Thread: Did anyone ever post this? I couldn't find it.

In my research, I couldn't find an article that officially gave their status, but you will notice, that the woman's sister also lives in Frederick. This quaint little Maryland town has really changed, hasn't it?

"Note: The Frederick Police Department is attempting to confirm the name spellings of the children and their mother. " This is a strange thing to say, when the kids have been in school for several years and the Mother has held several jobs...???


Update: Benitez and Rodriguez married; history of protecting children
Originally published March 27, 2007 - Updated 4:37 PM, March 27, 2007

By Katie E. Leslie
News-Post Staff

FREDERICK — Police are continuing to search for a woman whose husband and four children were found dead in their home Monday afternoon.
Police have no leads on the whereabouts of Deysi Marlene Benitez, 25, according to Lt. Tom Chase of the Frederick Police Department. She has been classified as a missing person, he said. “She’s been missing for a week and a half and no one has heard from her,” he said.

Court records show that Benitez married Pedro Rodriguez, 28, Oct. 28, 2002 in Frederick County Circuit Court. They had four children — Elsa Rodriguez, 9; Vanessa Rodriguez, 4; Angel Rodriguez, 3, who was commonly called Pedro; and Carena Rodriguez, 1. The bodies of the children were found in beds, covered in blankets in two bedrooms of the family’s townhouse on 1252 Danielle Drive.

Police found the body of Rodriguez hanging from a yellow nylon rope off the stairwell bannister. He did not leave a note, according to Chase.

History of problems

Chase would not say whether police had previously visited the home. However, court records show Benitez once had a man removed from her home for “aggravating” her children.

On Aug. 19, 2003, Benitez called police to her apartment on West Patrick Street to remove Raul Benitez, relation unknown. She told police she wanted him removed because he was using foul language toward her children, was messy and was not paying rent.

Raul Benitez disputed her claim, but was taken into custody and charged with trespassing. He was released on a written promise to appear in court, but was arrested again when he didn’t show up for a court hearing.

Deysi Benitez ultimately posted $500 bail for his release in December 2003.

Police do not believe Benitez used a family vehicle to leave. The family’s three cars — a white Nissan Sentra, a green Dodge Caravan and a burgundy minivan — were parked by the home.

Police have interviewed Benitez’s sister, whose name has not been released. The sister, who lives in Frederick, last spoke to the missing woman about one and a half weeks ago, Chase said. He would not say whether there’s been any recent cell phone or credit card activities on Benitez’s accounts.

Note: The Frederick Police Department is attempting to confirm the name spellings of the children and their mother.
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sectio ... ryID=58333

5 found dead in Frederick home
Originally published March 26, 2007, 11:32 PM EDT
FREDERICK // A 28-year-old man -- who apparently committed suicide -- and his four young children were found dead Monday inside their townhouse, and police said they are looking for the youngsters' mother, who has not been seen by relatives for several days.

Frederick police officers, who had to crawl through a window to enter the locked house, found the bodies shortly after 3 p.m. The father, whom they identified as Pedro Rodriguez, was hanging in the foyer, a yellow nylon rope wrapped around his neck and tied to a second-floor banister, said Lt. Thomas Chase, commander of the criminal investigations division.

The children were in beds, blankets covering them from head to toe, Chase said. Two of the children were found in one room, and the others in different rooms of the three- bedroom home. Police would not say if the children, whose names were not released, showed any sign of trauma or how they died.

Police said they did not find a suicide note in the house, which is in the 1200 block of Danielle Drive, but have concluded that the father hanged himself.

The children -- three girls ages 9, 4 and 1, and a 3-year-old boy -- and the father appeared to have been dead for several days. There were no signs of forced entry.

Monday night, police were looking for their mother, Deysi M. Benitez, 25, who also lived at the home and worked at a restaurant in town. She has not been to work in more than a week, police said. Police have interviewed the mother's sister, who said she had not heard from her in a few days.

Police said they do not consider Benitez a suspect.

"The crime scene unit was un able to determine cause of death [of the children] and the medical examiner will have to determine cause of death," said Bill Douwes, a Frederick police spokesman. "This is a death investigation and whether it's a crime or not, deaths are investigated by our criminal investigation division. There is nothing pointing any way now. ... I want to emphasize that, we don't go on presumption."

The state medical examiner in Baltimore is scheduled to perform autopsies on the five bodies Tuesday.

The family was originally from El Salvador, police said. Acccording to public records, Rodriguez and Benitez purchased the condominium in August 2005 for $195,900. Police did not know when the family emigrated.

Police were called after a community liaison at nearby Hillcrest Elementary School visited the home to see why the 9-year-old, a third-grader, and the 4-year-old, who attended pre- kindergarten, had been absent for several days. No one answered the door and she alerted police.

"[The community liaison] noticed that cars were parked in front of the home and she just felt that something was amiss," said Marita Loose, a spokeswoman for the Frederick County public schools, who added that the third-grader had attended the school since pre-kindergarten. "They were concerned because it was unusual for these two students to not be in school."

Police declined to describe the scene inside the house or say if any weapons were found, but an officer who responded to the home summoned more officers.

A school crisis team, composed of psychologists and guidance counselors, will help students and staff with their grief Tuesday, she said.

"Of course they're young, and they will require some very special handling," Loose said. "It's very sad."

Dino E. Flores Jr., a Frederick criminal defense attorney who said he was called by detectives seeking information about the missing woman, said he represented Benitez in a minor theft case last spring, after she was accused of stealing from an area department store. Court records indicate the woman needed a Spanish interpreter to help in her case.

A judge gave her 24 hours of community service and placed her case on the inactive docket, Flores said.

Flores said Benitez worked last year at a Roy Rogers restaurant in Frederick, but he didn't know where she might have worked more recently.

"She was very pleasant to me," Flores said. "The case worked out well for her. She seemed to be a very pleasant lady."

Bryan Bradford, who said he was Benitez's manager at the Roy Rogers on West Patrick Street, where she worked nights for about six months last year as a cashier, said she was generally a good employee, but ended up leaving after "butting heads" with another employee.

"We were having some issues with her and another associate," Bradford said.

As news of the tragedy spread Monday night, dozens of cars and television trucks lined the winding street off a major intersection filled with chain restaurants and stores. Hundreds of onlookers flooded the area surrounding the house.

Police set up a white tent in the front yard and held up blue tarps as they removed the bodies about 6:30 p.m. The bodies were loaded into a black coroner's van and driven away.

Neighbors said Rodriguez worked at a Toys 'R Us warehouse and Benitez, worked at Outback Steakhouse. Police would not confirm those details and managers at both places declined to comment.

Nathaniel Harris, who lives on Danielle Drive, said police had been to the home two or three times in the past six months. Police would not comment.

"It never seemed like a big thing," Harris said. "They seemed to be a normal family. ...They kept to themselves."

Oneida Jackson, who has lived in the 1200 block of Danielle Drive for 15 years, says she is selling her home because of increased crime in the area.

Jackson says drugs are a problem in the neighborhood.

"A couple of weeks ago, it was a big drug bust down the street," Jackson said.

Rebecca Reckley, who works as an assistant for a Frederick County commissioner, has lived in the 1200 block of Danielle for eight years and describes her neighborhood -- called Mountain View Condos -- as mostly quiet. She says the community is a combination of homeowners and renters, and that condos can sell for $200,000.

Reckley says her grandson would often play in the street with the children who were found dead in the home. "They would be out running around playing," Reckley said.

Louise Lewis also lives in the block and said she had not seen the family in more than a week.

"I knew something was wrong," Lewis said.

Lewis said she is retired and spends most of her days "keeping an eye on the neighborhood."

"I hadn't seen anything or anybody," Lewis said. "And that's unusual."

There have been no homicides this year in Frederick, a city of about 57,000 in Western Maryland. There were four homicides last year. Before those killings, there had not been a homicide since 2002.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... viewedlink

That is so sad. The same with the case of the family on Florida (btw, has anyone heard anything else about that and if they have determined any outcome with the people they did pinpoint?), you have to wonder why, and also what caused this end? I cannot understand any violence, but am baffled as to why people kill either someone else's or their own children.

Frederick MD used to be a quaint town. 10 years ago, you would never hear of many crimes there. Especially a crime as bad as this one.
I hate to say it, but Frederick lost it's quaintness years ago when affordable housing was booming. It's now just another overcrowded city.
I can't help but think the mother had everything to do with the crime. Maybe she was taken hostage, but I doubt it. The police said it didn't look like there was a struggle. She is only 25, yet she has 4 kids and one of them is 9. The police have been there on 3 occasions in 6 months. It just looks real bad for her.