TEXAS: Mother, 3 children killed; father critically wounded

Mother, 3 children killed; father critically wounded By EVAN MOORE Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle HUDSON OAKS -- A marital disagreement apparently led to the fatal shooting Tuesday of a mother and her three children and the wounding of her estranged husband in this tiny community west of Fort Worth.

Dee Perez, 39, and her children, Sergio, 10, Diego, 9, and 4-year-old Bianca, were found dead in their upper-middle class home here about 1:30 p.m.

Mrs. Perez's estranged husband, Fort Worth fire Capt. Manuel "Manny" Perez, 38, was wounded in the back in the incident and was in critical condition in a Fort Worth hospital.

Hudson Oaks Police Chief Ray Riley said his office learned of the shooting when Manuel Perez ran to a neighbor's home and called the Parker County Sheriff's Department for help.

"Mr. Perez then directed our officers to his home, where they found the doors locked," said Riley.

Perez was taken to a Fort Worth hospital by helicopter, Riley said, while police searched the grounds of the home. Officers broke into the house after spotting shell casings on the floor.

Riley said the children's bodies were found in different rooms, but said he was not sure how many times each had been shot, or where, or what caliber weapon was used.

The Parker County Sheriff's department originally carried the call as a suicide and triple homicide, though Riley would not say whether he believed that to be the case. He said Perez is to be questioned when he recovers, but was not considered a suspect in the shooting.

Perez is an 18-year veteran of the Fort Worth Fire Department and worked at a station on the city's south side.

Associated Press Investigators confer Tuesday outside the Perez home in the Hudson Oaks community west of Fort Worth where Dee Perez and her three children were shot to death. Her estranged husband, Manuel Perez, was critically wounded.

Friends of the couple said they had been periodically separated several times in the past year and were in the midst of an acrimonious divorce.

Riley, however, said his office had answered no domestic disturbance calls at the Perez home.

Craig Towson, a Weatherford attorney who represented Dee Perez in the proceeding, said she had been very upset about the divorce, but did not appear out of control at any of the court sessions.

The couple had been married for nearly 15 years, and the divorce was close to being finalized, Towson said. Custody of the children was not in dispute, he said.

Towson said the couple had a mediation hearing on Monday and Mrs. Perez appeared satisfied.

"I last saw her about 7:30 p.m. Monday after the mediation, and she seemed fine," said Towson. "Then, we had a lawyers conference (Tuesday) morning and Mr. Perez was there and he seemed perfectly happy.

"It's horrible, absolutely terrible," he said. "It's very difficult to have worked with somebody and something tragic like this happen."

A friend of the family, who requested anonymity, said most of those who knew the family were shocked at the deaths.

"I think the problems in the marriage had been going on for some time," said the friend. "He had moved out at one point, then moved back, then moved out again.

"But she seemed stable. She was very socially outgoing and very involved with the kids. Lately, however, she seemed to have lost a great deal of weight."

Neighbor Susan Ross told Dallas television station KXAS, "I just knew that she and her husband were having problems. I saw her at Wal-Mart just the other day. She said it was tough."

Hudson Oaks, population about 1,600, is a somewhat upscale community. The town originally consisted of a few businesses dotted along Interstate 20, but has grown southward in recent years. It is part of a burgeoning area of east Parker County that has become a bedroom community for Fort Worth.

The Perez family purchased a pleasant, one-story, brick home on a tree-lined street there several years ago. Friends of the family said the purchase followed close on the heels of an automobile accident in which Mrs. Perez was injured and received a large settlement.

"It's just a quiet residential neighborhood. Nothing like this has happened here as far as I can remember," City Administrator Kelly Carta said.

Couple's divorce took a violent turn
One last meeting, one unexpected tragedy
07/18/2002
By LAURIE FOX and CHRIS FRATES / The Dallas Morning News
HUDSON OAKS – After months spent dissolving a 13-year marriage, Manuel Perez and his estranged wife faced one last meeting.
Mr. Perez was to see Dee Etta Perez at the couple's Parker County home at 10 a.m. Tuesday, just after attorneys tied up most of the loose ends in their divorce.
Even the list of things he was to gather there had been set by the court. Among them some household items, a family crucifix and sports memorabilia.
Several hours later, Mr. Perez called 911.
"I've been shot in the back by my wife," Mr. Perez told an emergency operator, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit in the case. "The children are there and possibly dead."
Police said they forced their way into the silent home through the back door and found the body of the oldest child, 10-year-old Sergio, on the top of a set of bunk beds. His siblings, 9-year-old Diego and 4-year-old Bianca, were lying together on the bottom bunk.
Mrs. Perez, who was kneeling when she died, was found on the floor of the master bedroom. A gun was found nearby.
The shootings rocked the pastoral calm of the Diamond Oaks subdivision.
"This is a very beautiful, rural area. Everyone in this little town is just devastated," Hudson Oaks Police Chief Ray Riley said. "We've got people going door-to-door praying for one another."
On Wednesday, as the sun tucked behind the wooded hills, residents mourned the family.
By Wednesday evening, flowers, stuffed animals and balloons were nestled into a pine tree in a garden near the home's front door.
Most everyone who knew something about the couple – friends, attorneys, even the judge in the case – said the dissolution of their marriage did not seem contentious.
But some bitterness appeared to run below the surface.
Court records show that when Mr. Perez filed for divorce in January, he sought, and was granted, a restraining order against his wife.
Mrs. Perez, in turn, had accused her husband of cruelty and adultery and sought her own restraining order.
How those apparently dueling claims contributed to the violence at the home Tuesday remains a mystery.
"There are still just so many unanswered questions," Chief Riley said Wednesday afternoon as his officers cleared their crime scene and awaited a medical examiner's ruling on the deaths. "We have one victim who's still alive, and we need to be able to talk to him. This has taken its toll on all of us out here."
Mr. Perez, a Fort Worth Fire Department captain, was taken to Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital. The hospital has provided no information about him.
Dr. Nizam Peerwani, the Tarrant County medical examiner, said Wednesday that he had completed the autopsies on Mrs. Perez and the children and would release the results Thursday.
Chief Riley said this department is trying to sort out what happened in the home from the time Mr. Perez arrived about 10:30 a.m. until the time that he called 911 and reached the Parker County Sheriff's Department about 1:15 p.m.
Police said they spoke with Mr. Perez at the scene and, though wounded, he shared part of his account of the incident before being taken to the hospital.
Officials said Mr. Perez reported that he heard two more shots after fleeing the home.
Court records show that Mr. Perez was to be directed to pay child support and had arranged to call the children at 5 p.m. each day.
Officials with Child Protective Services said they would conduct an investigation but have no history with the family.
"We are working the case as a child death," CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said. "A child homicide by a parent is the ultimate abuse."

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