6A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY MARCH 16, 2007
>> EXPLOSION
FRIDAY. MARCH 16. 2007
Murder-suicide in elevator fire
Deranged ex-boyfriend kills woman
BY MELISSA TRUJILLO ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON — Raymond Echavarria dragged his ex girlfriend into an elevator in the office building where she worked. He then used a lighter to ignite fumes from a can of gasoline, killing the couple in a fiery explosion.
Authorities found the two badly burned bodies Wednesday inside the elevator, along with the 2-gallon fuel container, the lighter and a knife. Investigators were treating the slaying as a murder-suicide.
Attorney Phil Lamonica, whose law office shares the common area with a psychiatric clinic where Robles worked as a secretary, said he bought lunch for Robles, her young son and another secretary Wednesday.
in the elevator, causing a blast that was heard throughout the three-story building.
"I heard a lot of screaming. At first, we all thought she was trapped in the elevator and had claustrophobia, so we started punching all the buttons."
PHIL LAMONICA Co-worker
Lamonica said Robles and the boy were laughing and talking when they returned to work, but a short time later Echavaria drove up. Police said the pair apparently argued near or inside the elevator.
Police said Echavarria, 23, pulled Xiomara Robles, 21, into the elevator shortly after she returned from a lunch break to the office building in the suburb of Lynn. Moments later, office workers heard an explosion inside the elevator, which became engulfed in flames.
"I heard a
Fire Chief Edward Higgins said Echavarria poured the gasoline out of the container and ignited the fuel vapors that had accumulated
I heard a lot of screaming." Lamonica told The Daily Item of Lynn. "At first, we all thought she was trapped in the elevator and had claustrophobia, so we started punching all the buttons. I ran to call the fire department and while I was on the phone, I heard the explosion."
Robles' boy was left outside the elevator and survived. Social workers placed him and the couples 14-month-old child with relatives.
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Kiss me I'm Irish
From left, Chinese Shih-Tzu Jade, and her son, Lo-ki, sport their green St. Patrick's Day bows while they wait for their owner, Anne Peacock-Jacobs, from Ponce Inlet, Fla., during a shopping trip to Daytona Beach, Fla., on Thursday.
Pam Lockeby/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Missing body found in trash bag
MURDER
BY RUSS BYNUM ASSOCIATED PRESS
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A 6-year-old boy who vanished a week ago while playing near his trailer-park home was found slain Thursday after a registered sex offender and three other suspects sexed investigators for days with conflicting stories of the youngster's fate.
Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said all four suspects would probably be charged with murder in the slaving of Christopher Michael Barrios. Doering said it was obvious the boy had been killed, but he would not say how and would not disclose how long the body had been there.
The body was found in a black
trash bag among some trees and brush just 15 feet from a roadside behind the Glynn County Airport. A Department of Natural Resources game warden helping in the search, Cpl. Jesse Cook, said he and a coworker stopped to investigate when they spotted tire marks where a car had pulled off the road.
Once they got out to look, they found the bag in plain sight.
"It was obvious," Cook said. "But if you weren't looking for it, you probably would've thought it was just a trash bag."
About 60 volunteer searchers, many wearing T-shirts printed with the boy's photo, hugged and wept as Doering confirmed Christopher's death to reporters.
"You suspected all along in your
heart, it's just not the outcome you want," said Mari Charnock. "At least we know, though. At least it's over."
Earlier this week, police arrested four people - a convicted child molester living in the trailer park, his parents and a friend of theirs — in connection with the boy's disappearance.
Investigators said the four told a tangle of conflicting and ever-shifting stories — that they knew nothing about the boy's disappearance, that the boy was still alive, and that he had been abducted, killed and buried. But repeated searches of the spots where the boy was supposedly buried turned up nothing, investigators said.
Christopher lived with his father in a neighborhood of about 50 mobile
homes along a narrow, U-shaped road just outside of Brunswick. Neighbors told police that they last saw the boy on the evening of March 8, playing by himself on the swing set outside a friend's home. One of his toys, a Star Wars lightsaber, was found beside the road.
George David Edenfield, a mentally slow 32-year-old man who lived with his parents across the street from the boy's grandmother, was arrested and charged with violating his probation from a 1997 child molestation conviction, which prohibits him from contact with children. Police said he admitted playing a role in Christopher's disappearance, but they would not be more specific.