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However, after 12 hours of interviewing, investigators at 6:15 a.m. Saturday released her ex-husband, 41-year-old Allan Pelcak Jr.
Laura Matousek, 46, had been waiting to be picked up in a car pool in the parking lot area of the Sheraton Crossroads when she was attacked around 8:30 Friday morning, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli. Witnesses reported seeing a man jump out of an SUV or truck matching the description of Pelcak’s, attack Matousek and then run over her. Authorities began looking for Pelcak soon after.
Matousek underwent surgery for several stab wounds and broken bones. She was still listed in critical condition late Friday.
Around 4 p.m. Friday, local police and Molinelli’s detectives saw Pelcak walking near a relative’s home in the Rockland County town of West Haverstraw. Pelcak voluntarily went with the prosecutors investigators for an interview that lasted through the night and past dawn, Molinelli said.
Fearing for the safety of the couple’s two children — ages 8 and 5 — Mahwah police earlier in the day had called their counterparts in Clarkstown. The youngsters were found safe.
However, the school the youngsters attend — Liberty Elementary in Valley Cottage — was then put into lockdown. At dismissal, the youngsters reportedly were escorted to buses and cars by adults. Two Clarkstown police cruisers followed one of the buses off school grounds.
“We had a prior dispute between the two, but that was well after they separated,” a Clarkstown, N.Y. police sergent said of the Pelcaks. “We had some possible addresses that wound up checking negative.” One of them was their previous home, which had been foreclosed on about a year ago in the Clarkstown hamlet of Valley Cottage.
Matousek, meanwhile, was living with her children in a condo nearby. Pelcak reportedly is living in Westchester.
Records show the couple had argued over child support after divorcing more than two years ago. A Rockland County Court record dated Jan. 31, 2008 says Matousek won an $11,544 judgment against Pelcak for “arrears having accrued because of non-payment” of support, according to LoHud.com. The document says Pelcak “knowingly, consciously and voluntarily disregarded the obligation under lawful court order.”
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