Family Slain Off Fla. Highway Identified Last Updated: 10-14-06 at 12:01PM FORT PIERCE, Fla. -- A family of four found shot to death along an isolated stretch of highway had moved to Florida from Texas four months ago, authorities said Saturday. The family, including two boys ages 3 and 4, was found Friday, fatally shot along Florida's Turnpike in Port St. Lucie, about 100 miles north of Miami. Investigators believe their vehicle, a 1998 four-door Jeep Cherokee, had pulled to the side of Florida's Turnpike before someone else in the vehicle shot them and drove away sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. No one has been arrested, but authorities were searching for clues Saturday into the deaths, Sheriff Ken Mascara said. A search warrant was issued for the family's home in Greenacres in Palm Beach County, where they had moved in June from the Brownsville, Texas, area. Authorities also were looking for the family's black Jeep Cherokee, which had a Florida temporary license plate, Mascara said. The mother, identified as Yessica Guerrero Escobedo, 25, was found clutching her two sons in an apparent effort to protect them. The body of the father, Jose Luis Escobedo, who would have turned 29 on Saturday, was found nearby. The victims appeared to be lying down or kneeling when they were shot, Mascara said. A motive for the shootings was not yet known. Authorities said the victims and the shooter may have known each other, and investigators were not approaching the crime as a carjacking. Mascara showed pictures of the family, including a photo of the two young boys in what appeared to be a bedroom, at a news conference Saturday. Mascara said Friday the mother and father suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Formal autopsy results were not expected until Monday, according to the medical examiner's office. Family members in Texas were notified of the deaths. The scene of the shootings in a grassy area along the highway had no activity Saturday, a day after a passer-by spotted the bodies and alerted the Florida Highway Patrol, kicking off a search for evidence. The vehicle left marks in the grass as it pulled away. A turnpike camera was in the area but wasn't recording at the time. They also sifted through trash cans along the turnpike to look for any evidence. Bullets found at the scene Friday were being analyzed to see if the same kind had been used in any other crimes. Seven other law enforcement agencies around the country were involved in the investigation, Mascara said. Investigators had received about 200 phone calls offering tips, the sheriff said. http://www.kfmb.com/story.php?id=66572

Funeral Set for Family Found Dead in Florida Oct 18, 2006 06:08 PM CDT Funeral services for a family of four found shot to death along the Florida Turnpike were scheduled for Monday. Jose Luis Escobedo, 28, was found Friday in a grassy area in Port St. Lucie. His wife, Yessica Guerrero Escobedo, 25, was discovered holding the couple's sons, Luis Julian, 4, and Luis Damian, 3, apparently trying to protect them. A chapel service was set for Monday at 10 a.m. at Funeraria Del Angel Buena Vista in Brownsville, where the family lived until recently. Visitation will be this weekend, and a Rosary service is planned for Sunday night. Meanwhile, relatives said Wednesday they have heard few details from investigators. "We're still scared," said Yessica Escobedo's aunt, Monica Moreno. "We're needing answers." Authorities have said the family died of multiple gunshot wounds and appeared to be lying down or kneeling when they were shot. The couple's vehicle was found abandoned 70 miles south of the murder scene in West Palm Beach. "I just want everyone to think about my nephews, my niece and her husband. Nobody in their right mind would do that," Moreno said. Officials with the St. Lucie County Sheriff's say local, state, and federal agencies are cooperating on the case. So far, there's been no arrests and a motive for the killings hasn't been revealed. The Medical Examiner's Office released the family's bodies, and evidence was being analyzed at the Indian River Crime Lab in Fort Pierce, Fla., authorities said Wednesday. The Escobedos moved from Brownsville to Greenacres in Palm Beach County several months ago. Detectives from the St. Lucie County Sheriff's have been in Brownsville to speak with those who knew the family and interview anyone who may have information on the case. Investigators spoke with Yessica Escobedo's brother and with some members of Jose Luis Escobedo's family, said Yessica Escobedo's cousin, Lisa Salazar. http://www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=5558534

Private visitation held for family found dead in Florida BROWNSVILLE, Texas A visitation for a family found shot to death along a Florida highway was attended mostly by relatives, who were concerned about intrusive photographers. Funeral services for 28-year-old Jose Luis Escobedo, 25-year-old Yessica Guerrero Escobedo, and the couple's sons, 4-year-old Luis Julian and 3-year-old Luis Damian were scheduled for tomorrow. Their bodies were found October 13th in a grassy area off the Florida Turnpike in Port Saint Lucie. Both parents graduated from high school in Brownsville. They had moved to Florida just four months ago. Federal and Florida investigators have not suggested a motive for the killings. http://www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=5573120

Brownsville mourns — and wonders — after family slain Web Posted: 10/22/2006 12:55 AM CDT Jesse Bogan and Jeorge Zarazua Express-News Staff BROWNSVILLE — The contents of four open caskets, especially the two small white ones that each cradled a young boy draped in baptismal suits, pulled tears even from grown men Saturday. The mourners were viewing what remained of the Escobedo family, shot multiple times beside Florida's Turnpike in the early morning darkness of Oct. 13. The ruthless deaths of Jose Luis Escobedo Jr., 28, his wife, Yessica, 25, and sons Luis Julian, 4, and Luis Damian, 3, left people across the nation asking the same questions. How could anyone be angry enough to wipe out an entire family? Who, even in their wrong mind, could level a gun at a young mother trying to shield her boys, then fire at them all as if they were tree stumps? "I don't have an answer for this, it's such a horrible story," said César Garcia, 54, who cried while taking a smoke break after viewing his niece. Mourners patted Yessica's thick black hair, or rested a hand on the boys, each with his own stuffed animal — a lion and a puppy — or touched Jose Luis, in his black wedding jacket trimmed with ostrich leather at the shoulders. "I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't know what they were thinking, how anybody did this," Garcia said. There are other questions. The family had moved from its Brownsville neighborhood of laundries, inexpensive taquerias and used-auto-parts stores to rent a home in a gated community in southern Florida with a $3,300 deposit. But Jose Luis was a small-scale used-car dealer looking for construction jobs. The case has produced no arrests. Florida investigators initially said the shooting didn't appear to be a carjacking and may have involved someone the family knew. Since then, police have refused to comment. They are said to be looking into the case of Jose Luis' brother, Jose Manuel, 28, a federal fugitive who failed to meet the terms of his release on a 10-year sentence for conspiracy to transport and possess cocaine in the Houston area. Except to say they haven't heard from him, family members declined to talk about Jose Manuel. His birthday is the same day as the killing and just one day before his brother's. The two looked nearly identical. The only suspicion that relatives have shared was about a shady Florida associate of Jose Luis who visited here in June. Since then, he apparently complained about money issues with the man, but no one could say with any confidence what their relationship was. Asked Friday if the killing appeared to be drug-related, as many here suspect because of how it was carried out, Brownsville police Lt. James Paschall declined to answer directly because his department isn't leading the investigation, but said: "I think it's very obvious. The situation speaks for itself." Starting over Apart from a traffic violation, Jose Luis Escobedo had no criminal history, according to police and public records. Relatives said they weren't aware of him or his wife being involved with drugs, though people close to them have been, as with many families living along the Texas-Mexico border. Relatives, including some who had spent weekends with the Escobedos for years, said they weren't sure why the family pulled up stakes and moved to Florida. They speculated it was for a fresh start, and possibly so Jose Luis could buy and sell used cars. He would buy one or two at a time, or sometimes help drive vehicles back to Brownsville from faraway auctions for colleagues. "They didn't have any real reason, they just wanted to try something else," said Monica Moreno, Yessica's aunt. Relatives said Jose Luis may have been depressed and in need of a new beginning since 2005, when he found the body of his father, a former fisherman, hanging in his bathroom. In recent years, a cousin also committed suicide and an aunt in San Antonio died of cancer. They mostly won't talk about his only brother. Released March 7 on his own recognizance from a federal prison in Oakdale, La., Jose Manuel was to report to a federal prison work camp to finish about six years left on his sentence, but didn't show up, said Mike Truman, a Washington-based Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman. "He was eligible to (be released) because he had no violence in his background," Truman said. "He met our criteria to be placed in a camp." Initial searches of the U.S. Marshals Service database didn't show him as wanted. A representative of the agency in Lake Charles, La., said a warrant for his arrest was issued recently, but declined to give the date or describe the extent of the search. Robert Hobbs, a federal prosecutor based in Beaumont who is familiar with the 2003 case against Jose Manuel, said the fugitive brother "certainly needs to be fully explored" in the investigation. He was among some 20 defendants in a "very significant heroin and cocaine" trafficking case, a loosely organized organization based in Houston with buyers in Pennsylvania, Louisiana and other states, Hobbs said. Hobbs declined to comment on Jose Manuel's release from prison in March, around the time Jose Luis moved to Florida, to be joined by his wife and boys a few months later. They apparently were all expecting to come home, relatives said. Investigators found airline tickets for an Oct. 14 trip to Brownsville, the day after they were killed. Brownsville to Florida In Florida, Jose Luis and Yessica were 1,500 miles and a lifestyle away from where they grew up. They had lived in the same neighborhood and started dating at Simón Rivera High School. Yessica, whose father is a bricklayer hobbled by diabetes and whose mother helps manage a cold-storage warehouse, played softball in school. Her childhood home on Chilton Street, one of the first built there, is now surrounded by modest brick homes. Kids are everywhere. After graduation Yessica pursued a two-year degree. Jose Luis dropped out of school to work, mainly on his dad's gulf shrimp boat, "El Camarón," and later in Corpus Christi refineries and the used-car market. The couple honeymooned at Disney World and lived most recently in his parents' house, protected by a leaning chain-link fence and overgrown front and rear with tall grass. Hired part-time at J.C. Penney's after being a temp for the Christmas season, Yessica earned about $6 an hour doing paperwork for jewelry repairs, said sales manager Ann Valadez, who praised her performance and character. On her last day of work in March, she brought strawberries dipped in chocolate for her co-workers, a dessert she was known for making. "We wished her well and told her she'd have a job if she came back, and that's the last we heard of her," Valadez said. Within months, she and the boys had joined Jose Luis in Greenacres, Fla., about 65 miles north of Miami, in a barely furnished, renovated white stucco three-bedroom home with a two-door garage, a fenced backyard and screened porch. Jeff McElroy, the owner of the house in a neighborhood proud of its parks and landscaped medians, said he never met the family but they paid their $1,650 monthly rent on time. Neighbors said they rarely had visitors and were rarely seen, except for the Fourth of July and when Jose Luis stood outside with a cell phone pressed to his ear. A former landlord in Brownsville, Benito Rodriguez, 46, who works in nearby West Palm Beach, Fla., said Jose Luis checked in with him monthly to ask for work at construction sites, but never at the right time. "He said he was selling cars, buying cars," Rodriguez said. But neighbor Maureen Mendez, 51, was surprised to hear that claim. "No way," she said. "I would have noticed." Mendez said she could remember only one time that Escobedo had about five vehicles parked at his home, about two months ago. She last saw the family members the day before they were killed and remembers noticing their recycle bins were out early that Thursday — peculiar because most neighbors put their bins out on Thursday night or early Friday morning for pick-up. "I thought they must be going on vacation or out of town," Mendez said. Loud pops Early the next day, some 60 miles north of the Escobedo home, a series of loud pops awoke Janis Rich, 67. She looked at the digital clock atop her nightstand as she and her husband got out of bed and walked toward their windows. It was 2:24 a.m. They heard eight or nine bangs in quick succession and waited, wondering if neighborhood kids had set off fireworks or if a car had backfired on the nearby Florida Turnpike, which wasn't unusual. "We didn't hear any cars," she said. "We didn't hear any voices. It was just pitch-dark." At about 7:45 a.m., a Florida Highway Patrol trooper stopped in the area after seeing a parked vehicle. Its driver, whom police refuse to name, pointed out bodies in the grass. Each had been shot several times, according to autopsy reports. Within days, passing motorists created a makeshift memorial of flowers, a large teddy bear and a smaller stuffed toy, a yellow duck. It was where Yessica was found in the fetal position, her arms clutching her two children in a "defensive posture," said St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara. Jose Luis was on his back adjacent to her. Mascara told reporters it didn't appear the victims tried to flee and could have been kneeling or lying when shot. Several bullet casings and fragments were recovered. Escobedo's 1998 black Jeep Cherokee turned up a few days later about an hour's drive away in a warehouse area between Interstate 95 and Palm Beach International Airport. Suspicion Back in June, the music had thumped at Stilettos, a strip club nestled among chain restaurants and car dealerships here on U.S. 83. Jose Luis sat beside a heavily tattooed man with precious stones mounted in his teeth. They were visiting for a few days, said Jose Luis' uncle, Jose Torres, 30, who said the stranger looked "like he came from a bad neighborhood." "For his age, what the heck does he do?" Torres recalls thinking at the time. "Who the heck would have money to put diamonds or whatever the heck he had on his teeth?" Torres said the man had at least $300 in $1 bills stacked up for the dancers. Today, he wonders if the man may have information about the killings. Jose Luis had later complained by phone about how the man "didn't want to pay his share of the rent," said Torres, one of several family members interviewed by police. Torres said it would be hard to believe that his nephew was involved in an illegal scheme because he saved his money, worked hard and "wasn't the type of guy to get into trouble." "His brother was the one who liked the easy money," he added. Torres spoke about his own involvement with drugs when he was young. "But you learn everything comes to an end," he added. "That person who did (the killings), he had to be high on some type of drugs, that I assure you. ... All I want, I want to be there in court to see his expression for murdering my nephew, his two boys and wife." Saying goodbye Taking a break from preparing two days of visitations and a funeral, Liza Salazar, 25, a cousin who grew up with Yessica, reflected on a stack of family photographs. She had made copies for a collage, a task that seemed to simultaneously make her laugh, cry and feel ill. The photographs showed family trips to the beach, a young husband and wife lying in a hospital bed smiling before a baby was born, two young boys sharing a bath, the boys dressed like Batman and Robin for Halloween. "I just feel like throwing up every day," Salazar said, adding that the boys followed their mother around everywhere, "like little ducks." Standing nearby, Miguel Guerrero, 28, one of Yessica's two brothers, said he dealt with it by understanding that "sometimes God wants good people up there with him. So you have to accept that." He regrets not paying more attention to their phone calls, so he could pass along names or details that might help police. He did remember a recent conversation with 4-year-old Julian, whom he urged to come home to see his grandmother. "He'd say, 'No, my house is very big, very good ... you bring Grandma,'" Guerrero said. Asked if there was a darker side to the family's life that may have led to the killings, Guerrero said it didn't matter now. "Two kids were killed and brutally, with a woman still holding them," he said. "It's not about what they did, it's about what happened to them." jbogan@express-news.net Staff Writer Jeorge Zarazua reported from Florida. News Researcher Kevin Frazzini contributed to this report. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA102206.familykilled.34fd72b.html