BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE -- SAVOPOULOS/FIGUEROA MURDERS, D.C.

[Cutz]

Thank God people are so stupid. First he gets linked cause he didn't eat his crust, now more evidence because he didn't CHANGE HIS SHOES?!? That's dumber than the plot of Sharknado. You could have seen 2 episodes of How to Get Away with Murder and learned enough to change your damn clothes. What an

[Nay-Nay]

I don't get it, why is the assistant not locked up yet? I believe he masterminded the crime.

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't get it, why is the assistant not locked up yet? I believe he masterminded the crime.

The assistant's lies to police in initial interviews are very curious Nay-Nay. He's definitely a POI, in my opinion.

But, I'm not sure they consider him a suspect, at least not yet.

For Jordan Wallace to be considered an official suspect in the murder, extortion, and arson, police need to tie him to Daron Wint and the crimes. As Savopoulos' assistant, evidence that he'd been in the house and the car wouldn't mean much.

Police have searched Wallace's car and phone records. It doesn't appear that those searches have resulted in probable cause to justify an arrest warrant thus far.

Wallace's car was parked a block from the Savopoulos home. But, that's not really suspicious since phone records show he was working at the martial arts studio when he got a call from someone at American Iron Works indicating that the Savopoulos house was on fire and he drove straight there.

Here's what was found in Wallace's BMW:
-two backpacks,
-a laptop computer,
-fast-food receipts,
-police also took swabs of the interior of the car and pieces of the vehicle, including the armrest handles.

Here's what was found in the search of the Chevy Cruze that Wint was traveling in:
-cash,
-money orders,
-bank receipts,
-two knives,
-black and pink bag, clothing,
-an iPad and a Verizon Samsung phone

Police haven't indicated whether the knives have been connected to the crimes or whether any of the cell phones belonged to the victims.

The box truck being driven by Wint's relative (his bro, I think) is owned by Amerit Fleet Solutions, a company based in Walnut Creek, Calif., which contracts with large companies to maintain vehicles such as trucks. Police found bundles of hundred dollar bills stuffed inside the door pockets.

It is unclear how the box truck came into the possession of someone linked to Wint, but a company representative has confirmed that Wint never worked for Amerit and Amerit has no connection with American Iron Works.

I think investigators have a lot of dots they're trying to connect. I personally don't have an opinion yet as to whether Wallace is an innocent dumbass or instead guilty of at least conspiracy in the crimes against the Savopoulos' and Vera Figueroa.

Ref: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crim...story.html

[Nay-Nay]

Thanks for explaining.

[HairOfTheDog]

Bloody Baseball Bat Found Near Adult Victims

A new unsealed search warrant in the murder investigation of a wealthy D.C. family and their housekeeper is detailing how the victims were found inside their home.

MAY 14 SEARCH WARRANT AFFIDAVIT: https://www.scribd.com/doc/268311018/Sea...ase-061015

According to the court document, Savvas Savopoulos was found in an upper level bedroom with apparent trauma to the rear of his head. His wife, Amy, was also in the same room with lacerations to her throat and head.

A baseball bat with what appeared to be blood on it was found in the bedroom as well (that detail hadn't been released/leaked before).

The housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, was also found with them and received CPR before being taken to the hospital where she would later succumb to her injuries.

The family's 10-year-old son, Philip, was located in another second-floor bedroom suffering from severe fire damage to his body. It is believed that the fire was ignited in this room.

[Midwest Spy]

What an animal.

I don't know how you could kill people like that, one by one.

This is where the death penalty clearly applies and he should be fed to the lions at that Johannesburg park.

It would seem very appropriate.

[blueberryhill]

Just saw TV schedule and this story will be on ²⁰⁄₂₀ here tonight on ABC at 9:00 P.M. We are not on daylight time so will be same time as Pacific time zone. Didn't mention names, but facts same.....that would be 6/12/15. Probably no new information but an interview with a former victim of suspect will be featured.

[Duchess]

this story will be on ²⁰⁄₂₀ here tonight

For those of you who missed this and would like to see it, here is a link to it.

Video

[HairOfTheDog]

Thanks for the info, blueberry and Duchess.

I watched the ²⁰⁄₂₀ episode during my workout this morning. There wasn't much new info, but it was still an interesting presentation.

One of my open questions was answered during the episode. I'd been wondering, "why did Vera's husband wait until the next day to try to find her if she'd never stayed overnight before?"

Turns out, he called her many times starting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. She didn't answer and he went to work an overnight shift, figuring she was just late and would be home when he got off work the next morning.

When her husband got home on Thursday morning and Vera wasn't there, he was very worried and went straight to the Savopoulos home. While he was outside knocking away, Mr. Savopoulos called him and apologized for not calling him the night before to tell him Vera had stayed over. It wasn't mentioned in the show, but in a previous interview, Vera's husband said Mr. Savopoulos told him that Vera was at the hospital with Amy. So, Vera's husband left.

[HairOfTheDog]

New details revealed during today's preliminary hearing...

Savvas Savopoulos and his family’s housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, were beaten and strangled on the early morning of May 13, a D.C. homicide detective testified Monday during a D.C. Superior Court hearing.

The new details about the slayings were revealed during the preliminary hearing for Daron Wint, the 34-year-old man charged with first-degree murder in the case. Wint is the only person charged so far, but police have said they believe others may have been involved.

Wint, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and with his wrists and ankles shackled, sat next to his public defenders Monday as D.C. Jeffrey Owens, lead homicide detective on the case, testified about some of the evidence.

Authorities have said they identified Wint as a suspect after his DNA was found on pizza crust at the home. Owens testified that the defendant’s DNA also was found on a construction vest that was inside a blue Porsche owned by the Savopoulos family. The car was found burned in New Carrollton, Md.

Police have said they believe Wint drove the car to Maryland and then torched it before fleeing. Owens testified that Wint’s DNA wasn’t the only evidence found on the vest. Savvas Savopoulos’s DNA along with a third unknown person’s DNA were also found on the vest, the detective said.

During Monday’s hearing, Abigail Savopoulos, 19, one of Amy and Savvas Savopoulos’s daughters, sat in the front row of the courtroom, often writing notes. She and her sister were away at school when the killings took place.

Under cross examination by Wint’s public defender Arthur Ago, Owens testified that a witness told police about seeing a man with a close haircut, speeding down New York Avenue Northeast, weaving in and out of traffic in a blue Porsche around 1:30 p.m. May 14. Wint has shoulder-length dreadlocks.

Ago then spent much of the hearing questioning the detective about Jordan Wallace, 28, Savvas Savopoulos’s assistant. The morning of the killings, Wallace accompanied another Savopoulos employees to a bank to retrieve the $40,000, then delivered the cash to the house.

D.C. police have searched Wallace’s car, according to court papers, for any “forensic and physical evidence” linking him to the killings. Wallace has not been charged with a crime, and court papers do not name him as a suspect.

Ago questioned Owens regarding a text message that Wallace sent his girlfriend at 9 a.m. on May 14. In that text message, Wallace took a picture of the cash inside a red-lined bookbag. But according to a bank video, Wallace did not obtain the cash until around 9:45 a.m. leaving Ago to question how it was possible for Wallace to send a picture of the money if he did not receive it until 45 minutes later. “I don’t know,”Owens said.

Ago also asked Owens about items found in a search of Wallace’s car. Owens confirmed that authorities found a book bag that contained Wallace’s passport, his checkbook, and the registration to the Savopoulos's luxury red Mosler sports car that was parked in the garage. Owens did not say why Wallace possessed the registration to the Savopoulos's vehicle.

Ago also focused on the inconsistent statements Wallace made to police. According to court documents, Wallace initially told police that Savvas Savopoulos called him the morning of May 14 and told him to get the money, according to court documents. He said he watched Savopoulos’s accountant get the money from a bank in Hyattsville and saw him put it in a manila envelope, which Wallace took to the house. He put it on the seat of a locked red car inside the garage, the documents say.

Detective Jeffrey Owens also testified that a receipt for an immigration lawyer was found at Wint's father's house. It was dated two days after the slayings and indicates that Wint paid an $1,100 retainer in cash.

Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crim...story.html
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2015/07/dar...15702.html
---------------------------------------------------

Wint's attorney is pointing the finger at Wallace, no doubt.

I wonder if there's any indication that Wint and Wallace knew each other or had any contact prior to the crimes.

[d505]

It turns out the footprint on the door was from a firefighter trying to gain entry to the home. I believe wint wore the vests to appear as a city worker. He probably knocked on the door gained entry when child mother and housekeeper were there. The mother then calls the father and asks him to come home according to the surviving housekeeper. I am guessing wint forces the mom to call the husband.

I wish that dad had just told Wallace or someone to call 911 immediately. I think wint would have fled.

[HairOfTheDog]

It turns out the footprint on the door was from a firefighter trying to gain entry to the home.

Thanks for that update d505. It might have been nice for prosecutors to have a footprint from Wint, but they've got the DNA which is even better.

I'm at least glad that the print was matched definitively to a firefighter so the defense can't use it to support a claim that someone other than Wint broke-in and committed all the crimes.

I believe wint wore the vests to appear as a city worker.

There were several of the same kind of vests found inside the Wint garage. I was thinking that Wint put one of those on to slip out of the house without raising suspicion if he was seen (or to cover blood on his clothes). But, it's possible he got a hold of a vest beforehand or had one from a previous job he did while employed for Savopoulos at American Iron Works.

He probably knocked on the door gained entry when child mother and housekeeper were there. The mother then calls the father and asks him to come home according to the surviving housekeeper. I am guessing wint forces the mom to call the husband.

I wish that dad had just told Wallace or someone to call 911 immediately. I think wint would have fled.

I think you're right that Savvas Savopoulos was called home by his wife while she was under duress. He probably thought if he just did everything the perp(s) wanted, the family wouldn't be killed.

I wish it had turned out differently too.

[HairOfTheDog]

UPDATE

Daron Wint pleaded not guilty to 20 felony charges including the four murders, burglary, kidnapping, arson and extortion.

He was indicted on Wednesday. He was previously charged with the murder of Mr Savopoulos but not the other victims.

Early on, authorities indicated that they believed it would take more than one person to carry out the crimes against the Savapoulos' and Vera Figueroa. However, no one else has been charged at this time.

Ref: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/d-c-mansion-...y-charges/

[Duchess]

Sometimes being civilized sucks ass! He deserves to die a horrible death filled with terror just like that family and their housekeeper did. Cocksucka.

[HairOfTheDog]

Sometimes being civilized sucks ass! He deserves to die a horrible death filled with terror just like that family and their housekeeper did. Cocksucka.

This is one of those cases where the wheels of justice are turning very slowly.



Prosecutors are pissed because of what they perceive as stall tactics by the defense team.

Last month, a trial date was supposed to be set. Instead, the judge granted the defense's motion for more time to test 5 pieces of evidence from the Savopoulos home which contained Cocksucka Wint's DNA.

So, the next hearing is set for February 2017 and the trial isn't expected to take place until sometime in 2018, at the earliest.

Story: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/...03471.html

[HairOfTheDog]

TRIAL BEGINS

It's been more than three years since the horrific murders went down.

Today, the trial of Daron Wint begins in D.C.  



^ Savvas Savopoulos, his wife Amy, their son Philip and the family’s housekeeper, Vera Figueroa, were found beaten, strangled and stabbed to death inside the family's Northwest D.C. mansion in May 2015.  Daron Wint (bottom) stands accused of their murders.

Prosecutors will lay out their case in an opening statement telling jurors their theory on how the suspect, Daron Wint, got to the Savopoulos’ house and what happened over the next 14 hours before the house was set on fire.

The defense will then have its turn at convincing the jury that Wint is not guilty. They have already informed the court it has evidence someone else was involved.

[HairOfTheDog]

Prosecutors do not have to provide a motive – all they have to do is prove Wint was behind one of the more vicious killings in the history of D.C. crime. But will they go there? It is the one question many people who have been fascinated with this case would like to know. If Wint is found guilty – why did he go to the Savopoulos’ mansion on Woodland Drive that night? Was it for revenge?

Wint at one time worked at American Iron Works in Maryland, the company Savvas Savopoulos owned along with his father.

From the beginning, investigators have said they thought others were involved, but Wint has been the only person arrested in this case.

Full story: http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/pr...rders-case

[Duchess]

I remember this case and how horrified I felt about the way they died and the little boy being there too. Ugh. Dreadful.

[HairOfTheDog]

I remember this case and how horrified I felt about the way they died and the little boy being there too. Ugh. Dreadful.

It was definitely a shocking case at a time when it's hard to be shocked.

Today in court the prosecutors said that all of the victims were beaten with baseball bats, stabbed and strangled before Wint poured gasoline on them and set them and the house on fire. Authorities said little Philip was also stabbed with a samurai sword that Savvas Savopoulos kept as a souvenir. :(

Wint's defense attorney, Public Defender Jeffrey Stein, is going with the common SODDI (some other dudes did it) defense.  

Stein told the court that Daron Wint's brother Darrell and stepbrother Steffon set him up.  The brothers, he claims, “deceived Daron, abandoned him and left him to take the fall” in a robbery that turned deadly.

Stein claims that Daron ate pizza downstairs (the crust from which contained the DNA that led police to Daron Wint) and Daron had no idea that there was a family bound upstairs at the time.  Sure thing.  

Daron's DNA was also found on a knife at the scene and on a vest inside the stolen Savopoulos Porsche which, along with the family home, was set on fire after the ransom was received.

(continued)

[HairOfTheDog]

Defense Attorney Stein also said that Mr. Savopoulos' assistant, Jordan Wallace, had a part in the crimes. Wallace withdrew and delivered $40k to the house as instructed by Mr. Savopoulos the morning the house was set on fire.

Prosecutor Bruckmann rebutted that assertion and told the court that Wallace was not involved in the crimes; that he adored the family.

Bruckmann explained that Wallace was nervous when he found out the $40k he delivered to the house was ransom, that the family and their housekeeper had been murdered, and that the house had been set ablaze later that morning. However, Bruckmann said that Wallace cooperated fully.

Story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pub...73ca83c07d