A university student was shot and killed in an apparent double murder-suicide early yesterday in Tempe, Ariz., during a trip to visit a childhood friend.
Police identified the student as Nicole Schiffman, a sophomore letters and sciences major who had flown across the country late last week to celebrate the 20th birthday of Carol Kestenbaum, a student at Arizona State University. Kestenbaum was also killed in the shooting, police said.
After celebrating the birthday Saturday night, the two returned to Kestenbaum’s apartment about 4 a.m. yesterday. Waiting there was Joshua Mendel, a 22-year-old Tempe resident, who opened fire on the two women in the parking lot, police said. After shooting the two women, he turned the gun on himself.
Police believe Mendel plotted the murder in response to critical remarks she made about the relationship he had with his girlfriend, and that Schiffman was caught in the middle of the dispute without having any previous relationship with the murderer.
Tempe Police spokesman Dan Masters said Mendel was waiting for Kestenbaum at the parking lot with two fully loaded handguns in his pockets and an extra clip of ammunition. Schiffman was found still breathing with gunshot wounds in her upper body, but died during surgery about 5:30 a.m. at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, Masters said. Kestenbaum was dead when police arrived.
Masters said investigators believe the murder was premeditated solely by Mendel, and they are not pursuing any other suspects.
“Based on the brutality of what he did, without a doubt we believe that he thought about this before he came over,” Masters said.
At this university, Schiffman was an active member of sorority Phi Sigma Sigma, and her fellow sorority members gathered last night in shock and shared memories of a playful girl whose warmth lifted the group in the year she knew them.
Because of a sorority policy that prevents contact with the media, women at the College Avenue Phi Sigma Sigma house declined to comment. The mother of Schiffman’s roommate said Schiffman’s parents, who live in Merrick, N.Y., were en route to Arizona last night.
Other friends remembered Schiffman’s friendly personality and sense of humor.
Her roommate last year, sophomore hearing and sciences major Robyn Geller, said Schiffman’s warmth sparked a instant connection between the two, and led to many friendships she built around the hall her freshman year.
“She was just the type of person that you feel comfortable around,” she said.
Schiffman was one of the first girls junior economics major Scott Roth met when he initially arrived at Maryland. While they’d often see each other on the weekends, he said he had his best memories with Schiffman when they were joking around together in the back of their freshman year math lectures.
Her smile captured her personality, he said.
“Even if I tried to annoy her, whatever the case was, I’d always see a smile on her face,” Roth said. “She just didn’t let things bother her. With the smile she boasted, she never once seemed upset.”
Contact reporter Ben Slivnick at slivnickdbk@gmail.com.