Thread: Two N.J. Children Found Beaten to Death

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http://www.alipac.us/article-994-thread-1-0.html

Just one more of many news stories to forward to the Mexican embassy.

Just one more of many news stories to forward to the Mexican embassy.

Absolutely forward to the Mexican Embassy, but also to your US
Senators as they take up consideration of legislation in the coming weeks.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl ... /601240309

SERVICES: 2 brothers' funeral is Wednesday

PROBE: Continues into what led to boys' slayings

Family grief mixed with anger at murder suspect
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 01/24/06
BY JOHN VANDIVER
MANAHAWKIN BUREAU
STAFFORD â€â€

http://www.nj.com

Hundreds mourn slain brothers
Even strangers pay their respects in Forked River
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
BY MARYANN SPOTO AND TOM FEENEY
Star-Ledger Staff
The two small, closed wooden caskets lay beneath a simple wooden cross in a Forked River funeral parlor yesterday as hundreds of mourners filed past to pay their last respects to two brothers who were savagely beaten in their Ocean County home last week.

The mourners arrived in a steady procession during the six-hour viewing at Layton's Home for Funerals. They included family, friends, neighbors and even strangers who were so moved by the deaths of Zabdiel and Karlo Gonzalez that they felt they needed to come to support the boys' grief-stricken parents, Wanda and Carlos Gonzalez.

"Just to let them know people care," Laura Deboy of Manahawkin said when asked why she had come even though she didn't know the boys or their parents.

Zabdiel, 7, and Karlo, 14, were beaten with a claw hammer sometime after school last Thursday in their Manahawkin home. Autopsies showed the younger boy had been struck in the head; the hammer had also been pressed against his neck. The older boy was struck in the head, neck and chest.

Richard Toledo, a 24-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico who has rented a room in the Gonzalez house since October, was charged with killing the boys, kidnapping their mother and forcing her to withdraw $500 for him from an ATM.

He was captured after an eight-hour manhunt along the Garden State Parkway in Monmouth County early Friday morning. He is in jail, charged with two counts of murder and one count each of kidnapping and robbery.

The Mexican consulate in Philadelphia has been notified of Toledo's arrest, according to Jose Ramon Lorenzo, the deputy consul. Lorenzo said the consulate has done what it does in all cases where a Mexican national is detained by U.S. authorities: It has spoken to Toledo to make sure he is OK and to make sure his rights are being protected.

Ocean County authorities continue to investigate to determine his motive, but robbery appears to be one possibility, they said.

"If you're going to abduct a person, you're going to make sure the children don't tell," said Robert Gasser, a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor. "Robbery is certainly a motive in the totality of the event."

The makeshift memorial on the front lawn of the Gonzalez house in Manahawkin continued to grow yesterday. It includes flowers, votive candles, Teddy bears, a baseball mitt and sheets of paper with hand-written condolences.

The family posted a large notice on the front door: "Thank you for all your prayers and support," it reads. "Please understand we have no further comment at this point. May the Lord bless and protect you."

The boys were remembered at the funeral home yesterday on four large poster boards covered with their photographs. There were photos of them in Halloween costumes, photos of them on vacations, photos of them as babies.

"These kids wouldn't hurt anybody. Not even a fly," said Maria Anton, a Toms River resident who worked many years ago with Wanda Gonzalez.

Anton described the boys as quiet, polite and well-mannered. They played baseball and loved it when their mom cooked Puerto Rican food. The family often traveled to visit relatives in Puerto Rico, she said. Zabdiel was born there during one of those trips.

The family's grief was palpable inside the funeral home. A cousin of the boys was overcome and needed medical attention when he began to hyperventilate.

The parents sat in burgundy wing-backed chairs near the boys' caskets as people filed past with wishes of condolence. Wanda Gonzalez sobbed uncontrollably. Carlos Gonzalez sat in tortured silence.

"He's not there," Anton said.

"He's somewhere else," said her friend, Carolina Moncada, also of Toms River.

"You cannot blame him," Anton said. "He's the one who found the bodies."

Among those who visited the family was Stafford Mayor Carl Block. He offered them whatever support the township police force could provide for the funeral today at the United Methodist Church in Manahawkin.

"Any murder is sad," Block said after he left the funeral home. "But it's so much worse when it's children."