Police Confirm Bodies Found In Truck Part Of Hialeah Double-Murder Suicide
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HIALEAH (CBSMiami) – Police have confirmed the bodies of a young boy and adult man found in a truck in Florida City early Wednesday morning were those of a father and son reported missing after the boy's mother was found strangled in her apartment in Hialeah.
Hialeah officers were sent to Raiza Dominguez Mateo's apartment, at 5775 W 20th Avenue, Tuesday evening after relatives called to say that she was not answering any of their calls.
A neighbor who lives upstairs said she heard a gunshot on Tuesday afternoon.
When officers entered the woman's apartment, they found her body in the bedroom. Police believe she was strangled with a nylon tie wrap.
Yasiel Martinez, a close friend of Dominguez Mateo, told CBS4's Peter D'Oench, "He killed the wife and then he went to pick up the child at school and then he later killed the kid. She (the mother) was a beautiful person. She always greeted us with a good afternoon."
Another neighbor who identified himself only as Enrique said, "It's a tremendous tragedy." And another neighbor, Claudia Rojas, said, "Their family members are probably devastated suffering the loss of a child."
Investigator's learned that Mateo's son, 6-year-old Yoan Sebastian Cantos, was missing and was with his biological father Juan Carlos Cantos Padron. The pair was thought to be in Padron's Toyota Tundra, possibly heading toward the Keys.
An Amber alert was issued for Yoan.
Around 1 a.m. Wednesday, police found the Toyota Tundra off of U.S. 1 and SW 358th Street.
"An anonymous person was able to flag down a Florida City police officer that was passing by and he directed him to a vehicle that seemed odd that was parked just inside the bushes off the highway," said Miami-Dade Det. Alvaro Zabaleta. "When the officer went to investigate that's when he discovered two bodies inside."
Following the discovery, the Amber alert for Yoan was canceled.
Hialeah police confirmed the bodies were those of Yoan and Padron – all part of a tragic double-murder suicide.
The Department of Children and Families said DCF had no previous history with this family.
A spokeswoman with DCF said the agency was "deeply saddened" and said there was an open investigation.
A check of records showed that Dominguez Mateo had filed for a divorce on October 26th and also filed a complaint about domestic violence in 2013.
Hialeah police said the couple had come to the U.S. from Cuba and had been together about seven years.