Thread: Murder-suicide motive a mystery (Wilmington,NC)

Murder-suicide motive a mystery

By Veronica Gonzalez
Staff Writer
veronica.gonzalez@starnewsonline.com



Before Eva Maria Rodriguez Galvan was shot to death by the father of her child in a murder-suicide, the life of the 36-year-old mother of five appeared normal to those who knew her.

She worked most of the week as a dishwasher at IHOP to support her nearly 2-year-old boy with whom she lived. She also has four daughters living in Mexico.

Her killer, Jorge Cruz, a 41-year-old painter, until a couple of weeks ago frequently visited the mobile home park where she lived, her roommates said.

As investigators tried to answer why the murder-suicide occurred, a portrait emerged Thursday of the Mexican immigrants' lives.

Early Wednesday morning, Galvan, dressed in work clothes, tried to board a taxi to travel less than three miles to her job. She walked out of the house holding her toddler.

Cruz followed her out of the house saying something to the effect of: "You don't love me anymore," said Wilmington police Detective A.M. Korwatch.

Then, Cruz shot her - once in the buttock and once in the upper thigh - in front of the taxi driver.

The final and fatal blow went through the left side of the top of her head, according to the N.C. Medical Examiner's office in Jacksonville.

Cruz shot her from a distance, said William Kelly, a regional

pathologist for North Carolina.

Finally, Cruz shot himself, and a gun was recovered at the scene.

Cruz's motive remained a mystery.

Police were not familiar with the couple, and none of her four roommates knew of any domestic violence disputes between the two.

"What brought him there, we don't know, and we may never know," Korwatch said.

That doesn't mean the two didn't have problems. "This has probably been an ongoing, abusive relationship that led to this," said Ted Proukou, executive director of Safe Haven, a domestic violence shelter in Burgaw. "I don't think this happened over one little incident. I would be very surprised if this was an isolated incident."

No one knew whether Cruz - dressed in slacks and a white shirt - walked or drove to the mobile home park off College Road because his car is still parked at the apartment complex where he lived, Korwatch said.

"It's been difficult for us to get any information," he said. "He had been coming over to visit her on a regular basis up until about a week or two ago. Then he started coming sporadically. That was the only thing unusual."

A working mother

Galvan's life, like many immigrants', appeared to be centered on work so she could support five children, including her son, George Luis Cruz Rodriguez, and four daughters who remained in her home state of Veracruz. Since her death, her son is in social services' custody.

Galvan, who recently moved into a single-wide mobile home at 4800 Maple Ave., shared the rent for the house with four men.

It appears that she was undocumented, Korwatch said.

Her children frequently came up in conversation because she kept in touch with her daughters by phone. Her oldest daughter is a teenager, friends said.

And Galvan's relationship with Cruz appeared normal to those who knew her, including her roommates. But even they didn't know her that well.

"Not one of them even knew her last name," Korwatch said. "They knew her first name. None of them really knew much about the other."

Who was Cruz?

On the surface, Cruz appeared to be a good man and father who loved his son. But a neighbor, Francisco Santos, speculated that Cruz became jealous.

"At that hour, one should be at work," he said, adding he has seen Cruz stop at a row of mailboxes at the entrance to the mobile home park to watch Galvan's house.

"It was really strange that a person - two, three times a day - would stop at the mailboxes," he said. "He started doing it two weeks ago."

On March 27, a call came from Galvan's mobile home reporting a suspicious subject in a vehicle in the park with a U-shaped road off Maple Avenue.

Often, when a woman is a victim of domestic violence, it's because a man wants to control her, Proukou said.

"We often talk to women where the boyfriend or husband will follow them or call them or check on them at work," he said. "They want to know where they are every minute, trying to control them."

But neighbors saw a different side of Cruz, saying he appeared to be friendly, well-educated and well-dressed.

"The man was friendly, real talkative," said Denia Cardona, a neighbor who used to care for their son while Galvan worked. "He seemed like he was a good person, but who knows what problems they had."

"He loved his son a lot," she said.

Still, "I'm sure you would find there was a pattern of abuse leading up to it," Proukou said of the deaths.

Veronica Gonzalez: 343-2008

veronica.gonzalez@starnewsonline.com
http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs ... 30452/1004

I used to live in Wilmington...glad I moved home if this is what it's come to.