Daniel Anderl Was Shot Dead by a Lawyer Posing as a Delivery Man. The Killer Was Actually Targeting His Mother

Daniel Anderl was fatally shot by Den Hollander when he opened the door to who he thought was a delivery driver

NEED TO KNOW

• Daniel Anderl, a 20-year-old college student, was killed at his family’s home in July 2020
• The gunman, Den Hollander, was an “anti-feminist” attorney who had previously appeared in his mom Judge Esther Salas’ courtroom
• Daniel’s parents then championed Daniel’s Law, protecting judges’ privacy, which inspired a federal judicial security act in 2022

Daniel Anderl‘s life was tragically cut short when a man fatally shot him in his own home.

Daniel was enjoying a night in with his mother, Judge Esther Salas, and father, lawyer Mark Anderl, in July 2020 when he answered the front door to a delivery driver. But, the man was only posing as a delivery driver and instead fatally shot the 20-year-old student.

When Mark went to check on his son, he was also shot several times but was treated in the hospital and recovered. Investigators quickly discovered the perpetrator was Den Hollander, a self-described “anti-feminist,” per The New York Times.

Investigators determined that Hollander had likely targeted the home with the intention of killing Esther. The two had previously crossed paths in 2015 when Hollander, who had a history of filing lawsuits against women-oriented organizations, was in court for a class-action lawsuit. At the time, the federal judge allowed Hollander’s case to proceed, but he still criticized her online.

Just one day after killing Daniel, Hollander was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in his car in Sullivan County, N.Y. Investigators also believe that Hollander killed National Coalition for Men (NCFM) leader Marc Angelucci in a similar fashion.

Hollander’s crimes and motive have since been examined in the Dateline episode, “The Grudge,” which aired on Sept. 4. In the years since the tragedies, Esther and Mark have fought for increased judges’ privacy and security, while also honoring their late son’s legacy.

Here’s everything to know about Daniel Anderl’s murder.

Who was Daniel Anderl?

Daniel Anderl was the 20-year-old only child of New Jersey federal judge Esther Salas and criminal defense lawyer Mark Anderl.

Esther and Mark met when he was working as an assistant prosecutor in the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, and she was a second-year law school intern, she told New Jersey Monthly in 2018.

“I was literally getting fingerprinted [when we met],” she recalled. “We’ve been inseparable since 1992.”

The couple went on to welcome Daniel, who expressed interest in following in his parents’ legal footsteps.

“I don’t want to dissuade him, but I was pulling for a doctor,” she said. “He’s been arguing with us since he could talk—practicing his advocacy skills.”

In the summer of 2020, Daniel was preparing for his junior year at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and was still interested in a legal career.

“He was a vibrant, young, good-looking man. He had so much promise,” Esther told The New York Times.

What happened to Daniel?

On July 19, 2020, Daniel answered the door when a man appearing to be a delivery driver rang the doorbell. The man asked if he could get Judge Salas to sign an envelope, but he then broke out into a shooting spree.

The man, who was later identified as Hollander, fatally shot Daniel in the chest and then shot Mark several times. Mark was rushed to the hospital where he was listed in stable condition. Esther was in the basement at the time of the shooting and was not injured.

What happened to Hollander?

As Mark was recovering, and he and Esther were mourning the tragic loss of their son, police started investigating the murder.

Around 150 miles away from the New Jersey crime scene, New York State Police officers located a seemingly abandoned car in New York State’s Catskill mountains. They discovered that the 72-year-old attorney Hollander was outside adjacent to the car and deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In addition to having a .380 caliber handgun — which was the same one used to kill Daniel — Hollander also had in his possession an empty envelope with Esther’s name on it.

Shortly after Hollander was identified as the assumed killer, the rest of his car was searched and police started to suspect him in another murder case with similar details.

Just eight days earlier, California attorney Marc Angelucci was fatally shot at his front door with a .380 caliber handgun after the killer asked him to sign for a package. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office later linked Hollander to the murder after learning that he had recently been to Los Angeles, and the FBI concluded that Hollander committed both murders and had potentially been targeting other judges.

Why did Den Hollander kill Daniel?

While the FBI suspected Hollander killed both Daniel and Angelucci, they were still looking for a motive. Investigators quickly discovered that Hollander’s motives may have centered around his lawsuits, online postings and manifestos that denounced feminism and promoted the men’s rights movement.

Prior to the shooting, Hollander had described himself as an “anti-feminist” who participated in groups that rallied against women’s rights and people he described as “feminazis,” per The New York Times.

Over the years, Hollander filed dozens of lawsuits aimed at prioritizing men’s rights — including suits against nightclubs alleging they violated the 14th Amendment by hosting “ladies’ nights,” news reporters for producing what he described as “misleading” news stories about President Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and Columbia University for what he said was their practice of promoting women’s studies as a “religion.”

In addition to his lawsuits, Hollander posted several rants online about the men’s rights movement, which sociologist Michael Kimmel described as “a celebration of all things masculine and a near infatuation with the traditional masculine role itself” in his book Angry White Men.

Hollander created a website where he condemned the courts who he alleged “support the violation of the rights of men whenever it benefits females.”

“The future prospect of the Men’s Movement raising enough money to exercise some influence in America is unlikely,” he wrote. “But there is one remaining source of power in which men still have a near monopoly — firearms.”

In the midst of his fight against women, Hollander crossed paths with Esther, who became the first Hispanic woman to become a federal judge in New Jersey in 2010.

Five years later, Hollander filed a class-action lawsuit against the Selective Service System drafting database for discriminating against women by prohibiting them from entering the draft. Esther presided over the case in 2018 and allowed it to proceed. Despite this, Hollander was critical of Esther online. He believed that she was slowing down the process and called her a “lazy and incompetent Latina judge,” per CBS News.

Where is the Anderl family now?

In the six years since Esther and Mark tragically lost their son, they have been continuing to honor Daniel’s legacy while also pursuing legislation to protect judges and their families. They created the bill Daniel’s Law, which prohibits publicizing the addresses of judges.

“The free flow of information from the Internet allowed this sick and depraved human being to find all our personal information and target us,” Esther said in an August 2020 video, per CBS News.

In November of that year, she and her husband successfully presented Daniel’s Law and Governor Phil Murphy signed the bill.

“Daniel’s Law will make a difference. It will protect judges from senseless acts of violence,” Esther said at the time. “In the seconds before his death, Daniel asked me to keep talking to him. Because he loved talking to me. Well, Daniel, on behalf of all New Jersey judges, I thank you, son, for all you have done.”

Esther and Mark continued pushing the law and took it to Congress. In December 2022, Congress passed a federal version, called the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, that allows judges to redact personal information from government documents.

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