Hide Article Text (OCR)
★ A-11Lynwood gunman kills man, selfAPC News ServiceA 33-year-old heavily armed Lynwood man shot and killed his estranged wife’s lover and then shot himself to death several hours after setting fire to his mobile home early Thursday, police said.Daniel Jones, 509 Maureen Court, was so upset over his pending divorce and his wife’s involvement with his close friend and co-worker that he stormed his wife’s apartment in Schererville, Ind., and fired about 180 rounds of ammunition, killing James Castronovo, 33, also of Lynwood, police said.Police found a tape-recorded, five-minute confession on a tape in Jones’ car that detailed his entire plot, from the burning of the home to the murder-suicide. It also included an apology to his mother, police said.Tammy Jones, 31, and Castronovo were together in her second-floor apartment in the 1300 block of Willow Lane at 5:45 a.m. when Jones burst through the door after shooting off the lock, police said.Jones had gained access to the building by breaking into a first-floor apartment and telling a resident there he was a police officer with a SWAT team that was surrounding the building, police said.After entering his wife’s apartment, Jones immediately began firing at Castronovo, who lived in the 20100 block of Marlin Court.Tammy Jones was in the bathroom when her husband broke through the door and ordered her out, according to Schererville Police Chief Don Parker.“He said, ‘Just get out,’ ” Parker said.A frantic Tammy Jones ran from the building to a neighbor’s home for help, Parker said.With Castronovo’s bullet-riddled body lying in the blood-soaked living room, Jones then shot himself, police said.After being called to the scene, police, concerned Jones was still alive, surrounded the building. Three hours later, they went in and found the two men dead. Jones was in a hallway with a single gunshot wound in the head.“It was bad,” Parker said of the scene. “It looked like a bombing.”There were bullet holes in the walls and floors, he said.Jones was wearing a bulletproof vest and carried a semiautomatic rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and several pistols, Parker said. Police were still checking to see where and when Jones had gotten the guns.Police also were looking into the possibility that Jones may have gotten a gun and the vest from the armored car company where he and Castronovo had worked since 1987. The company, Dunbar Armored Car, recently moved from Harvey to Tinley Park.A spokesman for Baltimore-based Dunbar Armored Car said that Jones was an operations manager but stopped working at Dunbar a few weeks ago. Castronovo was a crew chief who supervised car employees, the spokesman said.Bruce Chapel, a manager at Dunbar, said both men were good workers.“Everybody feels deeply hurt,” he said.Lynwood police said the motive for the murder was revenge and jealousy but they were still trying to figure out why Jones set fire to his house.Police in Lynwood responded to the burning home about 2:45 a.m and said they found several gasoline containers in the house and gasoline poured all over the inside of the house.One police source speculated that Jones was trying to get back at his wife by burning down their home, possibly because she might have gained control of it after the divorce was final in a few weeks.Police also were trying to piece together various aspects of the incident, from how Tammy Jones and Castronovo met to how long they allegedly had been involved with each other.Parker said Jones and Castronovo were “close friends” but he was unsure whether their wives knew each other.Castronovo’s wife, Sandy, filed a police report in Lynwood in late July in which she accused Daniel Jones of harassing her after he sent a letter and called her to tell her about her husband’s alleged affair with his wife, Parker said.Parker said he was unsure whether the Castronovos were in the process of a divorce. Their house has a “for sale” sign in front.Parker said Tammy Jones once called police in Lynwood after she and her husband got into an argument.Tammy Jones had sought a divorce some months ago, Lynwood police said, and neighbors of the couple in the Alpine Village mobile home park said Tammy moved out about six months ago, loading her belongings in a moving truck while her husband was at work.Neighbor Mary Sarnowski said DanieT Jones told her recently he was going to sell the mobile home “because he had too many memories.”Sarnowski also said Jones expressed regret about his wife’s leaving him and that he was shocked when she moved out onhim last spring “because he thought they had patched things up.” She said they had been mar ried five years.People described Jones as a nice guy who exchanged pleasantries with his neighbors.Another neighbor said Jones started driving two different late-model vehicles in recent days, leaving his own car parked in front of his home while parking the other vehicl^ down the street.One of those cars was a white Chevrolet Monte Carlo, the same kind of vehicle Daniel Jones drove to his estranged wife’s apartment Thursday.Police said Jones had rented the vehicle a few days ago and they were checking into the possibility that he had been staking out the apartment in Schererville using a car that his ex-wife would not recognize.A somber Parker called the case a tragedy and said it is made even more tragic because Castronovo and his wife have two young children. The Joneses did not have children.Parker met with Sandy Castronovo late Thursday afternoon and said she “is devastated. Obvi ously, she is looking for answers.”Parker said she asked why police didn’t do something about this, but he said, “There was no way anybody could have done anything about this.”Even with a police report like the one in Lynwood, there was no way to know this could happen, Parker said.A woman who lives down the street from the Castronovos said she was shocked to hear about what had happened. She used to see the Castronovos walking their children on Sundays in their tidy subdivision.“This is a good block,” she said. “This sent chills up my spine.”
Newspaper Details
Matteson Star
Matteson, Illinois, US
Sun, Aug 30, 1998
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Ellen W.
USA 19 Aug 2024
Other Publications Near Matteson, Illinois
Matteson PennySaver
Matteson Daily Southtown News Marketer
Matteson Richton Park Star
Matteson Star
