A Sotheby’s realtor with a blossoming career was bludgeoned to death by her stepson in their gated community in New Jersey, authorities say.
Forty-eight-year-old Irma Daniels was found dead in her home in Cresskill on Wednesday, when police responded to a 911 call to the townhouse she shared with her husband, attorney John Daniels. At the time, authorities said she appeared to have suffered blunt-force trauma.
On Thursday, police made the shocking arrest of her stepson, 30-year-old John Daniels Jr., charging him with murder, weapons offenses, hindering apprehension by suppression and hindering apprehension by providing false information, according to NJ.com. Police said he had hit his stepmother with a baseball bat before fleeing the home. His father identified him as the killer, local outlet the Daily Voice reported.
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Cresskill police referred all requests for comment to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, which was not immediately available.
Irma Daniels was originally from Russia, having immigrated to the U.S. and married Daniels Sr. in 2011. Before joining Sotheby’s, she worked as a real estate agent at Keller Williams Town Life in Tenafly. A former colleague, Eileen Meehan, described her to the Daily Voice as “super smart, hard working, and a fantastic agent.”
On her Facebook page, she wrote about being featured in a local magazine called The Neighbors of Closter, Demarest and Haworth, and about winning the Circle of Excellence award from the NJ Board of Realtors.
“I will never forget how hard it was the first two years with no deals, no clients, no guidance or support from the company where I started,” she wrote about winning the award. “It was a long way to get where I am now. Everything came to me through perseverance, work ethic, failures, creative mind and most importantly my mindset that I am not a quitter.”
She also waxed eloquent on her recent trip back to Russia, of which she wrote: “My beautiful motherland with breathtaking Caucasian Mountains, ancient culture, heartbreaking history and graceful and noble people. Proud of being #Circassian.”
Daniels Jr., meanwhile, appeared to be unemployed, last working as an assistant at his father’s law firm. On his LinkedIn, he also lists one year as a marketing manager at Benzel-Busch Motor Car, as well as an undergraduate degree from Seton Hall University and an MBA from Boston College Carroll School of Management. The biography section on his Facebook page reads: “A winner's mindset opens the gate to the luck of timing.”
