Beloved Mother-of-Three Beaten to Death With a Wine Bottle by a Parolee Robber at the Liquor Store She Owned
Ashley Collman, Daily Mail, March 6, 2017
Charlotte Lahr and Kevin Quander
A mother-of-three liquor store owner was bludgeoned to death with a wine bottle at her store on Thursday, during a robbery carried out by a parolee.
Police were called to Char’s South Ave Wine and Liquor around 5pm and found owner Charlotte Lahr suffering from severe trauma to the upper body.
Police and firefighters tried to revive the mother-of-three at the scene but she died.
Parolee Kevin Quander, 59, was arrested the next day for her murder and for robbing the store.
Police say he had just gotten out of jail after serving a nine-year prison sentence for robbery.
He was released on parole on January 12, 2017, and had been living at a community residence on the grounds of the Rochester Psychiatric Center – just a half-mile from the liquor store.
According to arrest documents, Quander was armed with a knife when he robbed Lahr’s store Thursday evening.
But he used a wine bottle to repeatedly hit her in the head and face before fleeing.
Police say the crime was caught on surveillance footage and they recovered Quander’s fingerprints at the scene.
At his arraignment on Saturday, Quander pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and first-degree robbery. He was ordered held without bail.
Following the murder, friends of Lahr set up a make-shift memorial at the scene of the crime.
‘She is a fighter,’ Lahr’s sister Anne English told WHAM. ‘She fought until the very last breath that she took. I know she fought her best.’
