After she found out her husband was having an affair, Jennair Gerardot got on a train from Delaware to Pennsylvania with a wig and extra clothing, broke into the home of the other woman and fatally shot her, authorities said. Then she turned the revolver on herself.
Police in Radnor Township, Pa., found the bodies of Meredith Chapman, 33, and Gerardot, 47, on the first floor of Chapman's home on Tuesday, near the kitchen. Two rounds had been fired from a seven-shot revolver, authorities said in a press briefing.
Police believe Gerardot broke a glass pane in the door to get into the house, carefully cleaning up shards that had fallen to the floor so that Chapman wouldn't suspect a break-in. Radnor Superintendent of Police William Colarulo called it a "calculated, planned attack" in which Gerardot "was lying in wait." He also said emails and text messages revealed her plans.
One of the last people to see Chapman alive was reportedly a neighbor, who told The Philadelphia Inquirer that she saw Chapman pull into her driveway and then heard an unnerving sound that didn't make sense in their quiet community. "In my head, I was like, 'Is that a gunshot? No it can't be a gunshot,' " the neighbor said.
Officers received calls from others neighbors and arrived at Chapman's home after 7 p.m. They found a man in the driveway who said, "My wife may be inside."
Mark Gerardot was taken to police headquarters. "We're not 100 percent sure of why he went back," Christopher Flanagan, deputy superintendent of Radnor police, said at the briefing.
Colarulo said, "We believe the husband was in the area under the belief that he was meeting the other woman for dinner and when she didn't show up that's when he got concerned and showed up at the house. But again that's unconfirmed."
Mark Gerardot's website features a photograph of the couple standing in a field with two dogs and a slogan that reads, "Ready for life's next adventure." His biography states, "On the personal side, my wife and golden retriever are the center of my universe and the reason I get up every morning." They married in 1993, according to The News Journal, which cited Indiana State Library records.
Gerardot and his wife worked together at a marketing and design business in Indiana called Gerardot & Co. Later, he was a creative director at the University of Delaware and reportedly worked there with Chapman for a time.
Jennair Gerardot's bio on the Gerardot & Co. website reads, "You'll soon learn that this detail-oriented 360º visionary sees and does it all, while keeping everyone else on their toes."
She graduated with a communications degree from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, according to the bio. It states that "the softer side of this highly-driven businesswoman
