Before Triple Killing in Skillman, Neighbors Noticed a Lawn Going Untended

In the weeks before insurance executive David Grodnick killed his wife, daughter and then himself inside their $1.7 million Somerset County home, neighbors on Wild Azalea Lane noticed something uncharacteristic: the family’s meticulously kept lawn had gone to seed.

Mian Helaly, who lives a few doors down from the Grodnicks in Skillman, a community within Montgomery Township about 55 miles from Manhattan, said he had long regarded the couple’s landscaping as among the best in the neighborhood.

“I thought the house was number one in the [neighborhood for] maintaining their lawn. I think a couple of months or more they were not maintaining it. It was very unusual. It disturbed me,” Helaly said.

Grodnick, 61, is accused of killing his wife, Lora Grodnick, 62, and their 24-year-old daughter, Sloane, at some point before Oct. 2, when police discovered the three bodies inside the nearly 6,000-square-foot home.

Helaly, 73, who works in the import-export business, said both David and Lora Grodnick had spent years and money maintaining the property.

“This couple used to keep their lawn very neat. They were spending a lot of money planting new trees and whenever I would do my morning walk, I’d say hello,” Helaly said.

That changed in recent months, he said.

“All of a sudden, I noticed that in recent months they were not focusing on the lawn. The grass was growing out. They were not trimming the trees,” Helaly said. “It stuck me like something was not right, not going their way.”

Helaly said he was stunned when he learned what had happened inside the house.

“Very, very shocking,” he said. “You would never believe a terrible thing like this would happen.”

David Grodnick was senior vice president and underwriting counsel for Land Services USA, a Philadelphia-based insurance agency that works on commercial real estate transactions. The family had moved to Skillman from Princeton and belonged to two private clubs, Bedens Brook Country Club in Skillman and TPC Jasna Polana in Princeton.

A 2018 lawsuit Grodnick filed against a real estate agent, alleging the family had been lured into renting a hazardous house in Princeton, revealed that Sloane had special needs. That case was dismissed under an agreement reached by both sides; it is unclear whether any settlement was paid.