Guyanese born, former US Marine wanted for murder of Washington family of three and housekeeper

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said "just about every law enforcement officer across the country" is on the lookout for Daron Dylon Wint, 34, a native of Guyana and former Marine now wanted on charges of first-degree murder in the killings of his former employer, Savvas Savopoulos.

Guyanese born, former US Marine wanted for murder of Washington family of three and housekeeper

(AP) Police and federal agents searched Thursday for a welder suspected in the slayings of a wealthy construction executive, his wife, their 10-year-old son and a housekeeper inside their Washington mansion last week.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said “just about every law enforcement officer across the country” is on the lookout for Daron Dylon Wint, 34, a native of Guyana and former Marine now wanted on charges of first-degree murder in the killings of his former employer, Savvas Savopoulos.

Investigators were questioning Wint’s girlfriend in Brooklyn, but his whereabouts remained unclear, according to two law enforcement officials who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Another housekeeper told the AP she believes that the family and their housekeeper were held captive for nearly a day before they were killed, citing an unusual voice mail she got from Savopoulos and a text message sent from the phone of his wife, Amy, 47, telling her not to come to the house.

Also slain before the house was set on fire was the couple’s 10-year-old son, Philip, and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa. Figueroa usually left work around 3 p.m., which led the surviving housekeeper, Nelitza Gutierrez, to suspect that an intruder already had her under control before then on May 13.

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“Right now it does not appear that this was a random crime,” Lanier said.

The police chief did not discuss any possible motives and repeatedly declined to describe any evidence.

However, The Washington Post reported that Savopoulos’s personal assistant dropped off a package containing $40,000 in cash at the home the morning of May 14 after a flurry of phone calls between Savopoulos, a bank, an accountant, the personal assistant and his company.

Records show Savopoulos made his last call, to his assistant, at 11:54 a.m, the Post reported, citing police documents and unidentified sources.

Savopoulos, 46, was the CEO of American Iron Works, which supplies major construction projects. The slayings inside his $4.5 million mansion terrorized Woodley Park, one of the capital’s most affluent neighborhoods, where high fences and elaborate security systems protect properties and police are a constant presence.

The Savapoulos home is near Washington’s National Cathedral and Vice President Joe Biden’s official residence. Their two teenage daughters were away at boarding school during the slayings. Relatives have made few public comments and have not returned telephone calls from the AP.

Gutierrez worked for the family for 20 years, and was one of the last people to see Savopoulos alive.

She told the AP that she and Savopoulos spent May 13 cleaning up a martial arts studio he was opening in northern Virginia before his wife called around 5:30 p.m. She could hear his half of the conversation, said and he later explained that she told him to come home to watch their son because she was going out.

Later that night, sounding flustered, he left Gutierrez a voice mail saying Figueroa would stay with his sick wife overnight, that she shouldn’t come the next day, and that Figueroa’s phone was dead. “It doesn’t make any sense. How come you don’t have another phone — iPhones are all over,” Gutierrez said. “He was kind of building stories.”

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