Miami dad kills wife, 2 daughters and himself; teen son escapes

[daisy7]

A former tenor with the Greater Miami Opera chorus shot and killed his wife and two daughters Wednesday morning as his 16-year-old son fled their South Miami-Dade home, Miami-Dade police said.

Pablo Josue Amador, 54, then turned the gun on himself in a murder-suicide that stunned a neighborhood filled with many of his current and former students.

Killed besides Amador was his wife, Maria, 47, education director at the University of Miami's Project to Cure Paralysis, and two daughters, ages 13 and 14.

Surviving, besides his son, Javier, is his 20-year-old daughter, Beula ''Bea'' Beatriz Amador, a music-education sophomore at UM.

On her Facebook page at 1 a.m. she wrote: ``Crying/hurting inside. Don't know how to deal. Not even gonna try attempting anymore.''

Then seven minutes later: ''Whatever. Life sucks,'' she wrote.

It was not clear what she was referring to.

Police received a 911 call just before 6 a.m. of shots fired at the home in the 16000 block of Southwest 98th Court.

When officers arrived, they found four bodies inside, according to Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, a police spokesman.

''The preliminary investigation revealed the male, the father of the family, shot his two daughters, killed his wife and then himself,'' Zabaleta said.

Police did not say where their bodies were found.

The couple's teenage son was able to escape unharmed from the house and called police from a cordless phone as he ran away, Zabaleta said.

(snipped)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/brea...ents_Container

[Lovejac]

Originally Posted by daisy7

A former tenor with the Greater Miami Opera chorus shot and killed his wife and two daughters Wednesday morning as his 16-year-old son fled their South Miami-Dade home, Miami-Dade police said.

Pablo Josue Amador, 54, then turned the gun on himself in a murder-suicide that stunned a neighborhood filled with many of his current and former students.

Killed besides Amador was his wife, Maria, 47, education director at the University of Miami's Project to Cure Paralysis, and two daughters, ages 13 and 14.

Surviving, besides his son, Javier, is his 20-year-old daughter, Beula ''Bea'' Beatriz Amador, a music-education sophomore at UM.

On her Facebook page at 1 a.m. she wrote: ``Crying/hurting inside. Don't know how to deal. Not even gonna try attempting anymore.''

Then seven minutes later: ''Whatever. Life sucks,'' she wrote.

It was not clear what she was referring to.

Police received a 911 call just before 6 a.m. of shots fired at the home in the 16000 block of Southwest 98th Court.

When officers arrived, they found four bodies inside, according to Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, a police spokesman.

''The preliminary investigation revealed the male, the father of the family, shot his two daughters, killed his wife and then himself,'' Zabaleta said.

Police did not say where their bodies were found.

The couple's teenage son was able to escape unharmed from the house and called police from a cordless phone as he ran away, Zabaleta said.

(snipped)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/brea...ents_Container

I can't imagine what was going through that 16 yo mind, running for his life. I wonder if he actually witnessed his sisters and mother being shot.

[tapu]

Does anyone else feel hinky about the source quoting this girl's Facebook entries? A perp's maybe but....

[PrayersForMaura]

One of the daughters who was killed, Priscilla, had a blog site:

http://myblogz.com/people/priscila/

[PrayersForMaura]

Director of education at Miller School of Medicine’s Miami Project to Cure Paralysis dead in apparent murder/suicide

Maria Amador, director of education at the Miller School of Medicine’s Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, has died, according to a statement from university president Donna E. Shalala.

According to reports from The Miami Herald, South Miami police say Amador’s husband Pablo shot her and two of their children Wednesday morning before turning the gun on himself.

“Today we mourn the terrible loss of a special member of the University of Miami family,” Shalala said in her statement to the university community. “[Maria] was beloved by her colleagues and the many people she served with dedication and compassion.”

Amador is survived by two children, 16-year old son Javier, who escaped the house and called 911 on a cordless phone, and 20-year-old daughter, Beula ”Bea” Beatriz Amador, a sophomore majoring in music education in the Frost School of Music.

More: http://www.themiamihurricane.com/200...murdersuicide/

[PrayersForMaura]

oldest (and surviving) daughter's myspace: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endID=50013406

[fran]

Wow, what a sad case.

Murder/suicide, if there's no note, you most likely will never know why?

Prayers to the family and friends.

fran

[PrayersForMaura]

she is soooooo beautiful.
Prayers to her and her brother.

[PrayersForMaura]

surviving daughter with her parents



soooooo sad
Why did this happen???

[PrayersForMaura]

two little sisters, rest in peace

[PrayersForMaura]

sister, priscila, rip ....

"Im that girl that doesn't care anymore. I've learned that life goes on. It doesn't stop and wait for you, it keeps going nd you have to catch up. But life isn't a race, its a journey, filled with exciting things. I have gone through so much and yet i still try to stand tall, because this whole world is coming down on me and me blocking it hurts more and more. Thats why i don't care anymore. Get to know me I'm a really great person, so i've heard.. Get to know me, you might change my life "

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...ndID=374738289

[daisy7]

Before Amador tragedy, daughter told of sex abuse by dad

A few weeks before Pablo Josue Amador shot and killed his wife and two daughters before taking his own life, 14-year-old Priscila Amador told two classmates her father had molested her since she was in elementary school.

One student advised her mother of the allegation and then told reporters about it outside the Amador home in Perrine on Wednesday, hours after the killings. The other classmate alerted her father, who told The Miami Herald on Thursday that Priscila had given a ''desperate'' letter to his daughter before her death.

The father, who said he was ''shocked'' when he read the letter, asked not to be named to protect his daughter's identity. He said police came to his house after the killings and took the letter.

(snipped)

http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/923983.html

[jblfelines]

Originally Posted by daisy7

Before Amador tragedy, daughter told of sex abuse by dad

A few weeks before Pablo Josue Amador shot and killed his wife and two daughters before taking his own life, 14-year-old Priscila Amador told two classmates her father had molested her since she was in elementary school.

One student advised her mother of the allegation and then told reporters about it outside the Amador home in Perrine on Wednesday, hours after the killings. The other classmate alerted her father, who told The Miami Herald on Thursday that Priscila had given a ''desperate'' letter to his daughter before her death.

The father, who said he was ''shocked'' when he read the letter, asked not to be named to protect his daughter's identity. He said police came to his house after the killings and took the letter.

(snipped)

http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/923983.html

I live in Miami and just read that article in the Miami Herald. How sad. I wish he had only killed himself. How can a man abuse his own daughter????

[daisy7]

Originally Posted by jblfelines

I live in Miami and just read that article in the Miami Herald. How sad. I wish he had only killed himself. How can a man abuse his own daughter????

I used to live in Miami (am an alum of UM), and still read the Herald online.

I do wonder if he also abused his other daughters, cuz of his oldest daughter's comments on Facebook.

It's just so sad.

[PrayersForMaura]

Originally Posted by daisy7

I used to live in Miami (am an alum of UM), and still read the Herald online.

I do wonder if he also abused his other daughters, cuz of his oldest daughter's comments on Facebook.

It's just so sad.

I wonder, too, if the oldest daughter who is still alive was ever abused by him?

[PrayersForMaura]

Funeral services will be held this week for a south Miami Dade family who died in a murder suicide.

A visitation will be held for Pablo Amador, his wife Maria and his two daughters Rosa and Priscila Tuesday, March 3rd, at the Caballero Rivero Woodlawn South Funeral Home from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. The funeral home is located at 11655 Southwest 117th Avenue in Miami.

Funeral services will be held at noon on Wednesday, March 4th, at Christ Fellowship located at 8900 Southwest 168th Street in the Village of Palmetto Bay. There will be a private interment.

The Amador family has requested that only family and friends attend the visitation and funeral service.

http://cbs4.com/local/father.kills.family.2.947265.html

[PrayersForMaura]

Sexual abuse of children is a topic few people like to think about, but it's the focus of police investigations of a father's murder-suicide of three members of his family in their southwest Miami-Dade home. There are also questions of why no one came forward when one murdered daughter wrote of abuse on a social networking site.

It's not uncommon to find teenagers or adults express their feelings online and keep dairies for others to read.

Priscila Amador, 14, shot to death by her father, along with a sister and mother, wrote a post on MySpace.com that suggested she was experiencing personal problems, although she did not mention molestation.

http://cbs4.com/local/my.space.facebook.2.945727.html

[PrayersForMaura]

Daniel Amador, Pablo's brother, was at the home Friday, incredulous at the media reports that Pablo for having published allegations that his brother had sexually abused one of his children. "I don't believe it."

When asked what might have prompted his brother to kill his wife and children, he said, "I don't know. I don't know what happened; I don't know what's going on."

Daniel Amador said that the family is thinking of retaining an attorney to sue media outlets who have "defamed [his] family."

<snip>

In the days after the shooting, Miami-Dade police detectives began looking into reports of sexual abuse after two classmates of one of the murdered girls reported that she told them she suffered years of sexual abuse at the hands of her father.

One of the classmates said her friend confided to her that "Her dad was sexually abusing her." In an interview with CBS4's Gary Nelson, she added, "She didn't want to let anyone know. This weekend she told me she cut herself and to pray for her, because she wanted to kill herself." The classmate added, "Over the last two days, she was emotionless in school. All she said was to pray for her."

DCF's Coyler is also concerned that Pablo Amador's music students may have also been abused. She urges their parents to have a frank talk with the children. The law requires that adults who learn of alleged child abuse report it.

Full story: http://cbs4.com/local/father.kills.family.2.945658.html

[PrayersForMaura]

Detectives are now investigating claims that Amador sexually abused his 14-year-old daughter Prescilla, who shortly before the murders, wrote a distressing message on her MySpace page.“The little girl did tell her friends. She told two friends. One she told verbally, and one she wrote a letter," Department of Children and Families Regional Director Jacqui Colyer told Local 10's Todd Tongen.Colyer said those classmates each told a parent about the abuse, but the agency never received any complaints.“Most folks can’t fathom that someone would do that. The music teacher? And most of them have had their children in this man's home because he was the music teacher.”Meanwhile Beatriz Amador, who was not living at the home at the time of the killings, is denying any charges of sexual abuse on her Facebook page. She wrote: "Do not believe what they are saying."

http://www.justnews.com/news/18813191/detail.html


Wondering ... is she saying her sister lied if there is indeed a letter that surfaced??

[EmMomma]

This story is so completely tragic.
The brother and sister, left to pick up the pieces. I can't even imagine.

The brother (uncle) denying the sexual abuse allegations is THE REASON that this type of abuse goes on within families. It's a nasty cycle and denial keeps it going...

ETA: Now the sister is saying the abuse allegations are untrue, as well?

[PrayersForMaura]

Experts say adults in such circumstances may have doubts that the accusation is true.
KIDS DON'T LIE
But ''children do not lie about this. They just don't,'' said Trudy Novicki, a 25-year state prosecutor who is now director of Kristi House, a full-service residential program for victims of sex abuse.
Cheleene B. Schembera, a 27-year child welfare administrator and inspector general at DCF, who now works as a consultant, said the pressure on a child is to keep the family's secret. ''What motive would a child have to lie?'' she asked. ``In almost every instance, the child has no motivation to lie -- and the consequences of telling the truth are so much more detrimental.''
And there's another misperception that can lead adults to not report suspicions of abuse: that child abuse only occurs in poor, uneducated, marginal families, not professional, middle-class families.
Experts say child neglect and physical abuse are indeed far more likely to occur in struggling families, but child sex abuse occurs across all demographic categories.
Novicki said she has seen child sex abuse victims who were molested by clergymen, teachers, an FBI agent and the parent of a former Miss America. ''I can't think of a profession you can name where we have not come across a perpetrator,'' she said.
``It cuts across all socio-economic lines.''


More: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miam...ry/925745.html

[PrayersForMaura]

Originally Posted by EmMomma

This story is so completely tragic.
The brother and sister, left to pick up the pieces. I can't even imagine.

The brother (uncle) denying the sexual abuse allegations is THE REASON that this type of abuse goes on within families. It's a nasty cycle and denial keeps it going...

ETA: Now the sister is saying the abuse allegations are untrue, as well?

yes, this is bothering me... Why would the little girl lie? That is not cool. Maybe she just wants privacy and to keep her family held in high esteem? I can't imagine why else we would post those things to her Facebook page? She's since made her myspace page private and her family requested no one other than friends and family attend the funeral. Why publish when and where it is held then??

Weird.

This case is too sad
I pray for those little girls.

[PrayersForMaura]

wow, some of the comments on that last article are just horrific. They piss me off, too...

here's one for example:

"etermine wrote on 02/28/2009 10:05:21 AM: Yes, by all means. Let's report ALL those horrible abuses perpetrated by strangers or family members. It's the right thing to do. Now, let's refrain from making "False Allegations" that are so prevalent in our society. Let's keep records of them as we do with everything else and avoid destroying lives unjustly. My friend's son, was seventeen when he started a relationship with his sixteen years old high school "sweetheart". The minute he turned 18, he was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Now, he is labeled a "sexual predator". His young life ruined forever.Caring and loving fathers, are wrongly accused, to satisfied a vindictive ex-wife. Children are left without a father,as a result of a "False Allegation" and we now know the awful consequences of this nasty experiment.Let's be very careful here and not go overboard with these serious allegations and make them when he is ALIVE and has the opportunity to defend himself."


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miam...ents_Container


Good Lord!!

[EmMomma]

Originally Posted by PrayersForMaura

wow, some of the comments on that last article are just horrific. They piss me off, too...

here's one for example:

"etermine wrote on 02/28/2009 10:05:21 AM: Yes, by all means. Let's report ALL those horrible abuses perpetrated by strangers or family members. It's the right thing to do. Now, let's refrain from making "False Allegations" that are so prevalent in our society. Let's keep records of them as we do with everything else and avoid destroying lives unjustly. My friend's son, was seventeen when he started a relationship with his sixteen years old high school "sweetheart". The minute he turned 18, he was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Now, he is labeled a "sexual predator". His young life ruined forever.Caring and loving fathers, are wrongly accused, to satisfied a vindictive ex-wife. Children are left without a father,as a result of a "False Allegation" and we now know the awful consequences of this nasty experiment.Let's be very careful here and not go overboard with these serious allegations and make them when he is ALIVE and has the opportunity to defend himself."


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miam...ents_Container


Good Lord!!

AN 18 year old boy having sex with a 16 year old girl...
A father molesting his daughter.

Apples and oranges, IMO, and one of the things that needs to be fixed in regards to the reporting and labeling of SOs.

There was no vindictive ex wife in this scenario.

It's people like this who can't look beyond themselves to see the big picture that make rape/incest/sexual abuse more of a taboo subject than it has to be. Why WOULD a girl publicly acknowledge what her father was doing to her...so people like this poster could call her a liar?
People lie. Evidence doesn't lie.
A person doesn't just wake up one day and decide to kill themself and their family. There must be an underlying situation (or maybe pathology, which I doubt in this case) that MAKES people do things like this. I'd say a child outing a molesting father would be enough motivation...
This whole situation is shocking and sad...beyond sad.

[PrayersForMaura]

Very sad.

I am guessing the coroner's report or any other special tests ordered could tell what has been happening to the daughter(s).

It's just sad that the surviving daughter is protecting her father over her sister, or so the media is making it seem like she is