Dana Marie Foley, a 39-year-old White/Caucasian woman, was killed on August 13, 2026, inside a residence on Garth Court in the Richmondtown section of Staten Island, New York. Police responding to a 911 call found Foley suffering from a gunshot wound to her torso. Also inside the home was 27-year-old Dakota Suckstorff, who had sustained a gunshot wound to the head. Foley was pronounced dead at the scene, while Suckstorff was taken to Staten Island University Hospital North, where he later died.
A firearm was recovered from the residence.
Investigators subsequently came to believe that Suckstorff shot Foley and then turned the gun on himself, making the deaths an apparent murder-suicide. Because Suckstorff died from his injuries, there was no surviving suspect to arrest, charge, prosecute, or bring to trial in connection with Foley's killing. Available reporting does not indicate that police were searching for another person believed to have participated in the shooting.
An important distinction concerning Foley's connection to Suckstorff has been provided by someone with direct personal knowledge of the circumstances surrounding her death. According to that account, Foley and Suckstorff had dated years earlier but were no longer romantically involved at the time of the shooting. They were not living together and were not in a current relationship. The person providing this information strongly disputes descriptions of the killing as a domestic-violence incident involving a current boyfriend or partner. These additional details could not be independently verified through the publicly available reporting reviewed for the case, but they provide significant context regarding the nature of Foley's relationship with the man who killed her.
According to the same account, Suckstorff had been suicidal before Foley arrived at his home that day and had reportedly told at least one other person about his suicidal state in the days preceding the shooting. It is believed by the person familiar with the circumstances that Suckstorff may have contacted Foley while he was in crisis and that she went to his residence because she was trying to help him. What occurred after she arrived ultimately ended with Suckstorff fatally shooting her before inflicting the gunshot wound that caused his own death. The specific details of any conversation between Foley and Suckstorff before she went to the home have not been independently confirmed in publicly available sources.
That account changes the context in which Foley's death is understood. Rather than describing her as a woman killed by a current romantic partner during an ongoing domestic relationship, the circumstances suggest that she may have gone to the home of a former boyfriend who was experiencing a severe emotional or psychological crisis. The belief of those familiar with the situation is that Foley went there out of concern for his welfare and an effort to help him, never expecting that she herself would become the victim of violence. Whether Suckstorff was experiencing a psychotic break or another specific psychiatric condition cannot be established from the available information, but his reported suicidal behavior before the shooting is an important part of the circumstances described by those close to the case.
Foley was a lifelong Staten Island resident who had deep ties to the community. She grew up in Rosebank, later lived in Sunnyside, attended St. John Villa Academy, and continued her education at Iona University and the College of Staten Island. She spent many years working at The Original Goodfella's, where she eventually became general manager and was well known among coworkers and customers.
She was also the mother of a son, Lennon, who was described by her family as the center of her life. In the aftermath of her death, friends, coworkers, relatives, and members of the Staten Island community rallied around her family. The circumstances surrounding her killing are especially tragic because, according to those with personal knowledge of what happened, Foley was not going to the Garth Court home as Suckstorff's girlfriend or domestic partner. She is believed to have gone there because someone she had known and cared about was in crisis and she wanted to help.
Foley's death therefore stands as the killing of a woman who appears to have entered a dangerous situation without realizing the risk she faced. Police evidence ultimately pointed to Suckstorff as the person responsible for killing her before taking his own life. With Suckstorff deceased, the criminal justice system could not pursue charges or a prosecution, but the distinction surrounding Foley's relationship with him remains important: according to the firsthand information provided about the case, they were former partners from years earlier, not a couple at the time of her death, and her presence at his home is believed to have resulted from an attempt to assist someone who was suicidal rather than from an ongoing domestic relationship.
