The quiet of a Monday holiday in the Mesopotamia Area was sharply interrupted yesterday morning when two teenaged girls were savagely murdered. Sometime around 11:30 sisters 18-year-old Sandra Esquivel and 17 year old Rosa Esquivel were at their home at the corner of dean and Euphrates Avenue preparing lunch. It was a midday meal, they would never eat. We've been on the story since yesterday but first we warn you it is a story whose details are unsuitable for children.
Alfonso NobleReporting,
At 11:30 yesterday morning police cordoned off Dean and Euphrates Streets as spectators formed a gaggle to see as forensic officers and policemen did their work inside this house at the corner of the streets. Inside lay the bodies of sisters 18 year old Sandra and 17 year old Rosa Esquivel. They had been brutally attacked by this man, 30-year-old Ryan Elston Horne, a mental patient who shared half the lower flat of the house with them.
There is no motive for the attack as yet but when police arrived on the scene they found that both young women had been savagely assaulted with a knife. Both had been stabbed numerous times, and the knife was left inside the vagina of one of the teenagers. After the police work was completed the two bodies were placed on a single stretcher and transported to the morgue.
Today Dora Avelar the girls adoptive mother clutched their picture, still in stunned disbelief.
Dora Avelar, Adopted Mother of Victims
"Even today I see it and can't believe it."
What she can least believe is that the man who attacked them was their neighbor. Avelar says it's a surprise because up until yesterday she did not even know they had a neighbor.
Dora Avelar,
"We didn't know because the door was never open and I had never seen his face until yesterday. The policeman asked me if I did not know him because he also lived there. But I was surprised because I had never seen him."
Today those who knew the young ladies best inside the Queen Square Market where Avelar works tried to come to grips with the horror that was visited on the young women. They came together to offer condolences to Avelar and at the same time try to assist her financially.
Dora Avelar,
"Everyone laments this because the girls did not get involved with anyone. Suddenly they came to tell me. It was a surprise. I don't think there was someone upstairs and they would not hear their screams. Because people who live far away say they heard the girls screaming. They fought with him because there are traces where there is blood with footprints going from one side to the next."
Now this grieving mother asks that no leniency be shown to this man who without regard simply killed her daughters.
Dora Avelar,
"What I want is justice and that he pay for what he did to my girls that's the only thing I ask. Please let there be justice, that the law takes care of him because I don't think he is crazy. He knew what he was going to do."
But Horne's family says, he did not know; they say he didn't even know who
he was when he did it.
Jennifer Bowen, Aunt of Accused
"He didn't really mean to do it because right now he doesn't even know his name. He doesn't know anything. He is a crazy man. My sympathy goes deeply to the family and I don't condone anything that happened because my nephew is a mental case and he really needs help and I really sorry that this had to happen for these people who are sick get help. Because the day when they took him, the Saturday before when they had Miss Y, we wished they had took him to Rockview and they didn't take him to Rockview. The only policeman tricked me and told me he was at Rockview but then they sent him home and we didn't know they had sent him home.
People will look at it and say it's a vicious murder, because I saw everything that went on, I watched the two young ladies down there and it is nothing nice to see and my heart bleeds to see two persons down there. I don't know what to say because if the system was up to mark, this wouldn't have happened. You have to pay money to be at Rockview and that's not really nice because I think they should have somewhere to take those people."
The family refers to an incident two weeks ago in front of St. Ignatius church when Horne had to be escorted form the church and once outside stripped himself naked on the street corner. Police took him away, but brought him back sometime shortly after.
In court today, Horne, recalled his name, age and date of birth. He also recalled one of the girls, Rosa, by her name and said he knew he was there to be charged for murder.
A post mortem on the bodies revealed that Sandra Esquivel received as many as 13 stab wounds while her sister Rosa received 45 stab wounds. As we noted, the weapon, an old dagger with a 6 to 8 inch blade was found inside Rosa. Her family is presently trying to secure funds to cover funeral costs. Anyone who wishes to assist can contact their adoptive mother at telephone numbers 620-7809 or 663-6164.
