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4 held in slayings as 'persons of interest'
One of them is a suspect in the turnpike killings of a family, police say.

Brian Skoloff
the Associated Press

October 28, 2006

WEST PALM BEACH -- Authorities investigating the slaying of a family of four alongside Florida's Turnpike said Friday that the father was probably involved in drug trafficking and that a suspect in the slayings was in custody.

The suspect was among three men and a woman arrested Wednesday on drug charges and are "persons of interest" in the killings, said St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara. No one has been charged in the slayings. Another man, Michael James Naujalis, of Lake Worth, is being sought but has not been named a suspect.

The couple and their two young sons were found shot to death Oct. 13 off a desolate stretch of the turnpike near Port St. Lucie, about 50 miles north of their home in the Palm Beach County city of Greenacres.

Police searching the victims' home after the killings found evidence that the father, Jose Luis Escobedo, 28, had been involved in cocaine trafficking, Drug Enforcement Administration agent David Weeks said in court papers filed Friday. The items included "suspected drug ledgers" and plastic packaging used to wrap illegal narcotics.

Investigators linked the drug suspects to Escobedo through references in the ledgers that included detailed accounts of drug payments and debts owed, among other things, the DEA agent said.

A search of the West Palm Beach home where the three male suspects were living turned up suspected cocaine, Ecstasy and drug-packaging materials, the agent said. Investigators also found more than a dozen guns, including an AK-47 assault rifle.

The DEA agent did not say if the weapons were used in the killings.

There also was a photograph of Escobedo with one of the suspects, Danny Varela, 26, according to court papers. The sheriff identified the other suspects as Liana Lopez, 18, Daniel Troya, 23, and Ricardo Sanchez, 23.

Mascara would not say which of the suspects is thought to have shot Escobedo, his 25-year-old wife, Yessica Guerrero Escobedo, and their sons, Luis Julian, 4, and Luis Damian, 3. But he said it appeared those responsible for the killings were in custody.

The four suspects are charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

A fifth man, Juan Gutierrez, was also arrested and charged in the drug case but is not named as a person of interest in the slayings. According to court papers, he was cooperating with authorities and told them he and Varela were at the Escobedos' home before the killings and helped destroy drug-packaging materials.

DEA spokeswoman Jeannette Moran said they appeared in federal court Friday in Fort Pierce. A bond hearing was set for Nov. 3. All the suspects have lengthy criminal records, including arrests for burglary, drugs and weapons possession.

Investigators think that the family's Jeep was pulled to the side of the highway sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 3 a.m., and that someone inside the vehicle shot them and drove away. Authorities have said the victims appeared to be lying down or kneeling when they were shot. The woman was clutching her two sons in an apparent effort to protect them.

The Jeep was found abandoned in West Palm Beach three days later.

The family had moved to Florida in June from Brownsville, Texas.

The sheriff said Escobedo's brother was involved in a heroin ring and is thought to be a fugitive in Mexico, but he said that case has no relation to the killings.