The police have been, or are interested in, talking to a number of people who knew music manager-turned-real estate broker Linda Stein. Stein, apparently bludgeoned to death, was found in her exclusive Fifth Avenue apartment by her daughter and a friend earlier this week.
Since then more details have come out. Detectives believe Stein knew her killer and let him/her into the apartment, or that the killer is someone with access to the building. They believe she spent time with someone that afternoon, followed by a number of phone calls - however they have yet to narrow down what time the murder may have taken place. According to a NY Post graphic, elevators at 965 open directly into apartments. The police have spoken to construction workers who were on the roof of 965 Fifth Avenue; the foreman emphasized their cooperation and told the Times that all workers had "signed forms allowing DNA tests and that investigators had fingerprinted them and vacuumed their clothes."
The police have interrogated Stein's ex-lover, Francisco Arena, who said they were still friends after they broke up, and her ex-assistant Raoul Bernal, who Stein fired a few months ago after a dispute over commission. Additionally, the Daily News reports that Stein's friends told the police to also look for "high-end marijuana dealers" (Stein survived cancer twice). The police are also interviewing residents.
Stein was previously married to Seymour Stein, the music mogul who founded Sire Records. They met when Linda Stein was Linda Adler, a schoolteacher from the Bronx - a fifth grader set her up with his uncle Seymour. Seymour Stein told Roger Friedman of Fox News, "Our marriage was like a rollercoaster. Only a good one, like the Cyclone at Coney Island."
Photograph from a 1991 New York magazine profile of Stein, written by Michael Gross; Gross wrote on his website, "The city is poorer without her, though my guess is the tabloid stories to come will be more than a little rich."
