On the Monday 12/1/03, 5 pm news I first heard about this triple homicide in Orange City (a small town between Daytona Beach and Orlando off I-4). When they said the bodies were discovered by 'church people who had come to their house', I immediately got the feeling that these must be JWs, yet the newscast on the channel I have been watching NEVER specifically SAID JWs. And I watched the various newscasts from Monday afternoon through 11 pm news tonight, Tuesday, and still not one single time did the TV newscasts say these people were JWs (which I thought was odd). So I just checked the local NEWSPAPERS online and, yes, just as I figured, these people were JWs (and no, I don't know them personally). As of the 11 pm news tonight, the police are not saying who/what/why, but the white honda they were searching for Monday night was found today in a parking lot near, of all places, the Orlando PD. The police were on the lookout for this car because it beloned to one of the victims and the police wondered why the car was not at the residence Monday night. Evidently they have some good leads. You'll note in one of the stories below, it said deputies have been called to the house 3 times since 1999. Since the victims are an older woman with her two grown sons, I wondered if a possible ex-spouse had anything to do with it? Or maybe the sons were leading double lives...? (they all got loving 'reviews' from their neighbors as being a very good family, etc.) Will keep you advised if I hear anything further. Thanks/grits
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Orlando Sentinel online:
3 JWs Murdered Last Night-Orange City, FL
by abbagail 10 Replies latest social current
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abbagail
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abbagail
Can't get all the info to post.
Also, thanks gumby, I did look around here at JWD before I went collecting the info from online news sources. I wasn't going to bother if the info had already been posted. I looked under scandals/coverups, active topics, and current news/events as these are the places I would 'think' a JW "news" story should go (per the home page descriptions). But it never fails that someone puts a 'news' story in a place I didn't think of (ie, "Friends" section), especially since this is "news" (as in crime news) v. 'news" as in, "hey, my friends, these JWs, did this or that..."
Anyway, it doesn't hurt to have it listed under the 'correct' category, eh? ;-)
I have the 4 entire articles but can't get them to post, so here are the links:
Orlando Sentinel.com
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-
locslaying03120303dec03,1,3459724.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-volusia
Headline: Bible study visit leads to horrific discovery
Daytona Beach News-Journal:
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD04120203.htm
Headline: Investigators search for motive in deaths of mother, 2 sons
WESH - NBC #2 News, NewsChannel2000.com http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20031202/lo_wesh/1901571
Headline: Clues Sought In Triple Homicide
WKMB-TV, CBS Channel #6
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20031202/lo_wkmg/1901094
Headline: Missing Car Found In Volusia Triple Homicide -
abbagail
Wednesday, 12/3/03, WESH-NBC #2, 11pm news report:
Wendy/reporter @ news studio: "There were three painfully noticeable absences from a bible study class tonight in Volusia County, the local mom and her 2 sons who were found murdered in their home Monday night, and the killer is still out there. Shannon Hori is live outside the home "Near Orange City", where she talks to people who knew the victims."
Shannon: (scene switches to outside the home where the crime-scene tape surrounds the house). "The crime scene tape is still up here reminding people of the horrible thing that took place inside that home, and tonight the three victims would have been with friends at church."
She continues: (scene switches to the front door of the Kingdom Hall, under the drive-thru, showing one cameraman filming another man) "Every Wednesday night meetings are scheduled here at the Orange City Kingdom Hall."
Elder (speaking in somewhat broken English because he is obviously Spanish): "Everytime that we held a meeting they all were here."
Shannon: "Now the members are mourning the loss of Carmen Negron and her two sons (she says their names) all Jehovah's Witnesses (shows the victims' photos). This church elder knew them for five years."
Elder: "They went around conducting bible study in their vicinities, they were well known for their activity and people loved them."
Shannon: (scene switches back to investigators outside and inside the home) "Investigators now say it is clear the victims put up a struggle in their Volusia County home before being killed. A church member found the bodies Monday night just before bible study was supposed to take place here. Investigators are also saying they have strong leads to the person behind the triple murder, especially after Tuesday's discovery (shows the automobile) of the family's Honda parked in a lot right across the street from the Orlando Police Department."
Elder: (scene switches back to the elder at the Kingdom Hall) "They were very good people, and that's what hurts that a situation like this could happen to good people. People.... (inaudible, he lowered his voice)...in such a condition."
Shannon: (scene switches back to the home) "And tonight we learned there will be a special memorial service for the three people who lived in the house, it will be this Saturday night at 7 o'clock at the Orange City Kingdom Hall and some of the victims' family members, including some from Puerto Rico, are expected to be there. Reporting live from Volusia County, this is Shannon Hori for News Channel 2."
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This elder is the same one, I believe, who found the victims Monday night. He looks like the same guy they interviewed outside the home the other day. Also I distinctly remember thinking it was 'odd' how he described then, and then again in tonight's interview, the murders as a "SITUATION." It's like he couldn't (or didn't want to) come right out and say murder/crime, etc., so he settled for "situation."
Grits -
abbagail
Daytona Beach News-Journal front page: http://www.news-journalonline.com/
THURSDAY, DEC. 4, 2003
THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF VOLUSIA & FLAGLER COUNTIES
Congregation gathers, prays for family found dead
Three chairs in the second to last row on the left stood unusually empty at Wednesday night's church service.
Special Report:
-Orange City triple homicide
---------------------------
News-Journal Special Report: Orange City Triple Homicide: http://www.news-journalonline.com/special/ochomicide/index.html
THURSDAY, DEC. 4, 2003
THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF VOLUSIA & FLAGLER COUNTIES
West Volusia News
Congregation gathers, prays for family found dead
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD01120403.htm
Three chairs in the second to last row on the left stood unusually empty at Wednesday night's church service.
[PHOTO] Capt. Dave Hudson, a Volusia County Sheriff's Office investigator, talks to reporters Tuesday outside the home near Orange City where the bodies of a mother and her two sons were discovered. Deputies are investigating the deaths as homicides. N-J/Chad Pilster
Killings shock congregation
http://www.news-journalonline.com/special/ochomicide/03NewsHEAD01120303.htm
Victim's car found, may offer clues to attack
Eugenio Muriel grew suspicious right away when he arrived for Bible study and found the door ajar to the Orange City home. The TV was playing inside, but no one answered his knock.
Investigators search for motive
in deaths of mother, 2 sons
http://www.news-journalonline.com/special/ochomicide/03NewsHEAD04120203.htm
Volusia County sheriff's deputies are searching for a motive today in the deaths of a mother and her two sons, who bodies were found in their Biscayne Drive home near Orange City Monday night. -
abbagail
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD01120403.htm
Congregation gathers, prays for family found dead
By PATRICIO G. BALONA
Staff Writer
Last update: 04 December 2003
ORANGE CITY -- Three chairs in the second to last row on the left stood unusually empty at Wednesday night's church service.
They were the seats always occupied by Carmen Negron, 63, and her two sons, Gilberto Vergara-Negron, 28, and Yamir Orlando Vergara-Negron, 26. At the weekly service at the Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah's Witnesses on Minnesota Avenue, the three familiar faces were missed.
The congregation prayed for the family that was found dead in their Biscayne Drive home near Orange City on Monday night.
"It is a very difficult moment because we have lost our brothers and sister," said Pablo Mateo, pastor of the church's Spanish-speaking congregation.
Eugenio Muriel, who coordinated a weekly Jehovah's Witnesses Bible study at the home of the Negrons, discovered the bodies when he arrived at 7:20 p.m. Monday. After no one answered his knock on the door, he entered the house and found the younger son bloodied, lying face up on the floor near the kitchen table. Gilberto was lying in a fetal position in front of a television left on. Carmen Negron lay facedown in a pool of blood in the bathroom, Muriel said.
"It was something tragic and it hurt all of us," said Gabriel Guadalupe, a church member who announced funeral arrangements during the Wednesday service.
A funeral service will be at the Orange City church at 7 p.m. Saturday, Guadalupe said. Deltona Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.
Meanwhile, sheriff's investigators have finished processing a white 1995 Honda Civic recovered in Orlando Tuesday afternoon. The car was registered to Carmen and Gilberto, investigators said.
"We are analyzing the evidence," said sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson, adding that no significant development has been made in the case.
The Negrons' deaths make seven the Sheriff's Office has investigated this year. The other four have been solved.
At the Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah's Witnesses on Wednesday night, even with prayer, congregation members struggled to accept the tragedy.
"There is an emptiness that will last for days, weeks and perhaps years," Muriel said. "Especially when tragedy strikes at people we love very much."
patricio.balona@news-jrnl.com -
abbagail
http://www.news-journalonline.com/special/ochomicide/03NewsHEAD01120303.htm
THURSDAY, DEC. 4, 2003
THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF VOLUSIA & FLAGLER COUNTIES
Killings shock congregation
Victim's car found, may offer clues to attack
By KRISTEN MOCZYNSKI and PATRICIO G. BALONA
Staff Writers
Last update: 03 December 2003
ORANGE CITY -- Eugenio Muriel grew suspicious right away when he arrived for Bible study and found the door ajar to the Orange City home. The TV was playing inside, but no one answered his knock.
"I opened the screen door and immediately saw the first body," Muriel recalled Tuesday, the day after discovering the dead bodies of a 63-year-old woman and her two grown sons.
Muriel, who coordinated the weekly Jehovah's Witnesses Bible study at the family's house, said he saw Yamir Orlando Vergara-Negron, 26, lying face up on the floor beside the kitchen table, his face bloodied and his head in a pool of blood. He walked to a bedroom where the TV played and found Gilberto Vergara-Negron, 28, lying in the fetal position, looking like he was still watching TV.
As he turned to leave, he could see into the bathroom, where Carmen Negron, 63, was lying face down in a pool of blood, he said.
Volusia County Sheriff's investigators have ruled the deaths homicides by "violent means" but would not reveal details about how the quiet family in the Breezewood Park subdivision died.
Investigators reported Gilberto's 1995 white Honda Civic missing Monday night and found the car in Orlando on Tuesday afternoon. They hope the abandoned car will yield clues about what happened in the Biscayne Drive house.
Muriel was unable to say how the three were killed because he ran outside to calm hysteric church members there for the Bible study.
In an exasperated voice, he explained to a 911 dispatcher what he saw. He said the victims were bleeding and the blood was dried.
Volusia County Sheriff's Capt. Dave Hudson said the Honda was seen leaving the house sometime Monday afternoon.
Witnesses at the scene said the last time anyone from the family was heard from was Saturday night.
Hudson said there definitely was a struggle inside the home, but would not comment about whether there were signs of a forced entry or any weapons found.
Muriel said the house had been ransacked.
Hudson would not speculate on how many people were involved in the killings, but he ruled out a murder-suicide. He said evidence in the home, which he would not discuss, provided a good indication of what happened and why. He said he did not believe the family's religious beliefs played a part in their deaths, nor is there any indication the sons were involved in criminal activities.
The victim's 1995 Honda Civic, was found at 2 p.m. Tuesday in a parking lot across the street from the Orlando Police Department, Hudson said. The car was sent to Volusia County and investigators plan to examine it Thursday.
According to a parking attendant in Orlando, the car had been there since 4 p.m. Monday, Hudson said.
He said investigators have not determined if anything else was stolen from the house, but items of value were still there.
Hudson could not confirm claims by a neighbor that a school-age child had been living in the home and Carmen often walked the child to the bus stop.
On Tuesday, Muriel and other members of the Spanish congregation of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Orange City gathered at the house of Roberto Negron, Carmen's brother and only relative living here. Roberto declined to comment.
Carmen Negron and her sons moved to Florida from Puerto Rico seven years ago, Muriel said. She had been a Jehovah's Witness for 15 years and a member of the Orange City congregation since moving here.
Muriel said church members were shocked and couldn't understand why this happened.
"They are an exemplary family," said Eduardo Rivera, a church member. "It was a family who did no harm to anyone but were more than willing to help."
Carmen was widowed and collected Social Security checks. Muriel said she suffered from chronic back problems, but would not elaborate.
Gilberto was the "big teddy bear" who supported the family. He was the only one with a job and a car, said Jenny Georgi, general manager at the Alamo Rental Car in Sanford where Gilberto worked as a mechanic.
Georgi said Gilberto was very quiet, naive and didn't do much outside of work and church. She said he was a "man of few words" and "always had a smile on his face.
"Pretty much his mom and his brother were his life," she said. "Everything was about church and his family."
The youngest, Yamir, went by the name Orlando and was a "model student" in Seminole Community College's EMT training course, coordinator Robert McGraw said. He would have graduated next week. McGraw said classmates were devastated to hear the news of the family's deaths, and instructors gave them the day off.
Orlando, who primarily spoke Spanish, worked extra hours to overcome the language barrier.
"He was a hard-working kid who had a goal and a lot of obstacles to overcome," McGraw said.
Muriel said church members are waiting on the Sheriff's Office to release the bodies before making funeral arrangements.
kristen.moczynski@news-jrnl.com
patricio.balona@news-jrnl.com
-- Staff Writer Lynn Bulmahn contributed to this report. -
abbagail
http://www.wesh.com/news/2683438/detail.html
Sanford Man Investigated In Triple Homicide
Carrasquillo Arrested On Unrelated Charge
POSTED: 4:42 p.m. EST December 4, 2003
UPDATED: 4:48 p.m. EST December 4, 2003
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A Sanford man was taken into custody Thursday for questioning in connection with a triple homicide in Orange City earlier this week.
Javier Orlando Carrasquillo, 28, was taken into custody at about 1:30 p.m. at a mental health facility in Seminole County, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported.
Investigators had been searching for Carrasquillo (pictured, left) to question him about any relevant information regarding the murders. He was arrested on a warrant for resisting arrest without violence, a charge unrelated to the triple homicide.
"During the course of the investigation, Javier came to our attention because he has been to the victims' home on several previous occasions asking for rides," said Volusia County sheriff's Lt. Gordon Meyer. "Due to his history of violence and contact with the victims, we're very interested to see whether he has any information about this case."
Investigators have been interviewing friends, family and acquaintances of the victims since the bodies of Carmen Negron and her two sons, Gilberto Vergara-Negron and Yamir Orlando Vergara-Negron, were discovered inside their Biscayne Drive residence Monday night.
To comment on this story, send an e-mail to Shannon FitzPatrick.
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http://www.news-journalonline.com/breakingnews/arrested.htm
Monday, December 4, 2003
Last update: 3:50 p.m.
Man wanted for questioning in triple homicide arrested
By KRISTEN MOCZYNSKI
STAFF WRITER
DELAND -- Volusia County Sheriff?s investigators have arrested a "person of interest" wanted for questioning in the triple homicide at a home near Orange City.
Javier Orlando Carrasquillo, 28, was taken into custody today at a Seminole County mental health facility on a warrant for resisting arrest. Carrasquillo had checked himself into the facility sometime Monday, Sheriff?s Lt. Gordon Meyer said.
Investigators have been searching for Carrasquillo, hoping to question him to see if he has any relevant information regarding the deaths of Carmen Negron and Gilberto and Yamir Vergara-Negron. The charge isn?t related to the deaths and Carrasquillo has not been named a suspect, Meyer said.
Investigators are questioning Carrasquillo and will attempt to match his fingerprints today to those found at the scene, Meyer said.
The Negrons were shot and stabbed in their home sometime Monday and found at 7:20 p.m. by fellow Jehovah?s Witnesses who went to the house for Bible study.
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It isn't mentioned in the above articles, but the local 5pm news today said that at another (unrelated) time, this guy, Carrasquillo, was walking down a street covered with blood and the cops stopped him. Seems his injuries were self-inflicted so they Baker-Act'ed him. I'm wondering if the guy, being a little mentally unbalanced, may have hurt this family.... -
abbagail
12/4/03, Thursday night's 11pm local news... I was falling asleep but I heard them say that someone had said that the then-suspect, Orlando Carrasquillo, 28, had said he was going to "get a knife and kill some Jehovah's Witnesses."
As you may already know, the police picked up Carrasquillo Thursday. They had been looking for him because they knew he frequented the home of the JW victims, getting rides from the brothers to various places, etc.
Also, Carrasquillo was Baker-Acted last March by the police when they found him walking down the street covered in blood with self-inflicted wounds (per a prior newscast). He fought the police when they tried to Baker Act him.
So, when they found him at a mental clinic during this past week after the murders, they immediately 'arrested' him not on the current murders, but on the prior charge of 'resisting arrest with violence' when they tried to Baker-Act him. This current arrest gave them opportunity to hold him and interrogate him about the current murders.
I missed the 5 and 11 pm news tonight, Friday, 12/5/03, but I just saw the 12:30am rebroadcast of the WFTV-ABC-Channel #9 11pm news, and they said Carrasquillo has confessed to killing the three JW's. The news said that he "used to be a member of the victims' church but was KICKED OUT." They also said Carrasquillo told his mother he is the Anti-Christ. The police said "a very dangerous person is now off the street" and that the victims "for a few minutes were no doubt in great fear knowing they were in a very bad situatioin." Carrasquillo is being held in the Volusia County Jail and will face a grand-jury on December 15th.
BTW, the news has been reporting that the victims were shot and stabbed. I had wondered how he could kill all three of them without a struggle or a fight, but evidently he just walked in and shot them one by one and incapacitated them.
Also, it says they were killed on SUNDAY but not found until before their book study on Monday around 7 pm. That's terrible!
Even though the TV news said Carrasquillo had been 'kicked out' (their words) of the same church, the below Daytona newspaper article says he had asked for the congregation's forgiveness and was still a member in good standing, as far as they know.
Current news articles below...
Grits -
abbagail
Orlando Sentinel.com http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-asecslayings06120603dec06,1,3083782.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
Slayings suspect is formally accused
By Alicia A. Caldwell | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted December 6, 2003
PHOTOS
Javier Carrasquillo
DELAND -- Javier Carrasquillo's own mother was terrified of him after he told her he "made a pact with Satan to sacrifice human life."
Carrasquillo told his mother, Leida Rivera, and grandmother Natividad Ortiz about the pact two months ago. His mother warned members of a local church with whom he once worshipped. She was afraid for them and herself.
She told Volusia County deputies who were looking for her son about the pact this week, according to court documents. Then she asked to be moved into a safe house.
Carrasquillo, 28, was formally accused Friday of three counts of first-degree murder in the violent slayings of members of a Volusia County family who tried to help him. He had been arrested at the Seminole County Mental Health Center in Sanford on Thursday on an unrelated warrant and was expected to be taken back to Volusia on Friday night.
Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson said Friday that Carrasquillo confessed to the killings, telling investigators that on Sunday he shot Carmen Negrón, 63, and Gilberto Vergara-Negrón, 28, and then shot 26-year-old Yamir Orlando Vergara-Negrón and cut his throat. The bodies of the Negróns, devout members of the Orange City Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, were discovered in their home Monday night by another church member.
Elders at the church told investigators that they took seriously the homicidal threats relayed by Carrasquillo's mother, who could not be reached for comment Friday, and even held meetings recently behind locked doors. The elders told investigators Carrasquillo had been "censored," a form of exile from the church.
Carrasquillo, who told investigators he thought he had become the "anti-Christ" since leaving the church, was a patient at the mental-health center when he killed the family, Johnson said.
The Negrón family had befriended Carrasquillo through the church and gave him rides on several occasions. Investigators think that before Sunday, he had last been at the house about a month ago. Carrasquillo said "he had come to dislike the victims and made a decision to kill them," according to the court documents.
After the killings, church members told investigators that the Negróns had been fearful of Carrasquillo.
Carrasquillo's relatives in Puerto Rico said in telephone interviews Friday that he has a long history of mental illness.
In March he was involuntarily committed to a Volusia County mental-health facility after deputies found him bloodied and wandering down a Deltona street.
As they tried to take him into protective custody under the Baker Act -- the state law that allows for involuntary commitment of up to 72 hours -- he became extremely violent, asking deputies to shoot him. The deputies used a Taser stun gun to subdue him, then took him to a local hospital. He had to be subdued again at the hospital. According to a report of the incident, Carrasquillo told deputies he was suicidal because he had lost his job and broken up with his fiancée.
Ortiz, who spoke via telephone from her home in Puerto Rico, said in Spanish that her grandson has suffered from mental problems since childhood. "He wasn't right," Ortiz said. The family had tried for years to get help for him, but he often refused.
In a phone interview from Puerto Rico, his younger sister, Sheyla Carrasquillo, 20, said he had always been a good person, but "he is a different person since being hit in the head."
In April, Seminole County deputies found Javier Carrasquillo nearly unconscious in a Sanford parking lot. According to a sheriff's report, Carrasquillo had been hit in the head and face by at least one person who robbed him. He was airlifted to an Orlando hospital.
Carrasquillo started becoming violent after he was hit, said Ortiz, Carrasquillo's grandmother.
Carrasquillo on Thursday told investigators he suffers from schizophrenia. It was unclear Friday whether he has ever been diagnosed with the condition. An official at the Seminole County Mental Health Center said she could not comment on his case or condition or confirm whether he was a patient.
Johnson, the Volusia sheriff, said Carrasquillo had been at the mental-health center -- where he could come and go as he pleased during the day -- for about a month when he was arrested. Johnson did not know whether Carrasquillo had gone to the facility voluntarily.
Employees at a Sanford sports shop told investigators this week that Carrasquillo made a down payment Oct. 20 on a 9 mm Taurus handgun. He picked up the gun Nov. 15. Two days before the killings, he went back to the store and bought $17.95 worth of hollow-point bullets.
Johnson said Friday it appeared Carrasquillo bought the gun legally. He does not have a criminal record in Florida, according to arrest records. Puerto Rican police officials also could not find any criminal records for Carrasquillo.
According to court documents, Carrasquillo detailed the killings for investigators Thursday, giving the following account:
Sunday, he took a cab from the mental-health center to the Negrón house. He immediately asked to use the bathroom, where he made the decision to kill the family. When he came out a few minutes later, he quickly shot Gilberto Vergara-Negrón in a bedroom and then Carmen Negrón in a bathroom. He then tried to kill Yamir Vergara-Negrón, but the youngest member of the family put up a fearsome struggle. He cut Yamir Vergara-Negrón's throat and shot him before leaving the house in the family's 1995 Honda Civic. He didn't take anything else before driving to a parking lot near the Orlando Police Department, where he left the car.
The car was found Tuesday. Orlando parking-services officials said the car was ticketed twice Monday, once at 4:48 p.m. and again at 11:18 p.m.
After parking the car, Carrasquillo took a cab back to the mental-health center, where he burned his shoes and clothes before tossing them in a trash bin, according to court documents. Johnson said the container was emptied before investigators could search it.
Other than burning his clothes, investigators said, Carrasquillo did not try to hide his crime and told them where to find his dismantled gun. Investigators found part of the gun in his room at the Sanford facility and his fingerprints inside the Negrón house.
They do not think anyone else was involved. "He was our prime suspect, our only suspect in Sunday's murders," Johnson said.
Eugenio Muriel, the church elder who found the bodies, said he was relieved to hear of Carrasquillo's arrest. "I believe by the news that he might be in a lot of pain," Muriel said. "But still, the biggest pain was seeing the family slaughtered like that."
----------------
Pedro Ruz Gutierrez and Errin Haines of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Alicia A. Caldwell can be reached at [email protected] or 386-851-7924.