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

[HairOfTheDog]

4 DEAD IN DC -- Who Killed the Savopoulos' and The Housekeeper?




Police positively identified two of the four people found dead inside a burning Northwest D.C. home Thursday as a prominent and well-liked husband and wife who lived at the residence.

Police said the two victims were Savvas Savopoulos, the president of a local construction company (American Iron Works) and his wife, Amy (pictured at top).

Police tentatively identified the other two victims as the couple’s 10-year-old son, Philip and a housekeeper.

Three of the four suffered blunt force or sharp object wounds, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said. All the deaths are being investigated as homicides and the fire was intentionally set. At present, police say, there doesn't appear to be any signs of forced entry.

The couple have two teenaged daughters attending boarding school.

Mrs. Savopoulous drove a blue Porsche. It was not at the home, but found parked nearby. Police are asking for tips from anyone who might have seen it being driven yesterday.

A maid who worked for the family said she got a text from Mrs. Savopoulos telling her that someone at the house was sick and not to come to work on Thursday morning.

Refs:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crim...story.html
http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/29066982/four-dead-fire
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Doesn't sound like a stranger committed the murders and arson to me, based on what's known now.

[HairOfTheDog]

Friday LE Update


D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier ^ said that the fire at the stately home on Woodland Drive NW was intentionally set, that three of the four victims inside had wounds, and that the family’s Porsche 911 was found torched in a church parking lot in Hyattsville, Md.

Lanier said that three victims suffered blunt force or sharp object wounds and that all four deaths in the upscale neighborhood near the vice president’s residence were being investigated as homicides.

“Evidence collection will go on for several days,” Lanier said. “There’s still a lot more we don’t know.”

Lanier renewed a call she originally made Thursday for information about the family’s blue 2008 Porsche 911, which disappeared from the home Thursday morning.

She asked the public to contact authorities if anyone had seen it between Wednesday and Thursday at 5 p.m. — a larger time frame than authorities had initially requested. Lanier declined to explain why investigators now wanted to know about the car’s whereabouts a day earlier.

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

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Strange and interesting case.

Someone assaults 3 of the 4 residents at the house, burns the house down, steals the Porsche, and then sets the Porsche on fire in a church parking lot. Why?

People in the neighborhood and family members have told the press that the family was great, they were close, everybody loved them... Well, somebody didn't love them, unless this was a random crime -- that would be surprising to me. Seems very personal.

Got a Rockford hunch to toss out MS?

[ZEROSPHERES]

Nice people are too trusting. They think the rest of the world is like they are and for that reason they can be made victims more easily. It appears a cell phone was used to keep the maid away which to me means the perpetrators, and I think there were 2, had something they wanted and needed more time to get it. The fire in both the house and car were attempts to destroy evidence. I think they were random targets and possibly it all started with a carjacking.

[HairOfTheDog]

The Savopoulos home ^ is minutes from the Biden and Clinton homes.


^ Philip Savopoulos, 10. RIP. Veralicia Figueroa, 57, worked for the family for 20 years. RIP. (No photo avail)


^The couple's teenage daughters Abigail, 19, (left) and Katerina, 16, (right) are said to have been at boarding school at the time.

http://www.bostonnewstime.com/regional/1...light.html

[Cutz]

Got a Rockford hunch to toss out MS?

I think they were random targets and possibly it all started with a carjacking.

Can't wait for MS' prediction, so many interesting storyline options left available.
Random carjacking with an escaped convict twist?
Mistress of the husband?
Gay lover of the husband?
Boyfriend of the wife?
Gay lover of the wife?
Disgruntled employee?
Schizophrenic admirer of one of the daughter's?
Joe Biden in a fit of jealous rage over their pimp Garden Gnome Game?

and many more including the always popular: The butler did it.

[Midwest Spy]

I'm leaning toward home invasion/robbery. I'm guessing not random. Someone was tipped that the couple would make a nice mark.

Rockford had good writers who managed to give him tremendous insight.

I could use a little of that.

[HairOfTheDog]

Nice people are too trusting. They think the rest of the world is like they are and for that reason they can be made victims more easily. It appears a cell phone was used to keep the maid away which to me means the perpetrators, and I think there were 2, had something they wanted and needed more time to get it. The fire in both the house and car were attempts to destroy evidence. I think they were random targets and possibly it all started with a carjacking.

I don't know if they were trusting people overall, Zero.

But, yours is a really plausible stranger perp theory that I hadn't considered.

Mrs. Savopoulos could have gone out in the Porsche, gotten jacked, and then been forced to drive straight into her own garage by an assailant who wanted to rob the home.

There would be no sign of forced entry in that case. Once inside, the perpetrator could have facilitated the text cancelling the next day's maid service. That would have bought him/her/them more time in the house without interruption.

If that's what happened, I wonder if there was something specific the perp(s) was after? It's not clear to LE yet if anything was stolen -- the fire not only possibly destroyed evidence linking the perpetrator to the crimes, but also makes it much more difficult for investigators to determine what specific crimes were committed.

Makes me sad to think of what the family and their employee went through and reminds me of the Petit case a little.

[HairOfTheDog]

Can't wait for MS' prediction, so many interesting storyline options left available.
Random carjacking with an escaped convict twist?
Mistress of the husband?
Gay lover of the husband?
Boyfriend of the wife?
Gay lover of the wife?
Disgruntled employee?
Schizophrenic admirer of one of the daughter's?
Joe Biden in a fit of jealous rage over their pimp Garden Gnome Game?

and many more including the always popular: The butler did it.

^ All possible (assuming the family had a butler). Here are a few more possibilities that pop to mind:

- Business-related executions.

-The murdered housekeeper was the primary target and the family was collateral damage.

-The maid scheduled to work the next day is behind the crimes and used the text cancellation to explain why she didn't show up as scheduled and/or to divert suspicion.

-One or both of the teen daughters had an axe to grind. I'm not accusing the teen daughters, but their alibis and associates will definitely be on LE's early list of "maybes", by default. The last two family killings of this type that I've read about were committed by teen or adult family members living outside of the house (both males).

- Jill Biden fired two blasts from outside the house, with a double-barrel shotgun, and accidentally killed the Savopoulos couple on their balcony. The rest is a cover-up facilitated by Joe Biden to protect his wife and avoid a political scandal.

[Duchess]

- Jill Biden fired two blasts from outside the house, with a double-barrel shotgun, and accidentally killed the Savopoulos couple on their balcony. The rest is a cover-up facilitated by Joe Biden to protect his wife and avoid a political scandal.

Hahahaha!

[Duchess]

Not laughing at the murdered couple.

[HairOfTheDog]

I didn't for a second think that you were making light of the murders Duchess.

I wasn't either.

Sometimes it's interesting (and funny) exploring "who dunnit?" scenarios.

[Duchess]

I always think it's crazy the way some people live in (multi)million dollar homes feet from a street. That's just a meaningless thought I had while looking at pix of their property.

[HairOfTheDog]

I always think it's crazy the way some people live in (multi)million dollar homes feet from a street. That's just a meaningless thought I had while looking at pix of their property.

It's the same here in San Francisco. Some of the most expensive houses in exclusive neighborhoods are right off the street. Actually, considering how much is packed into so little square footage here, just about every residence and business is right near a street.

Since the Savopoulos' lived in a wealthy area in a multi-million dollar home, I'm hoping something helpful in solving the crime was caught by surveillance cams in place at the Savopoulos home, the neighbors' homes, or surrounding areas.

[Duchess]

You know the cops are looking hard at the housekeeper who got the text.

I think the culprit is either known to the family or someone who knew of them. I don't think that's the kind of neighborhood people just pass through on their way to someplace else.

[ZEROSPHERES]

I always think it's crazy the way some people live in (multi)million dollar homes feet from a street.

It's the same here in San Francisco. Some of the most expensive houses in exclusive neighborhoods are right off the street.

You don't have to have conspicuous wealth to invite criminals to rob and kill you. All you need is the rumor of having wealth and vulnerability. Herbert Clutter and his family were massacred because one of their workers shared that rumor with a cellmate. They lived in rural Kansas. I guess that maid who received the call to not come to work could fit into a Benedict Arnold scenario.

[HairOfTheDog]

You don't have to have conspicuous wealth to invite criminals to rob and kill you. All you need is the rumor of having wealth and vulnerability. Herbert Clutter and his family were massacred because one of their workers shared that rumor with a cellmate. They lived in rural Kansas. I guess that maid who received the call to not come to work could fit into a Benedict Arnold scenario.

No doubt -- criminals can target anyone for any number of real or imagined potential gains.

The maid might well be on the up and up and devastated about what happened. I have no reason to believe that she was involved, just listing possible scenarios that I believe LE will be investigating and ruling in or out straight off the bat.

If they don't have surveillance or a reliable eyewitness description of the perp(s), LE will start by looking at the victims' inner circle and those who had access to the home, checking for alibis and possible motives. They'll move out from there if/when those known individuals are cleared.

Hopefully, there will be surveillance or some DNA or forensic evidence recoverable from the scene which can be tied to the crimes. The fire will make that more difficult though. I agree with your speculation that the arson was most likely an attempt to destroy any such evidence.

Killing multiple people and setting a house and car on fire is the work of an extremely cold or extremely pissed off individual; brazen too. The fact that one of the murder victims was only 10-years-old makes it even more disturbing to me that whoever did it is still on the loose.

I hope the killer is identified and arrested soon.

[blueberryhill]

I am a little confused. If 3 out of the 4 were assaulted, does that mean that the 4^th person died in the fire? I must have missed something in my haste.
I think the text the maid received is a little strange as that would imply that killer was there for awhile, maybe looking for a safe, jewelry, etc.
Yes, in so many of these cases, the kids away at school seem to be involved, maybe a psycho boyfriend or I guess one or both of the daughters could both be psychotic.
And this is crazy, but what if husband killed the three people, then took the vehicle where it was found, walked back to house, then lit fire and died from smoke inhalation. I know it is a stretch, but I think it strange that they say 3 out of the 4 were assaulted...help!

[Cutz]

I am a little confused. If 3 out of the 4 were assaulted, does that mean that the 4^th person died in the fire? I must have missed something in my haste.
I think the text the maid received is a little strange as that would imply that killer was there for awhile, maybe looking for a safe, jewelry, etc.
Yes, in so many of these cases, the kids away at school seem to be involved, maybe a psycho boyfriend or I guess one or both of the daughters could both be psychotic.
And this is crazy, but what if husband killed the three people, then took the vehicle where it was found, walked back to house, then lit fire and died from smoke inhalation. I know it is a stretch, but I think it strange that they say 3 out of the 4 were assaulted...help!

I was thinking it was probably that the killers murdered the 3 adults before setting the fire, but couldn't bring themselves to kill the kid directly. Which is probably worse since I think burning to death is a worse way to die.

[Duchess]

You don't have to have conspicuous wealth to invite criminals to rob and kill you.

When I said crazy, I didn't mean nutty. Lots of people with more than a couple of dimes to rub together love to talk about their wealth and all that they have and all that they do. Their money validates them. I was referring to having all that money to spend on a home and they choose to live within feet of a street and neighbors. THAT'S crazy to me.

[ramseycat]

You don't have to have conspicuous wealth to invite criminals to rob and kill you.

When I said crazy, I didn't mean nutty. Lots of people with more than a couple of dimes to rub together love to talk about their wealth and all that they have and all that they do. Their money validates them. I was referring to having all that money to spend on a home and they choose to live within feet of a street and neighbors. THAT'S crazy to me.

It's tacky.