ICYMI: Wife Charged With Murdering Husband In 20-Year-Old Coffee Bar Case, Prosecutors Say

MIDTOWM MANHATTAN, NY — A woman and her younger brother will face murder charges stemming from a 1996 murder known as the "Coffee Bar Case," prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Roslyn Pilmar, 60, and Evan Wald, 43, were charged with second-degree murder Tuesday for the killing of Howard Pilmar, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced. On March 21, 1996, Howard Pilmar was stabbed to death at his offices on East 33rd Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, prosecutors said.

Howard Pilmar was stabbed and slashed more than 25 times during the brutal killing, prosecutors told Patch. His body was found the next morning by a company employee, prosecutors said. Howard Pilmar was a prominent New York City businessman and the owner of King Office Supply and Philip's Coffee Bar, according to a 1997 New York Times report.

Pilmar collected around $1.5 million in life insurance benefits, ownership of her husband's businesses, a summer home and an Upper East Side apartment after her husband's death, prosecutors said. In 1999, Pilmar paid a former employee $200,000 back in stolen money after pleading guilty to grand larceny, prosecutors said. Pilmar had worked at a dentist’s office before leaving in 1995 to work for her husband.

At the time of Howard Pilmar's murder investigators concluded that the killer likely knew his routine and had a personal connection with him, the New York Times reported in 1997. There was no sign of forced entry to Howard Pilmar's office, his possessions were not taken from his body and the number of stab wounds suggested a strong emotional connection, the Times reported.

Pilmar and her brother Wald were both questioned by police and considered as suspects but were never charged, the Times reported in 1997.

"In 1996, this murder shocked New Yorkers, mystified law enforcement, and the killers eluded justice," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement. "But, in the more than two decades that have passed since Howard Pilmar was brutally stabbed to death, prosecutors in my Office’s Cold Case Unit and NYPD detectives never forgot this shocking crime. I thank them for their dedication, and hope that this prosecution will bring closure to Mr. Pilmar’s loved ones."

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