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 ...
COLUMBO: CASE OF THE FOSTER “SUICIDE”
by P. J. Gladnick
(President Clinton is sitting at his desk in the Oval Office. A voice is heard on his intercom. It is his secretary.)
SECRETARY: Mr. President, Lieutenant Columbo is here to see you.
(The Oval Office door opens a bit. Columbo peeks in tentatively.)
COLUMBO: I hope I’m not disturbing you, Mr. President.
CLINTON (smiling broadly): Not at all! I heard that you were visiting the White House. That’s why I had my people take you off the tour line to see me. I’ve always been a big fan of yours.
(Columbo, puffing on a cigar and wearing a wrinkled raincoat, walks in a slouching manner up to Clinton. A beaming Clinton stands up from behind his desk and heartily shakes Columbo’s hand.)
COLUMBO: Mr. President, this is indeed an honor. Let me tell you, my wife is a big fan of yours. Sir, I don’t mean to impose but do you think you can autograph a photo for my wife?
CLINTON: Heck, that’s no problem. I’ll be happy to oblige.
(Clinton pulls a photo of himself from his desk, signs it, and hands it to Columbo.)
COLUMBO: This is terrific! You don’t know what this will mean to my wife_..Uhh, before I go, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?
CLINTON: Huh? Okay, sure.
COLUMBO: Could you tell me how much you paid for your suit? I really admire the material.
CLINTON: I, umm, think it cost about $500.
COLUMBO: And so clean too. With a suit like that you must send it out to the cleaners after each time you wear it.
CLINTON: Of course.
COLUMBO: Well, this is what’s bothering me. I heard that your good friend, the late Vincent Foster, was also a nice dresser yet there were carpet fibers discovered all over his suit when they found him after his tragic suicide in Fort Marcy Park.
(Clinton’s smile turns a bit tense.)
CLINTON: So?
COLUMBO: So it seems like a mystery how all these fibers ended up on his suit. You might pick up a few carpet fibers around the bottom of the pants but not all over the suit.
CLINTON: I think the FBI determined that the carpet fibers probably came from his home.
COLUMBO: That is only an assumption because the FBI never actually took samples from the carpet fibers at his home. With all those fibers on his suit, you would think that they would make a comparison.
CLINTON (Slightly exasperated): Look, Lieutenant Columbo, there have already been three investigations into this matter and they all ruled that Vince Foster committed suicide.
COLUMBO: Oh, I’m not questioning the investigations. I’m sure Mr. Foster died just the way they said but there are still a few loose ends.
CLINTON: Such as?
COLUMBO: Such as the autopsy X-rays.
CLINTON: What about the X-rays?
COLUMBO: Dr. James Beyer, the Deputy Medical Examiner for Northern Virginia, conducted the autopsy but no X-rays were taken.
CLINTON: No X-rays were taken? That’s absurd! They must have been taken in a case of this importance.
COLUMBO: Dr. Beyer checked off a box on the autopsy report stating that he took X-rays yet he later claimed the X-ray machine was inoperable.
CLINTON: Aren’t you forgetting the suicide note that Foster left behind?
COLUMBO (slaps forehead with his hand): That’s right! The suicide note! Obviously it must have been suicide if Foster left behind a suicide note.
(Clinton looks cheerful again.)
CLINTON: I guess that closes the case then.
COLUMBO: It sure does! Mr. President, you don’t know how relieved this makes me feel. I’m sorry to have taken up your time with this matter.
CLINTON: Think nothing of it.
(Columbo leaves through the door and Clinton returns to his desk. A few moments later the door opens again and Columbo leans just inside the doorway.)
COLUMBO: Uhh, there’s just one little point that I overlooked.
CLINTON (looking irritated): What is it, Lieutenant Columbo?
COLUMBO: How do we know that the suicide note was actually written by Mr. Foster?
CLINTON: The suicide note’s handwriting was analyzed and judged to be authentic.
COLUMBO: Yes, by a Capitol police sergeant who only studied handwriting as a hobby. The fact of the matter is that three renowned handwriting experts including Reginald Alton of Oxford University determined that the note, supposedly written by Mr. Foster, was an obvious forgery.
CLINTON: Lieutenant Columbo, are you one of those conspiracy kooks? The autopsy report, even without the X-rays, proved it was a suicide.
(Columbo reaches inside his raincoat and pulls out a couple of sheets of paper.)
COLUMBO: The strange thing is that the official finding says it was a mouth to head wound yet take a look at the report of the Fairfax County Medical Examiner, Dr. Haut. It came from the National Archives and was placed on the Internet from where I downloaded it.
(Columbo hands the papers to Clinton.)
Clinton: Hmm...It says that the wound was “mouth-head” just like the official report.
COLUMBO: Yes but look at the word “head.” It’s obvious that was typed in after another word just to its left was whited out. Then if you look on the second page of Haut’s report it actually says the wounds were “mouth to neck.” I submit, sir, that the first page was altered to change the wound location.
CLINTON: The bottom line is that, despite these discrepancies, the investigators have determined that Vince Foster committed suicide in Fort Marcy Park.
COLUMBO: Oh, sir. I’m not disputing their expertise. It’s just that professional police officers are trained to treat every death as a homicide until suicide is proven. In this case, however, Cheryl Braun, the senior Park Police Officer testified that they determined that Foster had committed suicide before they had even inspected the body.
CLINTON: This is all very interesting theory but the fact is that the Foster case has been ruled a suicide...Case closed.
COLUMBO: I’m sure you’re right about that. After all, if those in authority say it was a suicide then it must be so. Well, good day, Mr. President. Sorry for troubling you about details that must have some logical explanation.
CLINTON: Thank you for visiting, Lieutenant Columbo, and goodbye.
(Columbo leaves the room. Clinton returns to his desk and begins writing on some papers. A little while later we see Columbo looking from the outside into the Oval Office through a window just behind Clinton. Columbo begins tapping on the window. At first Clinton doesn’t hear him. Then he turns around and opens the window.)
CLINTON: Columbo! What is your problem?
(Columbo bends over and then stands back up again holding his shoes.)
COLUMBO: See all that dirt on the soles of my shoes?
CLINTON: Okay, they’re dirty. So what?
COLUMBO: It’s just like when my cousin Guido visits me. He likes working in my yard which is great but my wife throws a fit when Guido tries to walk into the house because of all the dirt on his shoes.
CLINTON: Will you please get to the point, Columbo!
COLUMBO: Well, the FBI scraped Mr. Foster’s shoes thoroughly but found no traces of soil. Everybody else who walked in the area of Fort Marcy Park where Foster was found came away with lots of dirt on their shoes.
CLINTON: You’re wrong, Columbo. A forensic expert found soil on Foster’s shoes.
COLUMBO: Oh yes. Henry Lee thought he found microscopic quantities of the soil on the shoes long after the FBI carefully went over them. Lee was the same fellow who determined that OJ Simpson must have been innocent because he thought he saw another footprint which never existed at the murder scene. Somehow I don’t think Mr. Lee is the most reliable expert in this regard.
CLINTON: Are you trying to say that Foster did not commit suicide in Fort Marcy Park?
COLUMBO: I think that could be a distinct possibility, sir. I’m sure that you, having been a friend of Mr. Foster, would want to leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of this matter.
CLINTON: Just what do you expect me to do?
COLUMBO: It would be helpful if you could make the videotape from the White House parking lot surveillance camera available. We need to see Mr. Foster entering his car on the day he died.
CLINTON: That tape is missing from the White House vault where it was stored.
COLUMBO: Then how about the videotape from the vault surveillance camera? Maybe we can find out who removed the parking lot video from the vault.
CLINTON: The vault video is missing too. Perhaps the parking lot camera never caught Foster entering his car?
COLUMBO: At the most guarded building in the world? Not likely. As a matter of fact I’m sure that cameras are watching me right now and that Secret Service guards should be apprehending me at any moment.
(Suddenly several uniformed guards grab Columbo and haul him away.)
COLUMBO (shouting from the distance): This has been a really enlightening conversation, Mr. President! I hope we can pick up where we left off in the near future!
(Clinton slams the window shut.)
Thanks, that is a new one to me.
LOL. Well done. (I miss Columbo.)
Dang I forgot the popcorn! Awesome! I remember watching Columbo, Hawai Five-0, Barnaby Jones etc. Good cops shows.
It would appear from the stories told so far that three of the four died from knife wounds or blunt-force trauma....but they won’t say which of the four was the odd person on this deal. No one has reported any gunshots heard or bullet wounds with the family...meaning whoever is into this....used strictly a knife. The burned Porsche was found roughly 15 miles away on a major street area of Annapolis Road (Prince George’s County). Generally ‘PG’ is a thug-infested area with a fair amount of drug sales.
My humble guess is that there’s some guy who had some cash flow requirement in a hurry. He picked some rich family and assumed that the husband had some safe in the house with something of value. Things went wrong, and the results are obvious. He used the Porsche as a cash-for-trade item but his connection read through the issues and knew that cops would be all over this vehicle and whoever it was connected with. So burning it on the street was the only way to cover up your tracks.
+Memory Eternal+
I am going to go with muslims from the old country.
Do they have absolutely 100% positive ID on all the victims?
Oh yeah. People always commit suicide by setting their houses on fire.
That was my take as well. Duress. Perhaps he was hoping that the house keeper would catch on and call 911 and suggest that there is a possible hostage situation. She didn’t obviously. If I ever got a call like that from someone I knew well, it is the first thing I would do.
I remember a Forensic Files episode where a young man who was away at school drove homein the night, killed his family, and drove back to school by morning thinking no one would know he was gone. Also one where a high school girl poisoned her father and almost got away with it.
These things seem far fetched, but they DO happen, especially in wealthy families.
Especially after they stab or beat themselves to death.
“Either mob hit, home invasion, or somebody followed them home from the casino.”
Might be a little sloppy for a mob hit, especially the part about stealing the Porsche. Also sad to think that it might have been something as low-rent as an opportunistic home invasion or carjacking by a no-impulse-control, self-entitled thug.
I think it was more professional than someone who selected this family randomly. They seem to have been a well chosen target, the perpetrator (s) even took the time to know the house keeping schedule, they held the family hostage for quite some time (most 'normal' thugs would do a hit and run, not wait as if they were timing the expiry of an automatic time lock), they killed the people and took the time to burn the house (most 'normal' thugs would just shoot or knife/bludgeon them), and as for the porsche found in the 'hood' that doesn't mean anything in and of itself. If I was to ever go rogue, I would also probably leave the burnt out car/murder weapon/murderous leprechaun in an area known for drugs and crime.
Without knowing much about this case, that family was the victim of a professional robbery (probably held hostage while the robbery happened offsite) and then followed by a murder. Probably mob related. Why? Because they were professional enough to pull it off, but STUPID enough not to realize that video of them driving off in the porsche would immediately cast doubt on a murder-suicide story. That mix of brilliance and stupidity is usually indicative of the mob.
There are probably a many speed cameras and red light cameras between the crime scene and the location where the burning Porsche was found. So there are likely more photos of the killer.
(I haven't seen any comments about this, but the chances of the killer encountering firearms in an upscale DC neighborhood are probably fairly remote. The killer probably felt that there wasn't a very big chance that he would be shot.)
Suspect: Daron Dylon Wint
Bad story, looking for updates.
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