Bernie Madoff’s sister killed husband, then herself in Florida murder-suicide: report
Bernie Madoff’s sister, Sondra Wiener, allegedly fired the shots in the suspected murder-suicide that left her and her husband dead last week.
Wiener, 87, shot husband Marvin, 90, then died by suicide, BocaNewsNow.com reported.
Police have not confirmed who did the shooting and a spokesperson for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office did not return a request for comment from the Daily News Tuesday.
An official cause of death is still pending an investigation by the medical examiner’s office.
Details of Bernie Madoff’s sister and brother-in-law’s murder-suicide may be shielded by Florida law
The Wieners were found dead Thursday at their Valencia Lakes home in Boynton Beach, about 60 miles north of Miami, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Sunday.
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue responded to a call about a suicide attempt around 1 p.m., but found two people with gunshot wounds, according to BocaNewsNow.com.
A gun was found at the scene.
The couple’s family has already invoked Marsy’s Law, which protects the privacy rights of crime victims and their families.
Sondra Wiener was the sister of the disgraced financier, who died last year while serving a 150-year sentence in federal prison for a $65 billion Ponzi scheme. A Manhattan federal judge denied his bid for early release in June 2020 after Madoff argued that he had less than 18 months to live. Madoff died 10 months later.
Madoff’s older son, Mark, died by suicide in 2010 on the anniversary of his father’s arrest, and his younger son, Andrew, died of cancer in 2014. His wife, Ruth Madoff, 80, is still alive. She previously claimed that she and her husband attempted suicide as they faced Madoff’s scheme unraveled.
The Wieners allegedly lost millions of dollars in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Other victims included former New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax, director Steven Spielberg, actors Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, John Malkovich and Rue McClanahan, and Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
Investigators believe as many as 37,000 people in 136 countries were bilked across four decades.
