Housekeeper Says Family Acted Strangely Days Before They Were Murdered
The housekeeper for the family found murdered after their house was set on fire Thursday says she noticed something was definitely amiss in the days leading up to their deaths.
Police say Savvas Savopoulos, a 46-year-old D.C. businessman, his 47-year-old wife Amy Savopoulos, their 10-year-old son Phillip and a second housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57, were all killed by some combination of blunt and sharp-force objects.
The multimillion-dollar house was then set on fire, and their blue Porsche 911 was reportedly found burning in a church parking lot in Maryland less than 10 miles away.
Friends say there was no indication anything was wrong, but one of the family’s other housekeepers says she noticed odd behavior from Savvas in the days leading up to the murders. Via ABC and the AP:
According to the records, both Savopouloses sent text messages and voice mails to a housekeeper telling her not to come to their home to clean on Thursday, which had been her normal routine.
Nelitza Gutierrez, the housekeeper who received the messages, told the Post the series of messages left her thinking something was amiss with her employers. Gutierrez had worked for the family for 20 years.
Savvas Savopoulos had told Gutierrez on Wednesday that his wife had plans to go out. But in a voice mail that night, he said Amy Savopoulos had been sick in bed.
“It was something very suspicious because I felt his voice was really tense,” Gutierrez said in Spanish. “And it was different than what he had said to me before.”
Police documents also show there were reports of unusual activity in the neighborhood. Neighbors reported seeing a man banging on the door of one home. There was an aggressive vacuum cleaner salesman at another house and reports of a prowler.
Gutierrez also says she received a strange phone message from Savvas explaining Figueora would be sleeping at the house to tend to his sick wife. “Never, never did she stay over,” she tells the Washington Post.
This weekend police released blurry video of two persons of interest walking away from the house Thursday. They’re also looking for information on the family’s Porsche, which was reportedly seen speeding down the street the day before the fire.
The couple reportedly leave behind two daughters who were away at boarding school.
