A Great Neck neighborhood hopes to move past tragedy

Janelle Clausen

A week after a fatal stabbing in a Great Neck residence that drew attention as far away as the British tabloids, the neighborhood seems set on moving on from the incident.

Police have accused Faye Doomchin, 66, a North Road resident living with her husband and daughter, of killing a 60-year-old woman from England who was visiting their house with a mutual friend.

Detective Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick said Doomchin was socializing with a male friend living “in the Queens area” and a female friend of his visiting from England. Together they had lunch, bought cake and returned to the home, Fitzgerald said, before Doomchin allegedly stabbed the woman once in the chest with a kitchen knife around 3:53 p.m. on Aug. 13.

“They were talking and the woman [Doomchin] made statements that she did not like the woman from England,” Fitzpatrick said, “that she needed ‘to rid the house of evil.’”

A spokesman for the Nassau County Police Department said the victim’s name cannot yet be released. “There must be some red tape,” he said.

Doomchin was charged with second-degree murder and pleaded not guilty through her lawyer last week.  She remains incarcerated and will be in court on Monday, her lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, said.

Most neighbors on Spring Lane and near the home on North Road either declined to speak with a reporter or were unavailable for comment in person on Monday, with a handful offering brief remarks.

“We didn’t know anything about her,” one resident on North Road said.

A neighbor on nearby Hicks Lane opened the door but declined to speak about the incident.

And one North Road resident said that the tragedy, while troubling, is one she hopes to move past.

“We’re really upset about it,” she said, “but we’re trying to move on from it.”

Rabbi Joseph Geisinsky of Chabad of Great Neck said last week that he knew Doomchin as a kind and welcoming person who would make meals for people.

Gottlieb, Doomchin’s defense lawyer, said the case reflects “the very serious mental illness that she has suffered for her adult life.”

“The family is devastated by what happened to the woman who suffered because of the mental illness, as well as what happened to Ms. Doomchin,” Gottlieb said on Tuesday. “It’s a tragedy for everybody.”

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