Wood-Ridge murder victim related to former Bergen state Sen. Tony Scardino

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Wood-Ridge murder victim related to former Bergen state Sen. Tony Scardino

Posted by: admin Tags: Posted date: December 12, 2011 | No comment

CLIFFVIEW PILOT EXCLUSIVE: John Amendola, the 39-year-old man murdered in a Wood-Ridge residence Sunday afternoon, was related to Anthony Scardino, the former state senator, Lyndhurst mayor and NJSEA commissioner from Bergen County, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.

John Amendola

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Authorities have a suspect and were seeking an arrest warrant Sunday night in the killing of Amendola, who worked at his family’s deli and was graduated from Hasbrouck Heights High School, a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the murder told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

UPDATE: Investigators have charged a longtime friend in the stabbing death of 39-year-old John Amendola in his Wood-Ridge home, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned. They have also found the murder weapon following a search of the accused killer’s home and that of his girlfriend. READ MORE….

“It is a homicide but not one that you should worry over,” a law enforcement official told residents in the Wood-Ridge neighborhood where Sardino’s relative was killed, apparently in a domestic incident, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.

Hours after Amendola’s body was found, police were still searching the area, apparently for a weapon.

A spokesman for the county prosecutor’s office issued a statement just after 4:30 p.m.:

“Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli has announced that a body of a male in his 40’s was discovered in a residential dwelling at 311 Union Avenue, Wood-Ridge mid-day Sunday. The matter is being investigated by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Wood-Ridge Police Department as a homicide. No further details are available as the investigation is [under way].”

No additional information, including the victim’s identity, was released by the prosecutor’s office as of 12:30 a.m. Monday. However, several law enforcement sources confirmed Amendola’s identity for CLIFFVIEW PILOT Sunday night.

Anthony Scardino is a well-known figure in Bergen County and throughout the state.

Besides serving as Lyndhurst mayor, Scardino has been a Board of Education trustee, a Felician College trustee, a board member of the Bergen County Law and Public Safety Institute, president of the 200 Club of Bergen County and a state senator for six years.