Slightly off topic, but this is a story about a suicide by drowning with arms and legs bound.
This is a very sad story about a family of four who died as a result of suicide/murder. The autopsy results were released and published by local media yesterday, which is disturbing for a couple of reasons. The obvious is the graphic descriptions of the condition the bodies were found.
But even more disturbing, is the fact that the suicide victim was bound, much the same as RN was, yet it was not investigated as a "suspicious death".
"Police and firefighters arrived and pulled the bodies from the water. Alfredo was fully clothed. His hands were secured behind his back with rusty handcuffs. He had a yellow rope tied around his ankles on one end and an overhanging house beam on the other end. His head was weighted down in the water by a tow hitch attached to a wire fastened around his neck."
Here's a link to the story, and a synopsis.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/aug/03/deaths-pimienta-family-detailed-report/
The family was discovered by a nephew, who was called to the home by his uncle, supposedly to discuss a business transaction. He arrived to find the entire family drowned. There were several suicide notes, and writings on an easel, in Spanish and English, that pointed to a suicide pact between the parents. Two days earlier, the family hosted a pool party for their daughters, the oldest was a high school senior who looked forward to her prom the next weekend. She had a bright future, with plans to attend college in the fall.
Family and friends were absolutely shocked, theorizing that "financial problems" led to this family's demise. After reading the autopsy results, I'm having a problem with it myself. If it was indeed a suicide pact, why did the mother put up a struggle? And, why did the nephew find a conversation with the uncle the night before, so odd that he told his father and they contemplated calling police?
Most upsetting is the bindings on RN were cause to investigate her death as a possible homicide, when the bindings on a man who killed his entire family did not raise the same questions. The family was Mexican, and lived only a few miles from the Mexican border. I'm sure everyone has heard about the violent killings and kidnappings by Mexican cartels, some of which have spilled across the border. I wonder if the guy's financial problems included a debt owed to the wrong people, which would explain his acute anxiety. I just have a hard time accepting a father doing this to his kids, especially with a culture that is so family oriented.
I question why bindings found on RN's arms and legs are thought to be so unusual to cause a full blown investigation that implicates a millionaire and his family, when a similarly bound man who does the unthinkable doesn't generate the same thorough investigation.
The reasoning behind my comment is perhaps bindings aren't as unusual as we think. It seems this open and shut case was not given the same attention as the Coronado case, with just as questionable circumstances. LE was quick to surmise the mother was a co-conspirator, yet the trauma to her body and ME's cause of death (homicide) says differently. The sad thing is, two weeks later, in this same suburb, a father shot his two teenaged sons in the head, then himself, before setting his house on fire. You have to wonder if this highly publicized case set the wheels in motion for the second family tragedy. San Diego County averages one suicide per day, and there's been a disturbing trend of suicide/homicides this year.
