KIAMESHA LAKE, N.Y. -- A Catskill Mountains retreat for ultra- orthodox Jews was in a 'tremendous panic' Tuesday following the violent killing of two elderly Holocaust survivors, authorities said.
State Police said they were pursuing phone tips and forensic leads but have no suspects in the beating death of the Hasidic couple.
The bludgeoned bodies of Lazar Papier, 75, and his wife, Miriam, 67, were discovered about 8 a.m. Monday in the Ryke Bungalow Colony in Kiamesha Lake in the storied Catskills about 75 miles northwest of New York City.
The couple, both survivors of Nazi persecution, immigrated to this country from Poland in 1949. Their bodies were discovered after Papier failed to appear at religious services Monday morning.
'There were no bullets, it appeared they were hit by blunt objects,' said Noach Dear, a New York City councilman with close ties to the community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, where the couple lived.
'The whole bungalow was ransacked,' Dear said in New York City. 'It's created a tremendous panic in the mountains.
'You don't have locks in a bungalow colony. But they're all putting locks on now. They're probably not sleeping at night,' he added.
Sullivan County District Attorney Stephen Lungen said the bungalow had been ransacked, but would not release details of the investigation.
'We have not completed the basic things, forensic people are still working on the crime scene,' Lungen said. 'We are developing leads.'
He said preliminary indications were that the motive was robbery.
The Kiamesha Lake resort is adjacent to the landmark Concord resort in that part of the Catskills nicknamed the' Borscht Belt.'
'These people were very respected and well-liked and kept to themselves,' said Dear.
In Brooklyn Hasidic community members announced a reward of $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers.
Funeral services were held Monday night in Brooklyn at the Bobover Sharei Zion Congregation within 24 hours of the killings, as is Jewish custom. The couple had five children.
