Jens Runge, a vice president at Direct Media Inc. was shot and killed Thursday afternoon in an apparent murder suicide in Kent, New York.
Runge was killed by a shotgun blast in the driveway of the home of his girlfriend Lori Hagerman on Old Forge Drive in Kent. Rafael Jiminez, 41, Hagerman’s estranged husband, shot Runge before retrieving more shotgun shells and running into the nearby woods, reports said. Hagerman, a broker in Direct Media’s business division, is out on maternity leave. She gave birth to Runge’s child about three months ago. She has six other children, sources said.
At about 4 p.m. Thursday a female caller from the residence told police that Jiminez had shot a subject outside the ranch-style home and then fled into the woods, the Kent Police said in a statement.
A second shotgun blast was heard about 5:30 p.m. in the woods as a manhunt was underway with police search dogs and helicopters. Jiminez, a resident of Brewster, NY, was found dead in the woods of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, the police said.
An article Friday in the Journal News quoted Mahopac attorney Lauri Gallow Calistri, the owner of the home where the shooting took place. She said the house had been rented to Hagerman who lived there with her children and Runge. The Kent Police said Runge was a resident of White Plains, NY. Calistri said Jiminez had often visited the home to visit the children.
Sources said Runge’s parents reside in Germany and that his father was coming to New York and planned to visit Direct Media in Greenwich, CT. “He wanted to see his office,” the source said.
The police were investigating a motive.
Runge, 36, worked in both the business-to-business and the international division. He had experience as both a mailer and a broker and was a frequent speaker at industry events. In 1979, he founded Atlantic Media, an international list brokerage company based in Manhattan, Direct Media said.
“Needless to say, it’s an extremely sad day for all of us,” Direct Media founder and CEO, Dave Florence, said Friday in a statement. “It’s heartbreaking for someone who truly loved life to have his life cut short at such a young age. It seems so unimportant to say how hard-working he was and how hard he fought for his clients. Our prayers are with his family and friends, the entire Direct Media family will miss him dearly.”
“He was a very bright and energetic person,” said Mark Zilling, a vice president at MeritDirect. “I just can’t believe that we won’t see him around again.”
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