Jersey City, NJ: Jersey City couple's murder-suicide stuns family and friends after bride-to-be's son finds bodies

Wednesday, August 11, 2010
By JEAN-PIERRE MESTANZA
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
A recently engaged Jersey City couple was found dead in an apparent murder-suicide yesterday morning - and the woman's 15-year-old son made the bloody discovery, authorities said.

Jason Felder, 35, apparently shot his longtime girlfriend Sarah Spencer, 29, inside the family's Storms Avenue home and then turned the gun on himself, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said.


Spencer's son was leaving the house at about 8:30 a.m. to walk his dog when he remembered the leash was in his mother's bedroom.

That's when he walked in and found his mother and Felder dead, the boy said yesterday, standing with friends and family members outside the house.

"I was shocked. I did not know what to expect," the boy said. "I just ran out to my grandmother's house and told her what happened. She came running over and we called 911.

"Everything was fine," the boy added about the relationship between his mother and her boyfriend. "I just do not see why it happened."

Oliver Spencer, who owns the single-family home off Monticello Avenue where his daughter lived, was also in shocked disbelief.

"Jason was a quiet, reserved individual and I never saw any tendency towards violence when I knew him," Oliver Spencer said of Felder. "He called me 'Pop', my wife called him 'Son.'"

The pair were in a relationship for approximately 11 years and had lived at the home for about five years, according to Vyvette Felder, the mother of Jason Felder. They announced their engagement about a month ago, family members said.

Spencer was an employee at the Westfield branch of Capital One Bank and had been with the company for about 10 years, family members said. Felder worked security at South Pole Corporation in Fort Lee, they said.

He was there for at least five years, according to Eddie, a co-worker who didn't give his last name.

"He was a wonderful man, never complained, was always cool, he was a real nice guy," Eddie added.

A longtime friend of Felder hinted yesterday that there were recent problems in the relationship, but family members brushed that aside as they all stood outside the house.

"He said he was always happy with the relationship," said Felder's father, Gregory Laval.

Felder also leaves a 15-year-old son from a previous marriage.

DeFazio said autopsies will be conducted.