Sandy and Stephenie Mazzella, along with Sandy's mother, Elaine, were killed on March 25, 2016.
WAKE FOREST, N.C. - Family and friends of a mother, father and grandmother shot to death by a neighbor last week continue to grapple with their loss as they say answers about the slayings are slow to come.
"We keep saying to ourselves, 'What could be so bad to motivate someone to do this?'" said Cindy Frommelt in an interview this week with NJ Advance Media.
Frommelt was a lifelong friend of Stephenie Mazzella, 43, who was killed last Friday along with her husband, Sandy, 47, and his mother, Elaine, 76, in the family's home in Wake Forest, N.C.
Jonathan Frederick Sander, 52, a next-door neighbor and business partner of Sandy Mazzella is being held without bond, charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
The crimes appear to have been the result of a feud between the families, according to Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison.
Friends and family, however, question the sheriff's theory.
"Stephenie does not have a harassing bone in her body," Frommelt said. "She was a wonderful, sweet soul. She was a nurse. She always put people first, before herself."
Another friend, Mary Masino Musa of Cedar Grove, said she believes the dispute was between the men rather than the families.
"I think there's a lot more of a missing piece to this puzzle for somebody to act so violently and snap like that," Musa said.
The two men appear to have been on good terms as recently as last August, when Sander posted of picture of the two of them that appears to have been taken in a restaurant.
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Sandy's brother, Rich Sussman of Elmwood Park, said the family in recent weeks apparently became so terrified of Sander that they were planning to move away on Friday, April 1.
"I just don't know exactly, fully, clearly the details of what soured between them," Sussman said on Tuesday. "It's lingering in my mind and it's eating at me."
Sussman said his brother told him of the issues with Sander, including the fact that they took out a restraining order after the suspect allegedly made threatening remarks.
Now Sussman wishes he would have urged his brother to move sooner.
"I regret not talking to my brother more, my father more, my mother more," he said. "Maybe I should have told him, 'Flee your stupid home for your own protection before (April 1)."
Sandy Mazzella grew up in New Milford. Stephenie, who grew up in Jefferson Township, attended Felician College in Bergen County and later lived in Belleville and worked as a registered nurse in Clara Maas Hospital. In North Carolina, she worked as a nurse in the intensive care unit of WakeMed hospital in Raleigh.
The Mazzellas married about 18 years ago in a ceremony at the Newark Airport Marriott. They had two children - a boy, 10, and a girl, 14.
Services are planned for all three victims from 4-8 p.m. Thursday in Wake Forest. A funeral and interment at a Wake Forest cemetery are planned for Friday morning.
Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.