Robbers Targeted Home of Slain Jewish Day School Aide and Sister

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By Forward Staff February 10, 2014

Robbers reportedly targeted the home of a Pittsburgh Jewish day school teacher’s aide two months before she was murdered alongside her pediatrician sister inside the house.

Hillel Academy officials told Pittsburgh’s Jewish Chronicle newspaper that Susan Wolfe had told of returning to the home to find it ransacked in December. The sisters, who recently bought the home, told co-workers they took security precautions after the incident, and it was unclear if there might be a link to the slayings.

The bodies of Susan Wolfe, 44, and her sister, Sarah, 38, a medical doctor, were found with single gunshot wounds to their heads, police said.

The bodies of the two women were found Friday afternoon in the basement of their two-story home in East Liberty, Pa. There were no signs of forced entry, police said.

Police are asking for information about Susan Wolfe’s lime-green Ford Fiesta, which was found about a mile away from the home.

Police checked the home after a co-worker of Susan Wolfe asked them to check when she did not show up for work at the Jewish day school on Friday. Sarah Wolfe worked as a pediatrician and psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Sarah Wolfe’s car was found Saturday morning, about a mile from the home.

The women have six other siblings, including Iowa state representative Mary Wolfe.

The sisters grew up in Clinton, Iowa, where their father started a prominent law office, according to the WCF Gazette newspaper.

Susan Wolfe moved to Pittsburgh about four months ago, Dori Oshlag, director of the Hillel Academy said.

Oshlag kept the thank-you not Susan Wolfe wrote her after being hired for the job a few months ago — the first such missive she had ever received from a new hire. The note typified Susan Wolfe’s bright personality and cheery disposition.

“She loved her students; she went beyond what was required,” Oshlag told the Jewish Chronicle. “She really greeted the children every day with a smile and with laughter, with eyes I think just reflected her Midwestern nature. She just had such a positive outlook on people.”

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