Posted on 09/23/2002 6:40:06 PM PDT by JediGirl
LAKE WORTH, Fla. Sept. 23 — Five bodies, including those of a pregnant woman and three of her relatives, have been found, and police were trying to identify a suspect.
The victims ranged in age from 17 to 52. Police Lt. Susan Wellborn would not say how they had been killed but added that police were working to identify a suspect and motive.
The person responsible must have been "somebody very angry or upset over something," Wellborn said.
The body of Carmen Valentin, 42, was discovered by police about 4 a.m. Sunday in a roadway in Lake Worth, about five miles south of West Palm Beach. At 10 p.m., the four other bodies were found several blocks away at their home.
They were identified as Valentin's children Juan Carlos Valentin, 17, Elizabeth Valentin, 22, and Damarus Valentin, 19, who was eight months pregnant. The fifth victim, Ismael Gomez, 52, also lived in the home and was Carmen Valentin's boyfriend of eight years. Relatives said he helped raise the children.
Police were searching for Gomez's nephew, Michael Milan Roman, 29, who lived at the home. Wellborn said Roman wasn't a suspect and could be in danger.
Relatives said a note from Roman was found in the house.
"He said he was sorry that happened and that he was going to move," said Angel Alicea, Carmen Valentin's nephew. Alicea said he and other relatives did not know more about the note and believed that police had it. Police declined to comment about evidence.
Alicea said relatives became concerned when they learned Damarus Valentin didn't show up for work Saturday night. When they heard of the deaths, they went to the home and saw Gomez's body inside a truck in the driveway beneath a car cover.
The bodies of Valentin's three children were found inside.
Melvin Alicea, another nephew, said he believed his aunt might have tried to go for help but died before she could get far from the home.
Angel Alicea said Gomez and Carmen Valentin, who were both born in Puerto Rico, met through family in Florida more than eight years ago.
"From first sight, they've been together. And he really took to the kids," Alicea said.
Damarus Valentin, who was just a few weeks away from having her first child, worked with her mother at a nearby hotel. She worked as a front-desk clerk, her mom as a laundress. Juan Carlos Valentin was a senior at Lake Worth High School.
"Our family is a typical family. We never had problems. We always were together. Always," said Alicea, who gathered Monday with about 20 family members at the home of Magdalena Ruiz, Carmen Valentin's sister.
No kidding. Well, this sort of breathtaking insight is what separates criminology experts from the rest of us dummies.
And in '08, '12, '16, and '20....
LOL! Reminds me of a line in an old Clint Eastwood spaghetti western...."the dead can be very useful sometimes"
My PMS has never been quite that bad
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