Neighbors of Bernie Madoff’s sister and her husband — who died last week in a suspected slay-suicide — said Monday the couple was “deeply in love” while coping with him being “very frail” in their final years.
Sondra Weiner, 87, and her 90-year-old husband Marvin were discovered dead from gunshot wounds in their home Thursday afternoon in Boynton Beach, Fla., authorities said.
The Weiners were among those financially ruined by Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
Neighbor Donald Lapinson told The Post that the couple was “deeply in love with each other.
“It was a wonderful relationship between the two of them. It’s such a tragedy,” he said.
Lapinson used to play golf with Marvin, whom he described as “very frail” in his final years.
Henrietta Kleinman, who lives on the same block as the Wieners, said, “They were very lovely people, they were nice neighbors.
“There’s nothing bad you could say about them,” she said.
The Weiners moved to the Valencia Lakes gated community following the Madoff scandal. Joe DeMariaSondra loved to swim at their retirement community’s clubhouse, the resident said.
“She swam beautifully, like Esther Williams,” Kleinman said, referring to the actress in the 1940s and ’50s renowned for her graceful strokes.
The couple’s death was a “shock to everyone,” the neighbor added.
The Weiners had moved to the Valencia Lakes community in Boynton Beach after being forced to downsize in the aftermath of the Madoff scandal.
The couple was found dead in their garage, according to reports. Joe DeMaria“When they moved here, [Sondra] would have parties out on the patio,” said neighbor Diana Milberg, who didn’t know the couple well but shared neighborly conversations with them.
“The only time I saw her was in the grocery store. … She sent her son over to see if I needed any help in the last hurricane,” Milberg said. “I called her once to see if she’d seen the UPS truck come.”
Milberg said she would see Marvin taking the trash out to the curb, even at age 90.
“I wonder if they made a suicide pact,” Milberg said. “It’s sad.”
The Weiners were remembered as lovely people, and neighbors were shocked at their deaths. Joe DeMariaDeputies received a call at 12:55 p.m. Thursday about the couple being unresponsive in their residence, authorities said. They were found dead in the garage, according to the Daily Mail.
Police are investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide but have not provided more details, and it is not immediately clear who killed whom.
One of the couple’s sons, David, confirmed in 2009 that his parents had suffered financially as a result of Madoff’s infamous historic fraud.
“Yes, my family’s a victim. More so than anybody else. It’s very painful,” David told The Post at the time.
Before Madoff’s crimes came to light, the Wieners had lived near his Palm Beach estate in the BallenIsles Country Club, a gated enclave home to celebrities such as Serena and Venus Williams. Madoff, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to the Ponzi scheme, died in a North Carolina prison in April serving a 150-year sentence. He was 82.
