S.J. man charged in killing of 88-year-old neighbor

LINWOOD - Bail was set at $2 million cash today for the man accused of stabbing an 88-year-old neighbor to death and injuring two others yesterday morning at an Atlantic County retirement village.

Anthony Milano, 65, who resided in a second-floor Jefferson Court unit at the Village of Linwood for the past three years, was charged Thursday with murder in the death of Catherine "Sissy" McGowan who lived in a unit beneath his.

Although Milano was transferred today to a state-run mental health facility where he will undergo an extensive psychiatric examination, he appeared before Atlantic County Superior Court Judge James E. Isman via audio feed for a brief bail hearing.

Milano is also charged with aggravated assault after allegedly attacking McGowan's daughter, Diane Nehmad, 60, of Egg Harbor Township, as the pair exited the woman's condo around 11:15 a.m. Another neighbor, Eugene Pepper, 84, heard the struggle and ran to help the two women and was also stabbed.

Nehmad and Pepper remained in AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City today.

McGowan was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy conducted this morning indicated that the elderly woman had suffered a number of sharp force injuries, contusions and lacerations to the back of the head.

Police recovered a large folding knife at the scene that is believed to have been used in the attacks.

Milano was transferred from a county operated mental health facility today to the Ann Klein Forensic Center in West Trenton, a 200-bed secured psychiatric hospital that provides care and treatment for individuals who may be mentally ill but are charged with a crime.

Police had been called to Milano's address more than a dozen times over the past several months and McGowan and two other neighbors had recently signed harassment complaints in Linwood Municipal Court against him.

Neighbors said Milano thought the people living near him were "microwaving" and "burning" him through his walls and floor and that he often screamed at passersby and banged loudly on his walls and doors.

He was scheduled to appear in municipal court to answer for the disturbing the peace charges just hours before the attacks.

McGowan was reportedly so afraid of Milano's erratic behavior, that she had recently been staying at her daughter's home. She had returned with her daughter Thursday to retrieve some of her belongings from the condo.