Mourning Daniel Anderl, The Murdered Son Of A Federal Judge

NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — He was a young man planning on following in the footsteps of his parents, a federal judge and criminal defense attorney. He loved baseball and wanted to practice law when he grew up.

Instead, Daniel Anderl, 20, was shot dead Sunday night in the North Brunswick home where he grew up. His mother is U.S. judge Esther Salas, and father, Mark Anderl, is a criminal defense lawyer.

The man suspected of killing him has been identified by the FBI as Roy Den Hollander and he was found dead Monday in the Catskills region of Sullivan County, New York. Hollander made a name for himself as an anti-feminist lawyer and he had a case pending where Daniel's mother would be the presiding judge. Read more about Hollander here.

Daniel was shot dead at 5 p.m. Sunday at the home he grew up in on Point of the Woods Drive, which is in the Hidden Lakes development in North Brunswick.

Either Anderl, 63, or his son answered the door and the gunman fired right away, according to NJ.com. Both Anderl and Daniel were hit multiple times. Anderl survived and is recovering at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, but his son, his only child, did not, according to North Brunswick Mayor Francis "Mac" Womack.

"It's just an unreal tragedy. For as long as I've known (Mark), it's been his favorite subject to talk about his son, Daniel," said Womack. "He was so proud to talk about Daniel playing baseball for St. Joe's. He always lit up when he was talking about Daniel."

Daniel played varsity baseball for Saint Joseph boys' Catholic high school in Metuchen, where he was a lefthanded pitcher. He was on the 2017 St. Joseph's team that won the Greater Middlesex Conference that year. He graduated from the elite prep school in 2018 and was currently enrolled at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

While he loved baseball, he also took his studies seriously, graduating from St. Joe's with an above-3.8 GPA, according to MyCentralJersey. At Catholic University, he was studying law and wanted to follow in his parents' footsteps, according to Womack.

“I don’t want to dissuade him, but I was pulling for a doctor,” Salas said in an interview she gave with NJ Monthly when she was first appointed by President Barack Obama to the federal judgeship. “He’s been arguing with us since he could talk — practicing his advocacy skills.”

"Daniel was the love of their life; he was their only child, 20 years old,"said a neighbor, Marion Costanza, who knew the family very well. "Daniel played baseball for St. Joe's and he was a very big baseball fan. Just a good, loving, caring family."

"The last thing I heard is that the father ran for the door, Daniel ran down the stairs to get him — and I would believe that, that he would run down to help his father," Costanza told Patch. "He wanted to be a lawyer just like his parents — he was clerking in different law offices."

St. Joseph's released a statement on Daniel's death: "It is with utmost sadness that we inform you that Dan Anderl '18 was taken from us last night. Dan was a true friend, a proud Falcon, and an overall wonderful human being. He will be truly missed. We pray for Dan's family and friends during this unbelievably difficult time — please know, we are mourning with you."

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