WABC Newsman Found Dead in Carroll Gardens Home

NEW YORK (AP)  -- Police investigating the slaying of a longtime radio reporter pored over phone records Monday and searched the apartment where he was found bound with duct tape and stabbed to death.


Juliet Papa reports

An autopsy found George Weber, 47, died of repeated stab wounds of the head, neck, torso and arms. The death was ruled a homicide Monday by the medical examiner's office. Police believe he was killed Friday, but the body was found Sunday after Weber was reported missing by his boss.

NYPD spoksman Paul Browne said investigators are searching for the murder weapon, working to recreate Weber's last moves and following up on one witness report that a person was seen pacing Friday night outside Weber's Brooklyn brownstone. The person was later let into the building.

``They are looking to see if there is any information to indicate that he may have known the individual responsible for his death,'' Browne said.

Weber worked for WABC for 12 years as the on-air reporter for popular shows like ``Curtis and Kuby.'' The station let him go amid programming changes last year, and he had since worked as a freelancer for ABC News Radio, the national network. His last newscast was on March 15.

ABC News Radio Vice President Steve Jones said he called the police when Weber failed to show up for a scheduled shift on Saturday. Police said they received two calls, one at around 12:30 a.m. and one at 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

Police found nothing amiss responding to the first call at the three-story brownstone where Weber lived on the ground floor in Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens neighborhood. They returned after the second call, interviewing neighbors who said they thought they could hear water running through the night.

Police entered the apartment and found his body in the bedroom, bound at the ankles with duct tape. Water was left running in a sink and a tub, possibly to clean up the crime scene, police said.

The apartment appeared to be ransacked, but it didn't look like anything was taken, Browne said. Weber's last blog posting was Friday, where he talked about working to rid his apartment of bedbugs.

Weber was a veteran radio newsman who worked at stations including KGO in San Francisco and KTLK and KMPC in Los Angeles before coming to New York.

``He really loved news radio and enjoyed being on the air and enjoyed the connection he had with his listeners,'' Jones said Sunday. ``He also loved Brooklyn and his neighborhood.''

George Weber and Mayor Bloomberg/Photo Courtesy GeorgeWeber.net; Top Inset from WABC Radio