Thread: Mother Missing After Dad & 4 Children Found Dead

http://wjz.com/local/local_story_085154958.html

Mar 27, 2007 6:49 pm US/Eastern
Mother Missing After Dad & 4 Children Found Dead

Mike Hellgren
Reporting

(WJZ/AP) FREDERICK, Md. The mother of four dead children remained missing Tuesday as a portrait of the struggling immigrant family emerged.

As Mike Hellgren reports, language hurdles, menial jobs, petty crimes and a mortgage were among the difficulties the Latino family faced during an approximately seven-year stay in exurban Washington that ended with the children dead of unknown causes and the father hanging from his townhouse bannister.

Police were awaiting complete autopsy results that they said could help explain the deaths of the children and their father, Pedro Rodriguez, 28, whose remains were found Monday. Police found the children -- girls Elsa, 9, Vanessa, 4, and Carena, 1, and 3-year-old boy Angel -- in their beds with sheets and blankets pulled over their heads.

Preliminary autopsy results ruled out shooting and stabbing as the cause of death for the children, Lt. Thomas Chase said.

He said poisoning and suffocation are possibilities, and that police will learn more after the state medical examiner's office completes toxicology studies that could take at least a week.

Authorities were looking for the mother, Deysi M. Benitez, 25, in a search that Chase said could become international.

"We are doing everything we can to try to locate her and, of course, first and foremost, to verify that she's OK," Chase said.

The couple emigrated from El Salvador, arriving in Frederick about seven years ago, said Javier Montenegro, an acquaintance.

Rodriguez and Benitez bought the home in August 2005 for $195,900, according to real-estate records.

Before the bodies were found Monday afternoon, neighbors and co-workers said they hadn't seen Benitez for at least 10 days, and that neither the children nor Rodriguez had been seen for several days.

Montenegro, a cleaning-company owner who met the couple shortly after they arrived in Frederick with Elsa, then their only child, said the family had lived at first in a rental unit with another Hispanic immigrant, and had gone through a number of apartments and jobs before buying their home.

Benitez started at a McDonald's and also worked at a Roy Rogers fast-food restaurant before joining the staff of an Outback Steakhouse just a few blocks from their hillside condominium, neighbors and acquaintances said.

Rodriguez had worked at a Masonite International Corp. residential door manufacturing plant in Frederick, company spokesman Larry Repar said.

Masonite, based in Tampa, Fla., completed a round of layoffs late last year, and was recently informed that its largest customer will reduce their volume purchases by about 50 percent starting later this year, the company said in a March 12 press release.

Repar didn't immediately reply to questions about whether layoffs had been announced at the Frederick plant.

The couple took in a boarder a year and a half ago, renting a room to a man for two months before the birth of their youngest child.

Frederick County Public Schools spokeswoman Marita Loose described the two oldest girls, who attended nearby Hillcrest Elementary School, as sweet, happy children.

Loose said she had no knowledge of family turmoil but said the Spanish-speaking parents had been increasingly targeted by the school system for language assistance and help in dealing with government and community agencies as their family grew.

There were other signs of trouble. Frederick police records show that officers were called to the house eight times between March 5, 2006, and Monday. The calls were for a variety of reasons, ranging from noise to parking issues, disorderly conduct and a verbal dispute, most of which were resolved without a police report or arrest. A theft case is still open, according to the records.

A charge of theft less than $100 against Benitez was resolved in May when she agreed to do 24 hours of community service in return for having the charge placed on the inactive docket. Her attorney, Dino Flores, said she had tried to shoplift some children's clothing from a local department store.

"It may very well have been a woman in a very difficult situation trying to provide for her family, and the temptation overwhelmed her and she grabbed stuff," he said.

Benitez also pleaded guilty in 2002 to a charge of theft less $500, but Flores did not represent her in that case and said he couldn't comment on it. She was ordered to pay a $500 fine and spend a day in jail, according to court records.

Flores, whose Spanish-speaking practice serves many of the area's Hispanic residents, said some immigrants who chase the American dream aren't prepared for the expenses and sometimes end up in crushing debt.

I just don't have anything nice to say.

She's a criminal, they are not married but have 4 children, living in a 200k home, on a burger flipper salary. They can afford automobiles too.

Dixie

If they wanted to come here they should of come legally. These bad stories would not be happening if they had stayed home.

I hope they find the mother and find out what happened to the children. If she was involved she should go to prison.