Sheriff: No motive yet in N. Texas murder-suicide

By Noman Merchant - Associated Press

October 17, 2013

DALLAS (AP) — Authorities investigating a September murder-suicide that left five people dead are still trying to separate a North Texas woman's possible motive from rumors about why she did it, a local sheriff said Thursday.

Weeks after Guadalupe Ronquillo-Ovalle's body was found in a home with her husband and three children, Navarro County Sheriff Elmer Tanner said his office is waiting for results on DNA testing before making a final determination on the case.

"There's a difference in something that can be substantiated or something that's just a whisper in the wind," Tanner told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I'm going to hold off on making any response to that until this investigation is complete and we have something that is rock solid that we can bring to light in reference to that, if ever."

A relative discovered the bodies of Ronquillo-Ovalle, 33-year-old Israel Alvarez and their three sons, ages 4, 8 and 10, in their home in Rice, about 40 miles southeast of Dallas.

Tanner said authorities have interviewed people in their efforts to determine why Ronquillo-Ovalle might have shot her family. He declined to say when authorities might close the case.

"We've had some conversations with some individuals that kind of support what a possible motive could be, but we have no confirmations," Tanner said.

Ronquillo-Ovalle was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said. Alvarez and three boys were all shot in the upper torso.

Alvarez was arrested Sept. 11 for a misdemeanor family violence charge after being accused of shoving Ronquillo-Ovalle, taking away her cellphone and removing the battery. He pleaded no contest to the charge and paid a fine.

A family friend, Maria Franco, has said Ronquillo-Ovalle and Alvarez visited her home a few days after Alvarez's arrest to talk about "normal problems" they were having. Franco said she didn't believe they were facing "anything dangerous."

Sheriff: Navarro County mother killed husband, children before shooting herself

The Dallas Morning News

September 24, 2013

A mother fatally shot her husband and three sons in their Navarro County home before killing herself with a single shot in the head last week, the sheriff announced Tuesday.

Investigators were still trying to determine why 33-year-old Guadalupe Ronquillo-Ovalle killed her family late Thursday or early Friday in Rice, about 40 miles southeast of Dallas. Women are rarely the shooters in murder-suicides.

Navarro County Sheriff Elmer Tanner said at a news conference that the bodies of Ronquillo-Ovalle; her husband, Israel Alvarez, 33; and their sons, ages 4, 8 and 10, were discovered by Alvarez’s father, who had to use a ladder to get into the house through a second-floor balcony. Tanner said there was no indication that Alvarez fired any shots.

The killings came less than two weeks after Alvarez was arrested Sept. 11 on a family violence charge.

According to a sheriff’s office report released Monday, Ronquillo-Ovalle went to her children’s elementary school to call 911 because Alvarez took away her cellphone and removed the battery. She told a deputy that she was on the phone talking to her sister when Alvarez entered the room and pushed her.

Records show Alvarez pleaded no contest to family violence assault, a misdemeanor, and paid a $367 fine and was released after spending two days in jail.

No divorce filings or requests for a restraining order were filed, and Ronquillo-Ovalle did not ask for a protective order, according to records.

Tanner said investigators could not determine much from his arrest “other than that was an isolated incident involving family violence.”

“We can only assume that there were problems in the household,” Tanner said.

Maria Franco, a family friend, said the couple came to her home on Sept. 16, asking for advice about keeping their relationship together. The couple talked about “normal problems” they were having, she said.

“I didn’t hear anything dangerous,” Franco said.

Josh Sugarmann, the executive director of the Violence Policy Center, said family murder-suicides usually happen after “an event that prompts the person to lose control,” such as financial issues or domestic violence.

But usually, men are the shooters. Women commit only about 1 in 10 murder-suicides, according to the policy group’s study of news accounts.

A few such shootings have occurred in recent years in North Texas.

In 2010, Coppell Mayor Jayne Peters killed her 19-year-old daughter and then herself. Peters had faced financial difficulties, and investigators found depression medication in the home.

About six months ago in Mesquite, Angelica Vazquez fatally shot her two adult children and her husband before killing herself.

Detectives believe that before the slayings, Vazquez had withdrawn from her family and “missed family functions that she typically would have attended and had refused family members’ suggestions to seek professional help,” police spokesman Bill Hedgpeth said.

Vazquez family friend Gustavo Herrera said the mother hadn’t been her usual happy, family-oriented self. But nobody saw any signs she would do something that “was so drastic,” he said.

“This is something you didn’t expect from the mom,” he said.

Navarro County Mother Killed Three Children, Husband, Herself

CBSlocal.com

September 24, 2013

RICE (CBSDFW.COM) - A 33-year-old Navarro County mother shot and killed her husband and her three sons — ages 4, 8, and 10 — before turning a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle on herself.

“The preliminary autopsies have revealed all three children along with Israel Alvarez died of homicidal violence by gunshot wounds. Guadalupe Ronquillo-Ovalle died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” according to a statement released by the Navarro County Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators say the shootings happened sometime late Thursday or early Friday. The children did not attend school on Friday — and a family member found the bodies inside the family’s home Sunday evening, after several unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with them.

Investigators say Ronquillo-Ovalle did not leave behind a note and there is no clear motive for the shootings at this time.

“Certainly we believe it is going to be difficult to find a motive in this case. We’re going to be conducting interviews with neighbors, friends of the victims to try to determine if there is any motive that we can uncover in this case,” said Sheriff Elmer Tanner, who said deputies will continue to investigate the case as a murder-suicide.

Two weeks ago, Alvarez, 33, was arrested on a class C assault charge, spent two days in jail and ordered to pay a fine. According to investigators, his wife, Ronquillo-Ovalle, said he pushed her.

“We cannot determine much from that incident, other than that was an isolated incident involving family violence,” said Tanner about Alvarez’s recent arrest. “We can only assume that there were problems in the household that led to that case of family violence, and there may have been other incidents that were taking place.”

Tanner said each of the victims had a gunshot wound to the upper torso and Ronquillo-Ovalle had a single gun shot wound to the head. Authorities have not released where the bodies were located inside the home, although Tanner said there was no indication that anyone was trying to escape the home at the time of the shootings. Authorities do not believe that there is a suspect is on the loose, or that the community is in any danger. The investigation has been confined to inside of the home.

“I have been in law enforcement for approximately 25 years, and I can not recall during my career an incident where a mother was the shooter of her own children,” said Tanner. “This is a traumatic incident. Obviously, this is a situation where children are involved. A homicide by itself is traumatic. But when you involve children of the ages of 10, 8 and 4 — most of our officers, first responders, they all have children, and that is a bad situation for anybody to be asked to go in and investigate.”