Fla. Man Kills Wife and Son With Crossbow, Commits Suicide

Investigators are trying to determine why a Weston man killed his wife and one son at home with a crossbow, drove to Tallahassee to try to murder another son, then died after apparently slicing his own neck in a north Florida motel room.

All they know is that Pedro Maldonado, 53, seemed to be worried about his family's finances and that their visas had expired, opening the possibility of deportation to Ecuador, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

The murders of Monica Narvaez-Maldonado, 47, and Pedro Jose Maldonado Jr., 17, shocked the residents of the Courtyard at the Grove development in Weston and the student body of nearby Cypress Bay High School, where the younger Maldonado was a senior and lead drummer for the school band.

"We all loved him," said Cypress Bay sophomore Victoria Marti, 16. "There was a door that I would always see him walk through, and I thought he would walk through that door today. ... I'm shaking right now just thinking about it."

The teenage victim was not in school Monday, and the Broward Sheriff's Office has not said exactly what time the murders took place.

Because the killer used a crossbow, no one outside his townhouse would have heard a sound when he pulled the trigger and fired it at least one more time.

By the time Maldonado left his home, his wife and younger son were either dead or fatally wounded. Apparently intent on killing his 21-year-old son, Jose, Maldonado drove to Tallahassee in his black Volvo SUV and checked into a motel Monday night.

Jose Maldonado, a student at Florida State University, encountered his father at 7 a.m. Tuesday at an undisclosed location in Leon County.

Again, the older man pulled the trigger on his crossbow, but the younger man dodged the shot -- the dart struck one of his ears, according to the Sheriff's Office. Maldonado then tried to choke his son, but the younger man escaped his father's grip.

The younger Maldonado did not report the crime, and the elder man fled Tallahassee. Late Tuesday morning, according to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, he rented a room at the Cabot Lodge in Lake City, 100 miles east of Tallahassee, near where Interstate 10 connects to Interstate 75.

At the time, no one was aware that there was a crime scene in Weston. That changed at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, when Maldonado called a friend in Miami and confessed to killing his wife and son. The friend immediately called authorities.

Broward sheriff's SWAT deputies immediately went to the townhouse in the 4200 block of Vineyard Circle and found it dark, according to the Sheriff's Office. Not sure whether the killer was inside, the deputies didn't enter the home until 6 p.m. That's when the bodies were found.

Details of what they found, including where the bodies were located and whether there were signs of a struggle, haven't been released.

By the end of the day Tuesday, Jose Maldonado had talked to Leon County detectives.

Authorities searched for Maldonado Sr.'s Volvo, and it was found at a hotel in Lake City. By 11 p.m. a SWAT team had the hotel evacuated and the Crisis Negotiation Team was trying to make contact with the murder suspect.

The SWAT team forced its way into the hotel room about 2 a.m. Wednesday. Maldonado was found in the bathroom, dead of an apparently self-inflicted knife wound to the throat.

The surviving son was in touch Wednesday with Ecuador's consul in Miami, Eduardo Rivadeneira, to seek help transporting the bodies of his family members back to their home country. Rivadeneira said the young man sounded calm but "disoriented."

He also said South Florida's Ecuadorean community was eager to help.

"There's lots of sadness over what happened," Rivadeneira said. "People are concerned about the young man and want to know how they can help. We're not going to abandon Jose, financially or emotionally."

Residents of Courtyard at the Grove knew very little about the Maldonado family. Marie-Anne Sabourin, who lives nearby, described the youngest victim as a talented drummer who practiced at home. She said she would sometimes linger in her car to listen to the beat of the teenager's drum.

She also said the elder Maldonado seemed standoffish at times. "He would avert his gaze," she said. "He was always looking at the floor; he didn't look you in the eyes."

But he did sometimes enjoy watching neighborhood kids play soccer, said Cypress Bay student Isabel Sandoval, 17, who lives across the street from the Maldonado home.

Students first became aware something was wrong Tuesday night, when the younger Pedro Maldonado did not show up to perform in the band's winter concert.

"He had a really big part in the concert," said Santiago Estrada, a freshman in the band, who described Maldonado as a great leader. "We had to do the concert without him."

News spread quickly after the bodies were discovered, with students expressing their sorrow over social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Grief counselors were on hand at the school Wednesday, and classmates gathered at Weston Regional Park on Wednesday night for a candlelight vigil to honor their friend.

More than 200 students, parents, teachers and others gathered around a ficus tree, many of them holding candles. A few choked back tears, as bandmates and classmates recalled fond memories of Maldonado Jr.

They all remembered the teen as a dedicated musician and hard worker who helped fellow students learn their instruments and made people laugh.

At the end of the vigil, a group of friends released two white balloons in remembrance of him and his mother. Everyone gazed up as the balloons disappeared into the night.

Staff researcher Barbara Hijek and staff writers Erika Pesantes, Deborah Ramirez, Wayne K. Roustan and Aaron Deslatte contributed to this report.

raolmeda@tribune.com or 954-356-4457

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