Police release sketch of Dunwoody murder suspect

Dunwoody police said Sneiderman, 36, was getting into this car Thursday morning when a man approached and shot him several times.

The shooting was not random, police have concluded. Investigators have spent the day interviewing friends, family and business associates hoping to develop a motive for the killing. So far, they have none.

The suspect was spotted leaving the preschool in a silver Dodge Minivan, Carlson said. He was last seen traveling west on Mount Vernon Road, Carlson said.

Sneiderman, an ambitious entreprenuer with a MBA from Harvard, was a most unlikely victim. He married his college sweetheart and the couple had two small children.

Back in high school he was the classmate most everyone figured would go on to run a multimillion dollar corporation, longtime friend and college roommate Matt Davidson said. "I can guarantee you," Davidson told the AJC Thursday night, "no one would have ever predicted this was going to be the way his life would end."

A crime expert said the slaying had the hallmarks of "an organized hit."

From the shooter's nondescript attire and getaway vehicle, to the firing of multiple shots and the fact that the victim's car was left on the scene, it seems like a planned murder rather than a carjacking or robbery, the expert, Casey Jordan, told reporter Pete Combs of AM 750 and now 95.5FM News/Talk WSB.

The number of shots indicates an intent to kill, said Jordan, a criminologist and professor at Western Connecticut State University. She speculated that the killer either had a vendetta against Sneiderman or was a hired gun who knew how to melt away after the crime. "This man took precautions to make sure he fit the description of thousands of people and thousands of cars," Jordan said.

Sneiderman's old friend, Davidson, said he had no idea why anyone would want to kill his buddy, whom he described as a "type A" personality who oozed self-confidence. But he softened his ambitious edge with a "lovable" and happy personality, and a charm that enabled him to connect with people easily, Davidson said. "It's still unfathomable to me that he would have had an enemy in the world."

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

Davidson, who lives in Los Angeles, said the Sneidermans relocated to Atlanta about a decade ago. Rusty Sneiderman served as chief operating officer for Innovia Group and then as a financial consultant for the Atlanta division of JP Morgan Chase & Co. Private Bank, where, according to Davidson, he advised "high-end" clients with large estates.

Sneiderman would have been working there around the time the economy collapsed in 2008. Davidson said his friend was laid off and then found work as the chief financial officer for a daycare chain based in Atlanta.

"He had high expectations for himself," Davidson said. "He definitely was trying to start something." Sneiderman organized at least three small companies, including a consulting firm that bore his name, according to records from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. He also was active with medical charities.

From 2004 to 2007, Sneiderman served on the board of the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation, a Maryland nonprofit devoted to funding research and promoting awareness of a genetic disorder often known as “brittle bone disease.”

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 fundraising opportunities.

“He was very thoughtful,” said Finkel. “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.

--Staff writer Kristi E.  Swartz contributed to this report