Slain Staten Island fire marshal Douglas Mercereau’s full-figured wife – who some believe was driven to murder by humiliating fat jokes he made at her expense – was the elephant in the room at his funeral yesterday as detectives spent the day trying to build a case against her.
Mercereau’s funeral at St. Charles Church in Oakwood drew more than 200 firefighters, friends and relatives. Many remembered him as a devoted family man who put his wife and kids before his job.
“He was an outstanding husband and father,” said Robert Pento, a fire marshal who worked with Mercereau. “He loved his daughters more than life.”
Meanwhile, detectives yesterday scrutinized the financial records of Janet Redmond-Mercereau, the sole suspect in the execution-style shooting in their Oakwood home Sunday, on the suspicion that she could have paid someone to help kill her husband, sources said yesterday.
They are looking at her bank accounts, credit-card bills, cellphone records and other files that could further implicate her in the murder.
Earlier, detectives checked Redmond-Mercereau’s claim that she slept through the murder – by firing shots inside the home to hear how far the sound traveled.
“The people that were there could hear it outside, so you would assume that anyone sleeping inside would have heard it, too,” said a law-enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
Frank Ardizzone, who lives across the street from the Mercereaus, said he heard the test gunfire.
“I heard what sounded like three muffled shots,” Ardizzone said. “It was ‘boom, boom, boom.’ ”
Ardizzone said the couple’s 5- and 6-year-old daughters had stayed with him for most of the past several days.
“The bigger one has some understanding about what happened,” he said. “But the little one just knows her daddy died and her mother went away.”
“I still find it hard to believe she pulled the trigger,” he said. “I can’t imagine what type of torment would drive her to do that.”
At the funeral, Pento said Mercereau was a rising star in the Fire Department and would have done anything to defend the citizens of New York.
Other mourners said his wife’s presence at the service was awkward.
“I think we were all a little uncomfortable,” family friend Donna Long said. “It’s a difficult time.”
“I was focusing on the Mercereau family and their pain,” she said.
“I have no feelings for her right now.”
Additional reporting by Erika Martinez and Philip Messing