One year after their youngestbrother was charged with killing their father,Ryan and Chris Quadrel are stilltrying to process the violent act that forever changed their lives.
Chris, the middle of three sons,now27, describes growing up in Rockaway Township as idyllic. Their home fit in with other large houses on the wide, tree-lined street. Their father, Dr. Mark Quadrel, was a popular family physicianwho never missed his sons' games or events. Their mother, Wanda, was a stay-at-home mom who drovethe boys around town ina big Cadillac herhusband bought her because it was a safe car.
The boys' childhood years were perfect. They all attendedMorris Knolls High School, where their father served as the football team’s doctor.
Today their youngest brother, Steven, 25, remains behind bars at Pennsylvania's Montgomery County Prison charged with the shooting death of their 61-year-old father. The two olderbrothers say they are still trying to make sense of the tragedy as they also try to come to terms with the death of their mother from a stroke in 2016.
“I still haven’t had that moment where I sit down and cry about it,” Chris said. “We are still trying to put the pieces together. His lawyer isn’t speaking to us because of confidentiality, so no one knows much.”
On Oct. 24, 2018, Mark Quadrel went to his son Steven's apartment in Norristown, Pennsylvania. After the two argued, police said, Steven left the apartment, went to his truck, retrieved a gun, returned to the apartment and shot his father in the back and head. Police found 23 cartridge casings and eight projectiles at the scene, records show.
The oldest brother, Ryan, 35, moved to California about 10 years ago. Chris went south to Florida. Both sons tried to get their father to move closer to them, but he remained in the Northeast closer to Steven, who had moved to Pennsylvania.
“He was always concerned that Steven was going to relapse and wanted to be there to care for him and keep an eye on him,” Ryan said, referring to his brother's drug addiction. “He talked to him the most. Detectives even said that when they went through Steven’s phone, my dad was the person, by far, that he communicated with the most. They probably talked every day.”
A close family
Both brothers said they came from a close family in which they and Steven grew even closer to one another and their father after their mother's death at age 57.
“After my mom passed, he got really into hiking," Chris said of his father. "He did it as much as he could. Even after work, he would hike until dark. I felt like he hiked so much to get closer to my mom."
Mark Quadrel hiked every weekend, often with Steven. The brothers said it was their father’s way of keeping an eye on a son who had a number of turbulent years.
Chris, being just two years older than Steven, knew many in Steven’s circle of friends. He said that after his younger brother was kicked off the high school's wrestling team for fighting, his friends changed. The more “straight-edge, sports kids” were replaced by ones who were popping pills and doing drugs, Chris said.
“He was kind of struggling with the drug thing his last year of high school and his first year of college,” Chris said. Eventually, Steven dropped out ofFairleigh Dickinson University and went into a rehab program. He enrolled in atechnical institute, where he learned to work on cars.
Steven loved working on cars. He graduated valedictorian from the school and then dove into cars to keep himself busy, his brothers said. The family was relieved when Steven moved to Pennsylvania, because he was moving away from the bad influences.
Steven kept to himself, but he seemed to like it that way, his brothers said. He asked his fatherfor help to keep himon the right track. Mark Quadrel bought his sona cellphone, and in the interest of staying on a good path, Steven gave his father his old friends' phone numbers.
Mark Quadrelchecked his son's phone records each week to make sure he was not in touch with the old friends and went to visithim most weekends.Stevenprobably had the closest bond with the father among them because of his problems,the brothers said.
Signs of trouble
Chris received a call from Steven two days before his father's death. It was 1 a.m., and he didn't answer. Chris said he still regrets that decision.
“Sometimes I think about that call in the middle of the night,” he said. “What if I had answered? Could I have figured something out? Could Ihave stopped something from happening?”
Both brothers have attempted to piece together the events of that October week. They have called Steven’s friends and boss and their father's friends and co-workers. Some told them their brother was showing signs of mental illness.
“He was acting weird for a few days before this happened,” Chris said. “He was calling people and leaving weird voicemails.”
Chris said Steven called his father 10 times on the same night he received the 1 a.m. phone call. He left messages on his father's phone, but they were not decipherable.
On his last day,Mark Quadrel received a call from a hospital in Pennsylvania.
The last day
“It’s hard to reconstruct, but prior to the event they know that Steven was hospitalized twice, once the day before it [shooting]happened and then the early morning of the day that it happened,” Ryan said. “He had been released on both occasions."
Their father receiveda call from someone he knew at Suburban Community Hospital who told him his son had just checked himself out, against medical advice.
"They gave my dad a courtesy call that Steven had been admitted for an overdose. They didn’t run a toxicology. They didn’t know what the drug was, or what affected him. He signed himself out,” Ryan said. “My dad was coming onto a shift at the hospital where he worked at Rutgers. He said, ‘I have to leave. I have to go take care of this. My son is in trouble.' He left immediately to go to Steven‘s apartment.”
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Ryan has not spoken to Steven since that day. Chris estimates that he talks with his brother about once a month for about 10 minutes, the length of time permitted at Montgomery County Prison. Both have reserved judgment of their brother.
“Part of me is really mad at him and part of me is worried for him,” Chris said. “If he did something out of anger that I don’t know about, of course I will be mad at him, furious. But what if he developed a mental disorder? This is the age where people start to develop disorders. What if he didn’t know what was going on or he blacked out? Then I don’t know if I can blame him.”
The older brothers said that in the police report, officers noted that Steven told them to go check on his father as an indication of a flawed awareness.
“The police think there is a 10-hour period between when my brother was arrested and when they found my father. The police said he put down my mom’s name and my dad‘s name as his emergency contacts when he was arrested,” Chris said. “When he said something to them about being worried about his dad, that is when they started searching for him.”
Police reports show this time gap to be about six hours.
Steven, reports show, told investigators his father arrived unannounced at his apartment and after an argument, he went to his truck, got his semiautomatic9mm Beretta, returned to the apartment and shot his father in the back and head, according to the affidavit.
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In his mind, Ryan said, his brother and"the monster that did that thing" are separate.
"I don't want to see him suffer. I don’t want to see my brother go through what he is going through or for it to be worse in any way for him," Ryan said.
Both men want more information, which they hope will be provided during their brother's upcoming trial in May.
"I haven’t spoken to him about what happened, and I am not sure that I am ready to. We have been avoiding the subject," Chris said.
Gene Myersis a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email:myers@northjersey.comTwitter:@myersgene
