selfies and lavish holidays. According to police, he was unemployed and single at the time of his stepmother’s slaying, and he appears to have not held a job for over three years since leaving his father’s law firm.
Bergen County prosecutor Mark Musella said police were called to the scene in the gated Stonegate Trail community in Cresskill on Wednesday evening.
After arriving at their home, they discovered Daniels’ body, where it was determined she died ‘of apparent blunt force trauma.’
The ascent of Irma Daniels, a Russian immigrant
Police said the suspect’s own father John Daniels Sr, a lawyer, identified his son as the alleged killer.
Daniels Sr is a managing partner with esteemed law firm Daniels & Daniels, a near-century old practice based in Guttenberg, New Jersey.
Irma Daniels, according to police was a Russian immigrant who moved to the United States and married Daniels Sr in 2011.
She had recently been on a trip back to her home country, and just hours before her death shared a Facebook post about how important the visit had been for her.
‘Going back to my roots,’ she posted, coupled with footage of her scenic homeland.
‘My beautiful motherland with breathtaking Caucasian Mountains, ancient culture, heartbreaking history, and graceful and noble people. Proud of being Circassian.’
While his stepmother built a career as a successful realtor with Sotheby’s, Daniels Jr has seemingly been unemployed for some time.
His last known job was at his father’s law firm, where he worked from 2018 to 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. For a year before, he had been a marketing manager with Benzel-Busch Motor Car.
Daniels also received an MBA from Boston College Carroll School of Management in May 2022, and graduated in 2011 from Bergen Catholic High School – the same year Irma Daniels emigrated from Russia and married his father.
Irma Daniels had recently been celebrating a series of recent successes in her career, including being named a realtor associate with Prominent Properties of Sotheby’s International Realty in Eaglewood Cliffs.
This year, she received the prestigious NJ Realtor’s Silver Circle of Excellence Sales Award, which she said was an achievement she had been working towards for years.
‘I finally did it,’ she said online after winning the award in March. ‘After seven years in the real estate industry, I finally received this distinguished award.’
One of them, an immigrant – succeeded against all odds. The other- son of contacts, respectability and professional advantage- failed.
‘Looking back to the beginning of this new journey for me I will never forget how hard it was the first two years with no deals, no clients, no guidance or support from the company where I started,’ she noted at the time. ‘I was ready to give up.’
Irma had also featured in the May issue of property magazine ‘The Neighbors of Closter, Demarest & Haworth’, where she championed her real estate skills.
‘Our homes so frequently evoke personal memories of cherished family experiences that the impending purchase or sale of a home becomes an especially strenuous endeavor,’ Daniels said, the DailyVoice reported.
‘It causes me to approach my task with special sensitivity, concern and professional competence.’
Investigators have yet to say what let to the Sotheby’s realtor’s stepson bludgeoning her to death.
