By Scott Brinton
Last Sunday, a 22-year-old man from Tempe, Ariz., shot and killed the two, who were the best of friends.
The pair were returning home from celebrating Kestenbaum's 20th birthday when police said the assailant, Joshua Mendel, ambushed them outside Kestenbaum's apartment building in Tempe. Kestenbaum was studying early-childhood education at Arizona State University. She had hoped to become a teacher, family members said.
Tempe police said Mendel was angry that Kestenbaum had told his girlfriend that she disapproved of him. Kestenbaum was reportedly among the young woman's close friends at ASU. Police did not identify Mendel's girlfriend.
Schiffman, a student at the University of Maryland in College Park who was studying journalism, had flown to Tempe for the weekend for Kestenbaum's birthday. They had seen the musical "Rent" together at ASU's Gammage Auditorium with Honora Bober, who parted ways with the young women around 10:30 p.m. The two Bellmore-Merrick friends returned to Kestenbaum's apartment at around 4 a.m., when, police said, Mendel attacked them in a parking lot. Soon afterward, he shot and killed himself.
On Monday, Tempe police offered few details about Mendel, saying only that he did not have a local police record and that he had at one time lived in Illinois. On Tuesday, they said he had sought help for alcohol abuse and had told family members that he was suicidal in the days before the shooting. He was reportedly studying graphic arts at a local college in Tempe.
Authorities said there were no witnesses to the shooting. They also said Mendel's body would be tested for drugs and alcohol.
The attack sent a shiver across Bellmore-Merrick, particularly in the Kennedy High School community. The Kestenbaum and Schiffman families said they were "devastated."
Rita Kestenbaum, Carol's mother, said of her daughter, "She was just a girl, who was loving life."
Family members and friends described Carol as a kind, loving young woman with a wide circle of friends, both at Kennedy and in Tempe. Speaking on behalf of the Kestenbaum family, Susie Jacobs said of Carol, "She was a very loving girl. She was a very loving daughter. Rita loved her daughter. Her parents [Rita and Ronald] loved her.
"Carol had so many friends," Jacobs continued. "Everyone wanted to be her friend. She was very clever, intelligent. She was beautiful, but she was beautiful inside and out. She was very appreciative of everything she had. She was a wonderful daughter."
Jacobs added that Carol had a special bond with her older brothers, Sam, 23, and Louie, 21.
Those close to Kestenbaum said she loved Kennedy High School and had a deep sense of school spirit. For the 2004 Homecoming parade, she proudly drove her friends, Ross Drucker and Jen Gold, the Homecoming king and queen, from the Bellmore train station to Kennedy in her bright white convertible. Rita Kestenbaum, a former Town of Hempstead councilwoman and board vice president of the Long Island Crisis Center in Bellmore, walked beside the slow-moving car, cheering her daughter on.
Allen Ma, a Kennedy math teacher, was Kestenbaum's junior-varsity volleyball coach in ninth and 10th grades. She later went on to play varsity volleyball. Ma said he selected Kestenbaum as a JV captain because she "was definitely a leader. She was one of those kids who brighten up the room. The kids really respected her as a leader and a teammate."
Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg, a Democrat from Merrick, knows Rita Kestenbaum well, as she has been active in Bellmore-Merrick Democratic politics for a number of years. Between Carol's junior and senior years at Kennedy, she interned for Denenberg and campaigned for him door to door, along with her mother.
Denenberg said Carol "was very popular; she never had a bad thing to say about anyone. She was so excited to go to school. It's unimaginable. To lose a child is the worst possible thing. To lose a child in this way is the worst of the worst."
Schiffman, too, was described as a loving daughter and caring human being. She loved to write, and was among the first members of Kennedy's girls' lacrosse team. Her cousin Jonathan Pecarsky said, "She was the most wonderful, caring, beautiful, innocent kid you'd ever want to meet in your life. She was an angel. She always saw the best in people.
"She loved family," Pecarsky added. "She loved people. She loved to dance, to be with her friends."
Brian DeGaetano, a Kennedy coach and physical education teacher, had both young women in his phys. ed. classes. "They were nice kids," he said. "They were respectful kids. They were the type of kids you want to have in your class. They were well-liked, never in trouble. They were involved in everything, in all aspects of school. I'm in a state of shock. I can't comprehend it."
Comments about this story? Sbrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
