Dunwoody day care killing | Victim allegedly killed by wife's boss

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By Christian Boone and Craig Schneider

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The man accused of killing Rusty Sneiderman is his wife's boss.

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Bob Andres, bandres@ajc.com Hemy Neuman is charged in the slaying of Russell "Rusty" Sneiderman outside a Dunwoody day care center.

Dunwoody Police Department Hemy Zvi Neuman, who was arrested Tuesday, had been a manager with General Electric.

Marla Lawson / GBI Shortly after the killing of Russell "Rusty" Sneiderman, Dunwoody police released this sketch of the suspect.

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Hyosub Shin, hshin@ajc.com Dunwoody Police Department Sergeant/PIO Mike Carlson speaks at a press conference on Tuesday.

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Sneiderman, gunned down outside a Dunwoody day care facility last fall, knew his alleged killer, police spokesman Mike Carlson told the AJC, adding investigators haven't ruled out the possibility of another suspect emerging in the case. "It's still under investigation," he said.

Hemy Zvi Neuman, 48, an operations and quality manager with General Electric, was arrested Tuesday and charged in the Nov. 18 murder of Sneiderman, killed moments after dropping off his son at Dunwoody Prep day care. Neuman, being held at the DeKalb County jail without bond, requested a public defender at his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon.

Neuman was engineering manager Andrea Sneiderman's supervisor at GE Energy and though they worked across the street from each other in the Wildwood Parkway office complex off Powers Ferry Road, they had met often, according to the company. They were charged with overseeing the specifications and performance standards for products ranging from nuclear reactors to turbines to solar panels, GE said.

Neuman, a father of three, grew up in Israel and wrote on his Facebook page that he attended a large residential school north of Tel Aviv. According to the Hadassim site its students are immigrants and Israeli children from disadvantaged families.

His alleged victim's father had little to say about the arrest when reached at his Ohio home.

"We talked to the police. We just don’t know enough, so we aren’t going to comment right now,” Don Sneiderman told the AJC.

Sneiderman, an ambitious entrepreneur, was a most unlikely victim. He married his college sweetheart and the couple had two small children.

The son of an accountant, Sneiderman studied business at Indiana University and became a certified public accountant himself. After graduation he worked in the Chicago offices of a major accounting firm, then he and his new wife moved to Boston so he could get a masters in business administration at Harvard University.

Police believed from the start that Sneiderman was targeted. A possible motive has not been released.

Neuman, who graduated from Georgia Tech in 1984, has no prior criminal history, Carlson said. Address records show that Neuman previously lived in Florida.

He spent the holidays "[traveling] with the girls in Florida," according to a posting on his Facebook page. Neuman last posted an update on Friday, wishing his friends a happy New Year.

Questions still linger about why Sneiderman was killed and who was involved.

Ken Finkel, a former board president of the OI Foundation, remembered Sneiderman as a kind, quiet and professional director of the foundation.

Finkel said Sneiderman was one of the leading voices on the board during its strategic planning sessions, helping to keep directors focused on the best allocation of the foundation’s resources and on fund-raising opportunities.

“He was very thoughtful,” Finkel said. “Some people walk into a room and carry themselves in such a manner that you know they are well-educated, sharp, attuned and soak up information quickly.

“That was Rusty,” Finkel said.

Return to ajc.com for updates.

-- Staff writers Marcus K. Garner and Katie Leslie contributed to this article.