Double Murder, Suicide Shocks Montclair

What a horrible story. These are the kinds of things that make me hope that there is someone greater looking out for us, and cutting short the misery somehow of people innocently caught in awful situations. It is hard to get your head around how someone could do this. Very upsetting.

should the assemblyman really have called the suicide victim a loving father after what he did to his two daughters? what a poor choice of words. 'no comment' would have been better.

I'm with bfblahs on this one.

Anyway, very sad story, indeed. It's a shame that that this got to such a point in his life that he could see no other alternative than taking his life and that of his kids.

Miss Martta, the Assemblyman was merely parroting how Reilly saw himself. He overrated both the depth and the importance of his despair (his "feelings," if you will) and in so doing, slaughtered both himself and two innocents.

All that is left is for the devotionally minded to pray for their souls. No lesson is to be gleaned here, no answers. We have no local equivalent of Dylan Thomas to even lend some verbal majesty to this terrible event.

What a terrible shame. Words do little, but all heartfelt prayers to the mother, family, friends and neighbors of the girls.

while raising my son, i worry everyday that he'll fall on the sidewalk, get stung by a bee, fall off the slide, and later i'll worry he'll fall in a pool, cross the street without looking, or be picked up by a stranger. Kid's lives are so fragile, and it makes me sick when the people they should be able to trust hurt them.

My heart goes out to the mother. I cannot even begin to imagine what she must be going through. Events like these are just so disturbing. Why the innocent children had to be involved in the fathers physchological depressed state. I don't understand.

I can't fathom the amount of paid and despair that Teresa must be feeling now. My heart goes out to her, and the innocent victims.

More info with a picture of Mr. Reilly from 2003:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2007/06/police_investigation_continues_1.html

My sincere condolences to the family. May God grant them peace. I always try to think what good can come from tradgedy. In this case, let's be strong and caring enough to advocate for anyone who we think can use some mental illness counseling.

I knew Tommy when he first came over here from Ireland.

He was a very hard worker and very kind. He did a lot of painting and maintenance work here in Montclair.
I lost track of him when he bought the bar.

No words can express how badly I feel. My prayers go out to his family.

This is horrible.

Well obvioulsy something in him snapped, or he had this planned for whatever horrific reason. Does not matter if he was a hard worker or a nice guy, nice guys dont kill their children. It is sad that someone could be so disturbed and no one around him be able to pick up on this.

I hope that the Mom can survive this. This is something so horrible, no words could ever express the sympathy the whole town, and many others, feel for you.

My heart aches for those angels in the moments before their deaths. How confused and terrified they must have been when their father was doing what he did. God Bless them, and may they rest in peace...

My heart aches for those angels in the moments before their deaths. How confused and terrified they must have been when their father was doing what he did. God Bless them, and may they rest in peace...

This POS doesn't deserve any burial. Just toss his carcus onto a leaf compose pile somewhere.

To damn bad the survivor ever married this thing.

He's in hell, now. Maybe she can find some pleasure in that.

He never loved those children. If so, he would never ever do that.

Our son, was never once in all his life, even spanked, nor struck. This is beyond my ability to comprehend. There is absolutely NO reason good enough.

Reilly's act is straight out of the domestic violence playbook and it was aimed not at the children, but at his wife.
He knew full well the way to ruin her life was to kill their children.
Sadly, if there had been a mandatory inhouse Batterers' Intervention Program attached to the protection order he was under, this might have been prevented.
Wake up. Women and children are dying because we don't hold abusers responsible for their actions.

So, the hate he held for his wife, was greater than the love he had for his own flesh & blood and for that of his children.

I rest my case.

I would have to say, yes, that his hate for his wife was stronger that his love for the children. The proof is in the fact that he chose to kill them. My chosing to drown them, its quite obvious those children in their final moments suffered. A killing like that doesn't go quickly and in watching them suffer he STILL didn't have a moment of clarity and stop himself. You have to be a complete psycho and animal to do something as savage as that. I hope the mother finds the strength that she needs to continue. Its times like these that I pray that there is a heaven and a god and that he didn't allow that man in there and he is nowhere with those children right now. At least this way their mother can have some peace in knowing that even though she cannot be with her children anymore, neither can he.

I would have to say, yes, that his hate for his wife was stronger that his love for the children. The proof is in the fact that he chose to kill them. By chosing to drown them, its quite obvious those children in their final moments suffered. A killing like that doesn't go quickly and in watching them suffer he STILL didn't have a moment of clarity and stop himself. You have to be a complete psycho and animal to do something as savage as that. I hope the mother finds the strength that she needs to continue. Its times like these that I pray that there is a heaven and a god and that he didn't allow that man in there and he is nowhere with those children right now. At least this way their mother can have some peace in knowing that even though she cannot be with her children anymore, neither can he.