Authorities: Suspect had help in family’s slaying

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

An ex-convict denied bond on a murder charge Friday had help from others holding a family captive inside their mansion for at least 18 hours, authorities said, and their investigation is continuing.

During their ordeal, the business executive and his wife told others to stay away – even ordering a pizza deliverer to leave two pies at the door – as they frantically arranged for $40,000 in cash to be dropped off at the home.

But once four neat stacks of $100 bills were left on the seat of a red sports car in the family’s garage, Daron Dylon Wint brutally struck and stabbed Savvas Savopoulos, the CEO of the American Iron Works company where he had once worked as a welder, Wint’s charging document said.

Savopoulos’ wife, Amy, their 10-year-old son, Philip, and their housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, also were killed, and then the house was set on fire with matches and a flammable liquid.

The fire began on the queen-sized mattress where the boy’s body was stabbed and burned, authorities said.

Firefighters found the adults’ bodies in the next room. Evidence shows the women suffered “blunt force and sharp force trauma” before the $4.5 million mansion was set on fire.

Authorities linked what may have been two different men to Amy Savopoulos’ blue Porsche 911 the day of the killings. One, “with short, well-groomed hair,” was spotted driving erratically away from the crime scene. Another, wearing a dark hoodie, was videotaped carrying a bucket near where the Porsche was set on fire later that day.

The pizza gave Wint away. His DNA was found on the crust of a partially eaten slice of pepperoni, one of two pizzas ordered by Amy Savopoulos the night of May 13 while the group was “being held against their will,” an affidavit said.

A woman believed to be Amy Savopoulos paid for the pizzas by credit card and told the delivery person to leave the food on the porch, because she was “nursing her sick child” and would not come to the door, the document says.

Wint, who was tracked down by U.S. marshals and arrested Thursday night with two other men and three women, appeared in a white jumpsuit in court Friday.