Wife Kills Husband's Lover, Herself In Shocking PA Murder-Suicide

RADNOR TOWNSHIP, PA – Sometime between 5 and 6 p.m. Monday, Meredith Sullivan Chapman arrived home from her new job at Villanova University, parking her Audi at her Lowrys Lane home and going inside.

Those mundane moments of returning home after a day of work would be the last of her 33-year-long life. Authorities say Chapman was shot dead by a Delaware woman after a love triangle took a violent and deadly turn.

Police say Jennair Gerardot, 47, of Wilmington, Delaware, shot Chapman in the head with a .357-caliber revolver after learning of an alleged affair between her and her husband, Mark Gerardot. Authorities say she carefully plotted the attack, renting a car, carrying a disguise and even cleaning up evidence of the break-in.

After taking Chapman's life, Gerardot turned the gun on herself.

Radnor Township Police were called to the home in Radnor's Rosemont neighborhood at about 7:10 p.m. Monday after neighbors reported hearing gunshots in the area. When officers arrived, they made a gruesome discovery: two female bodies, each with a single gunshot to the head, lying dead on the first floor.

But before even going into the home, police were met by 49-year-old Mark Gerardot: Jennair Gerardot's husband.

"I think my wife's inside," he told responding officers, according to police.

Police say Mark Gerardot, who has since been cooperating with investigators, was in Radnor that day to meet Chapman for dinner. When she did not show up, he went to her home, where police had been summoned due to the gunfire.

Melissa DeJoseph, who lives two doors down from Chapman, told Philly.com she saw Chapman arrive home in her Audi sometime between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Monday. Chapman had just moved to the neighborhood after accepting a job as Villanova University's Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Creative Services.

DeJoseph said after Chapman went inside, she heard two loud noises coming from her home. '“In my head, I was like, ‘Is that a gunshot? No it can’t be a gunshot,’ ” she told the publication.

Emails and text messages that have since surfaced indicate Jennair Gerardot had carefully plotted the killing, authorities said.

A set of car keys found on Jennair Gerardot's body led police to a rented Cadillac XTS parked on a side street adjacent to Lowrys Lane. Inside the vehicle, investigators found ammunition, binoculars, rubber gloves, and ear plugs.

Additionally, police found a gas station receipt, which placed Jennair Gerardot in the Radnor area at 2:30 p.m. Monday, several hours before the killing.

At the scene, police also found a seven-round Taurus Tracker .357-caliber revolver with two chambers empty, a bag with a wig and clothes in the home, and evidence of a break-in that had been covered up.

Police say it was a "calculated, planned attack" and that Jennair Gerardot was "lying in wait."

"You had a man who’s married, who’s having an affair with this other woman," Radnor Police Chief William Colarulo said in the press conference following the shootings. "His wife knew that. This was a calculated, planned attack. She broke into the house. She was lying in wait."

For several months before the murder-suicide, Jennair Gerardot pleaded for marital help, even taking her plight public on neighborhood social media site, NextDoor.

"I just transferred to Delaware in December for my Husband's new job, and he's telling me he wants a divorce I don't know anyone and am completely clueless to the area," Jennair Gerardot wrote on the site, according to Philly.com. "Can someone please recommend a reputable and successful and driven divorce attorney?"

About a month later, Jennair Gerardot took to the site again, soliciting recommendations for a marriage counselor.

"Please recommend an EXCELLENT marriage counselor for couple on brink of divorce," she wrote. "We will need someone who is very educated and experienced dealing with couples issues including infidelity, depression, traumatic experiences, child/parent dynamics, being accountable for actions, etc."

By all accounts Chapman was successful, working for WHYY as a news producer, and serving as communications manager for Delaware Congressman Mike Castle. She was also a former Delaware State senate candidate. She was married to Newark City Councilman Luke Chapman, but police said the couple were separated at the time of her death.

Before moving to Radnor, Chapman was the Senior Director for Marketing at University of Delaware, from which she also earned a degree in 2007. Mark Gerardot worked for the university briefly, as well.

Jennair Gerardot was a marketing and advertising professional, according to her LinkedIn account. According to her profile, she was most recently employed at Spartanburg, South Carolina-based CIRCOR Instrumentation up until December 2017. She was a Fort Wayne, Indiana native.

It's unclear at this point if the two women had ever met.

Mark Gerardot has not yet commented publicly.

Pictured above is Meredith Chapman, courtesy of the University of Delaware