A self-described “men’s rights” lawyer found dead Monday in Sullivan County, New York is the primary suspect in the deadly shooting of a federal judge’s family in New Jersey.
Federal officials identified Roy Den Hollander as the main suspect in a shooting at U.S. District Judge Esther Salas’ family home Sunday afternoon in which he killed her 20-year-old son and seriously injured her husband.
On Sunday, a gunman disguised as a FedEx delivery person approached the North Brunswick house of Judge Esther Salas and started shooting, killing the jurist’s son Daniel Anderl and wounding her husband, defense attorney Mark Anderl. Judge Salas was at home at the time of the shooting, but she was in the basement and is not injured.
Daniel Anderl, 20 was fatally shot when he opened the door for the gunman around 5 p.m.
“He was shot through the heart,” North Brunswick Mayor Francis “Mac” Womack (D) told ABC News.
When Mark Anderl, 63 went over to see what happened, he was shot multiple times. He was rushed to the hospital and is now in stable condition.
Roy Den Hollander, 72 was a self-professed “anti-feminist” activist who gained media attention including appearances on Comedy Central and Fox News for writing a 1700 page book about “feminazis” and filing frivolous lawsuits against women’s studies programs and night clubs who hold “ladies night.”
In the 2008 Fox News appearance, he called women “the real oppressors” and wrote online about his grievances against female judges.
He told the New York Times in 2008 that his anger towards women stemmed from his bitter divorce from a woman he married in Russia.
In 2015, Den Hollander had an open case before Judge Salas — whom he described in the self-published book as “a lazy and incompetent Latina judge appointed by Obama.” In the case, he was contesting the government’s refusal to allow women to register for the military draft.
Judge Salas allowed the case to proceed in a 2018 ruling, marking a victory for Den Hollander. However, he criticized the judge for not moving the case along fast enough.
He left the draft case in 2019 and asked a Boies Schiller Flexner partner Nicholas Gravante Jr. to take over, after reportedly being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Den Hollander’s body was found by New York State Police on Sunday about a two-hour drive from the home — after he shot himself in an apparent suicide, officials said.
Along with Den Hollander’s body, the officials found a package addressed to Salas. The package was empty.
New York State’s Chief judge, Janet M. DiFiore was contacted by the FBI on Monday to notify her that they found a photograph of her and her name in Den Hollander’s car, according to her spokesman, Lucian Chalfen.
According to one law enforcement official, officials are still investigating whether Den Hollander had decided to “take out” some of his enemies before he died.
In the epilogue of his online book, he alluded to his cancer diagnosis. “Death’s hand is on my left shoulder,” he wrote, adding that “nothing in this life matters anymore.”
“The only problem with a life lived too long under Feminazi rule,” he said, “is that a man ends up with so many enemies he can’t even the score with all of them.”
Salas, 51, is the first Hispanic woman to serve as a federal judge in New Jersey. She was nominated to the United States District Court for New Jersey by then-President Barack Obama in 2010.
She has presided over various high-profile cases, including the criminal trial of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” stars Joe and Teresa Giudice.
According to a 2018 profile of her in New Jersey Monthly, Salas met her husband when he was a prosecutor in the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. Mark Anderl became a criminal defense lawyer after a decade working as a prosecutor and now works at his own law firm, Anderl & Oakley P.C.
Salas’ son Daniel Anderl was about to become a freshman at the Catholic University of America in Washington, where he was named to the Dean’s List this spring.
“I was shocked last night to hear news of Daniel Anderl’s tragic death Sunday evening in New Jersey. Daniel was a rising junior, enrolled for classes beginning in the next few weeks,” university President John Garvey wrote on Twitter. “He turned 20 last week.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said in a statement, “Judge Salas and her family are in our thoughts at this time as they cope with this senseless act.”