Triple Slaying Stuns Town Near Palm Springs

CATHEDRAL CITY — In a pristine neighborhood of wide streets, red-tile roofs and emerald green lawns at the edge of this southern desert town, a tale of alleged marital infidelity has left a family of three dead and a close-knit community mourning the loss of its innocence.

Stunned neighbors gathered on front lawns and driveways Saturday and a stream of curious motorists paraded past the neat stucco home on Bloomsbury Lane, where a local school administrator, her husband and their 6-year-old son were stabbed to death a day earlier.

Police said it was the first triple-murder in Cathedral City, a predominantly middle-class town incorporated 12 years ago in the shadow of Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage.

“You hear about these kind of . . . things, where crazy people just kill people, but not in Cathedral City, not here,” said Terri Gossett, 30, one of many neighbors astonished by the deaths. “Most of us moved here from other places to get away from random killings.”

Arrested for the three killings was Michael Alan Schecter, 39, husband of the principal at the neighborhood elementary school, where the dead woman, Carrie Everhart, was a vice principal. Molly Schecter, the principal, discovered the bodies of Everhart, 30, Mario Amicarella, 30, and the couple’s son, John Amicarella, about 9:30 a.m. after Everhart failed to report for work Friday.

Police said the killings occurred late Thursday night or early Friday morning, but officials could not establish the time until autopsies are performed Monday. Sources said the three victims were found in nightclothes; Everhart by the front door, her husband in the kitchen, and the 6-year-old outside his bedroom door.

Authorities said Saturday that they were investigating the motive for the killings, which, according to neighbors and friends, occurred just hours after Everhart had discussed marital problems.

The neighbors and friends said Everhart had told them Thursday night that her husband and Molly Schecter were having an affair, and that she and Michael Schecter had just learned of it. Neighbors said the two couples often socialized, going to dinner and the movies together.

Police Lt. Ray Griffith confirmed that Everhart and her husband were having marital problems but would not comment further. A source close to the investigation said that friends and neighbors had told police about the alleged affair.

A short walk from Bloomsbury Lane at Sunny Sands Elementary School, where Everhart worked and John Amicarella attended first grade, the flag flew at half-staff on Saturday and the grieving neighborhood decorated a grassy knoll with flowers and notes to the dead family. One card read: “Forever in our hearts. We love you.”

Ministers, priests and Fire Department counselors helped about a dozen families cope with their grief Friday, and counselors are scheduled to visit Sunny Sands on Monday. But on Saturday, residents were left to console one another, a process that was painful and saddening.

Steve McElhiney, 37, who was working on his pickup a few houses away from the murder scene, described the community as a place where neighbors pitch in and help each other with gardening and home repairs. McElhiney said no one would have expected “something so ugly” to happen in their quiet corner of the desert. “This is not Los Angeles,” he said.

Six-year-old Jared McElhiney, outside his house with his father, struggled to comprehend why his friend John would no longer be around to ride bikes. “I don’t understand why he’s dead,” Jared said. “I miss him. It makes me very sad.”

His dad agreed, saying that John “had a laugh that was unbelievable. It was just so boisterous and fun. You couldn’t believe that a kid had a laugh like that.”

Farther down the street, Christopher Gossett, 9, said the killings have scared neighborhood children, and some parents feared that the community’s treasured tranquillity may be hard to regain.

“I didn’t want to go to sleep last night because I was afraid,” Christopher said. “I was scared that the killer would come back and get me.”

Becky Knott, 28, said many residents were having a particularly difficult time dealing with John’s death.

“Everybody really is hurting for the little boy because he didn’t even have a chance to live his life,” Knott said. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

Police said Schecter was arrested late Friday based on interviews and evidence at the Bloomsbury house, but they refused to elaborate. One source said Schecter came to the police offering to help with the investigation, but he almost immediately became a suspect.

Police searched Michael Schecter’s classroom at Palm Desert Middle School, where he taught reading, and the Schecters’ residence in Palm Desert, but they would not say what they were looking for or what they found.

Friends and students said Schecter, who has two young sons, had been a teacher at the school for 15 years, serving as a girls volleyball coach and teaching an after-school leadership class. In a show of support for the arrested teacher, some parents and students stood vigil Saturday outside his Palm Desert home, about 10 miles from the Bloomsbury Lane neighborhood.

“He was so funny and so good to us,” said one 14-year-old student, who asked not to be identified. “This can’t be him.”

The student’s mother was equally incredulous.

“He was a great teacher for the kids,” she said. “He taught them how to read and how to make learning fun. He was one of the best in the school. We are all in shock about this.”

Perry reported from Cathedral City and Murphy from Los Angeles.