A New Jersey man believed to have gunned down his lover and her friend in an Upper West Side apartment before killing himself was a “happily married” family man and an avid hunter, neighbors said yesterday.
“They seemed like a normal suburban family. He’s an outdoors man, a hunter,” said Pat Grant, who lived across the street in Glen Ridge, where Michael Ruiz and his family lived for about 15 years.
Police found Ruiz, a bullet in his head, a 9mm pistol on his lap, in Debra Silver’s 93rd Street condo Saturday afternoon. Silver, 46, and actor Dan Tedlie, 57, were found shot to death just feet away.
Ruiz’s wife, Wendy, and their two children arrived home under police escort late yesterday and declined to speak with reporters.
“Wendy and him were happily married, as far as I could tell,” said neighbor Mike Frew. “He’s into archery and hunting. He was a very nice guy, kept to himself.”
Friends and relatives of Silver visited the scene of the crime yesterday.
Said one friend: “She was a very, very nice girl.”