By: Nick Buglione
Police said Flynn was driven to murder because she believed Stein was not properly taking care of Stein-s sick granddaughter, Valerie, 17.
Flynn is the girlfriend and roommate of Stein-s daughter, who is also named Valerie but is not the granddaughter-s mother, police said.
She felt because the girl was deteriorating, rightly or wrongly, [it was Stein-s fault], said Detective Sgt. Richard Laursen of the Nassau County Homicide Squad. Apparently, she had been stewing about this for a while.
Though Laursen would not identify the granddaughter-s illness, he said she had been seriously ill for some time and was in the hospital. He also said that Stein did not deny her granddaughter access to health care.
Flynn, who lives about two miles from Stein on Oltmann Road, allegedly strangled the woman with her hands. Stein had been renting the upstairs apartment of the Stratford Drive home for three years.
After she allegedly killed Stein, Flynn made a number of phone calls to relatives on her way home, informing them of the murder and her intention to commit suicide once she got there, Laursen said.
Flynn called a relative in New Jersey, who in turn called New Jersey law enforcement, who in turn called us, he said.
Nassau County police received two calls about the homicide from New Jersey authorities at around 2:25 p.m. on Monday. Just before that, First Precinct police officers responded to a potential suicide call at Flynn-s house. When they arrived at the scene, they found Flynn in the backyard with a shotgun about an arm-s distance away. They secured the weapon, and they secured her, Laursen said.
Stein-s daughter Valerie had talked Flynn out of killing herself.
Flynn was charged with second-degree murder and was placed under observation at Nassau University Medical Center. She was scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court on Tuesday, police said.
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