Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

D.C. couple was acting oddly before fire, police are told
Washington Post ^ | May 16, 2015 | Peter Hermann and Antonio Olivo

Posted on 05/16/2015 8:11:23 PM PDT by Second Amendment First

The Savopoulos family was having a busy week. The husband was trying to get a new martial arts center in Chantilly, Va., ready for a grand opening, and he enlisted the help of one of his housekeepers. His wife was ill, and their 10-year-old son was recovering from injuries suffered in a go-kart crash.

The days and hours leading up to the deaths of Savvas and Amy Savopoulos, and two others believed to be their son and another housekeeper, came into sharper focus Saturday with new details from police records. They show attempts by friends and relatives to reach the victims Thursday morning, before they were found dead that afternoon in a burning home in Northwest Washington.

These records show a series of text messages and voice mails from both Savopouloses to the housekeeper who had been helping in Chantilly, telling her not to come clean at their D.C. home Thursday, as was her normal routine. Savvas Savopoulos also let her know in a Wednesday night voicemail that the housekeeper who was later found dead had planned to stay overnight at the family’s home and asked that she inform the woman’s family because her cellphone battery had died.

Nelitza Gutierrez, the housekeeper who received the messages and has worked for the family for 20 years, said in an interview Saturday that the series of messages left her with the impression that something was amiss with her employers. She said Savvas Savopoulos told her in person Wednesday that his wife had plans to go out, but said in the voice mail left that night that Amy Savopoulos had been sick in bed all day.

“It was something very suspicious because I felt his voice was really tense,” Gutierrez said. “And it was different than what he had said to me before.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: aiw; americanironworks; arson; chantilly; dc; homefire; housekeeper; isolatedincident; maid; savopoulos; whodunnit
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last

1 posted on 05/16/2015 8:11:23 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Second Amendment First
Soon to be a Dateline or 48 Hours episode.
2 posted on 05/16/2015 8:20:57 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP for A Slower Handbasket)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Second Amendment First

Life insurance policies recently issued on the kids?


3 posted on 05/16/2015 8:23:40 PM PDT by jsanders2001
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Second Amendment First

I hope the Feds are helping with this investigation because when I lived there, DC couldn’t even manage to plow snow successfully.


4 posted on 05/16/2015 8:23:52 PM PDT by Sooth2222 ("In a democracy people get the leaders they deserve." - Joseph de Maistre, 1753-1821)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sooth2222

That’s why Vince Foster was found in Fort Marcy Park, where the DC Park police did the investigation.


5 posted on 05/16/2015 8:26:38 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Second Amendment First
In grainy footage, the video shows a hooded person carrying a white object running past an unidentified building.

Well, that certainly narrows it down.

Prayers for the family and housekeeper. Smells like whatever was going on was going down when the other housekeeper was on the phone.

6 posted on 05/16/2015 8:29:46 PM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "we still do not know exactly how people are infected with Ebola")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jsanders2001

Sounds like Savas (the husband) killed his wife and probably the rest of them. Then set the place on fire and killed himself. Although I thought I had read where is Porsche had been seen leaving the place and was found later on somewhere. Perhaps the housekeeper that got the calls did it? Although I imagine phone records would tell the story, plus if she happened to keep the voicemail.


7 posted on 05/16/2015 8:30:07 PM PDT by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Second Amendment First
‘That’s why Vince Foster was found in Fort Marcy Park, where the DC Park police did the investigation.’

Fort Marcy Park is in Virginia not DC. The Park Police are a federal not metropolitan agency. Their full title is United States park Police, they belong to the Dept of the Interior. While they are permanently based only in the national Capital Region and New York City (they are the police power on Ellis Island, Liberty Island and I think Castle Clinton (not named for Bill) at the tip of Manhattan Island the Park Police can be deployed to any national park or monument if needed. That said they have a very limited criminal investigative capacity and that is certainly why they were retained as lead investigative agency in the Vince Foster case rather than having the case be transferred to the FBI, which would be routine in any case of homicide occurring on federal ground.

8 posted on 05/16/2015 8:34:25 PM PDT by robowombat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Second Amendment First

They were sending messages under duress.


9 posted on 05/16/2015 8:35:30 PM PDT by House Atreides (CRUZ or lose!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 21twelve

Okay - read the article! (I know....)

I’m guessing a home invasion with the bad guys holding them hostage for quite some time, maybe trying to get into bank accounts or other valuables and lasting a couple of days.


10 posted on 05/16/2015 8:36:07 PM PDT by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: robowombat

Thank you for the clarification. It’s been a couple of decades since I read the details.


11 posted on 05/16/2015 8:38:24 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: 21twelve

Sounds like Savas (the husband) killed his wife and probably the rest of them.
****************************************************************************************************
You are so far off the mark it’s sad. They were murdered and those calls were done under duress.


12 posted on 05/16/2015 8:38:40 PM PDT by House Atreides (CRUZ or lose!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: 21twelve

Mob hit? Maybe where everything didn’t go quite as planned?


13 posted on 05/16/2015 8:41:03 PM PDT by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: House Atreides

With our kids we had a code word in case someone ever had to pick them up from school or something - they had to say the code word for the kids to get in the car with them (other than grandma or one trusted neighbor).

It would be a bad idea to have a code word to call the cops too. Although I probably don’t have to worry about a home invasion and then wait until the bank opens to get to my safe-deposit box. “Um - what do you want with my birth certificate and a will that is 25 years out-of-date for?”

I wonder if my kids would be smart enough to figure out if I dropped the code word into a phone call?

“Hey kids - why don’t you go over to grandma’s after school. I have to pick up a friend from the airport that is flying in from Khatmandu.”


14 posted on 05/16/2015 8:42:56 PM PDT by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: House Atreides

Yeah - see my post 7 as I slink away with my tail between my legs!


15 posted on 05/16/2015 8:44:09 PM PDT by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: 21twelve

From an earlier article I recall they have two daughters going to a boarding school somewhere. I can’t imagine what it must be like for them.


16 posted on 05/16/2015 8:48:45 PM PDT by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: jjotto

Savvas was CEO of American Iron Works - their website shows lots of big construction projects in the northeast. It might be mob related. Or, someone knowing how rich he was trying to rob them.

One would think they would have plenty of security cameras, etc. I wonder how many security cameras images are sent real-time to off-site storage? Obviously if it is recording inside the house it would have been destroyed.


17 posted on 05/16/2015 8:55:37 PM PDT by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: House Atreides; All

‘They were murdered and those calls were done under duress’
Much more interesting than the usual domestic tragedy . Who then do you believe set this elaborate multiple murder up? and for what reason? These sorts of things happen from time to time in DC land. Last I recall (around 1995) was an older guy and his Chinese wife who lived in McLean and operated an ‘antiques store’ in DC specializing in Chinese antiquities. Both turned up dead in their store one Monday having been (as the cops figured out) abducted from their home and taken to their store and then shot. The why and for what was never figured out and that one is still unsolved as far as I know.


18 posted on 05/16/2015 9:00:08 PM PDT by robowombat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: 21twelve
Check out this report about a family in Indianapolis who had a horrible home invasion experience. One daughter was away and had a sort of survivor's guilt. Great story of how they overcame what happened to them. (WTHR-TV)

Survivors of horrific home invasion share story of healing and hope>

19 posted on 05/16/2015 9:02:19 PM PDT by arasina (Communism is EVIL. So there.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: 21twelve

The husband and wife had just returned from a day at the casino in WV. Their burned out Porche was found the next day.

Either mob hit, home invasion, or somebody followed them home from the casino.


20 posted on 05/16/2015 9:19:02 PM PDT by VanShuyten ("a shadow...draped nobly in the folds of a gorgeous eloquence.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson