Father, Children Found Dead

5 Bodies Discovered In Frederick Home; Mother Is Missing

The four children -- sisters ages 1, 4 and 9 and their 3-year-old brother -- were dead in their beds, the covers pulled over their bodies. Their father was hanging from the end of a yellow nylon rope tied to a second-floor banister.

Police found the five bodies in the family's Frederick townhouse yesterday afternoon after they were alerted by school authorities that something was wrong. Two of the children had not been to Hillcrest Elementary School for several days, police said.

Their mother has not been to work in more than a week and was missing late yesterday. "Of course, until we find her, we're going to be concerned about what her condition is," Frederick Police Lt. Thomas Chase said.

Chase, who did not release the victims' names, said there was no sign of forced entry to the home at 1252 E. Danielle Dr., in a large townhouse complex. He declined to speculate on the cause of the victims' deaths or to say whether there was any visible trauma to the children's bodies.

According to Chase, a Hillcrest school liaison officer went to the home about 3 p.m. yesterday to check on the children because two had not been to school. No one answered a knock on the door, so the school officer called police.

When police entered the house through an unlocked window, Chase said, "the first thing they saw was the father, who had hung himself from the banister."

Neighbors said the family, originally from El Salvador, had lived in the townhouse for about two years. The father worked the day shift at a Toys R Us warehouse, and the mother worked at night at an Outback Steakhouse, the neighbors said.

"He just seemed liked an awfully nice man," neighbor Rebecca Reckley, 60, said of the father. "He seemed to really care about his children, so you can't fathom how something like this could happen."

Police did not release the names of any of the dead, but the adult inhabitants of the townhouse are identified in Maryland state government records as Pedro Rodriguez and Deysi M. Benitez. Police said the dead man was 28; no age was available for Benitez.

Neighbors said that they didn't know the family members well because they spoke little English but that family members appeared to get along with one another. However, Reckley said she once called Child Protective Services to the house because the little boy was seen hanging out an upstairs window and had run naked into the street a couple of times. Reckley said she did not know the outcome of that visit.

Staff researcher Meg Smith also contributed to this report.