In Triple Slaying, A Story of Heroism

"Jealousy" was all Europa said yesterday in trying to answer that question.

She and Sanchez-Miranda had been separated for a year, and he had accused her lately of having a boyfriend, family friend Maria Bidro said, standing next to Europa, helping to fill in the details of the couple's turbulent relationship. Europa said there was no other man.

"I never thought he'd do that," Europa said, adding that her children, ages 2, 5 and 8, who watched the shootings, are now "terrified" and that she doesn't know what to say to make them feel better. "I don't have an explanation for them."

She and the children had spent the night at her sister's house after attending the birthday party there the night before. Three deflated balloons lay in the front yard yesterday.

Vargas, 25, said that it was a beautiful party and that their daughter was the love of Garcia's life.

"At least I have her, so I don't feel so alone," she said. The couple had lived together for four years but had dated since they were teenagers. "He was a good man. He gave me my heart."

Both families were struggling yesterday to find a way to pay to send the bodies to Puebla, Mexico, the original home of the victims. For Europa's family, there was the cost of sending two bodies, and for Vargas, the struggle was how to pay for anything now that that the family's sole earner is gone. Garcia worked in construction while Vargas stayed home with their daughter.

"We have nothing," Vargas said.

Bidro watched Europa carefully, afraid her stoic exterior would crumble under the weight of what happened. Bidro said the families need all the help they can get in tending to those who died and those left behind. Rosario Europa and Juan Manuel Guevara leave behind a 1 1/2 -year-old son, now staying with relatives.

"He didn't have the right to kill people like this," Bidro said. "If you love someone, you don't hurt someone."