Baby Survives Hanging; 4 Others Slain

An 8-month-old was in good condition Tuesday after being found hanging with the bodies of her mother and three sisters in a closet inside their Hudson Oaks mobile home. Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said the mother’s sister found the bodies about 6:30 a.m. at the Oak Hill Mobile Home Park about 55 miles west of Dallas. The woman was scheduled to be at work at a local fast food restaurant but had not arrived. The employer called the sister, who went to check on the family.

The sister heard a noise from the closet and discovered the 23-year-old mother and her three children – ages 5, 3 and 2 – hanging by their necks from a clothes rod in a closet. Sheriff Fowler said the family was hanged using sashes or some type of clothing.

Friends identified the dead woman as Bertha Flores. The sheriff’s office withheld the identities of the victims pending positive identification.

There was no note, but the incident was being investigated as a murder-suicide.

“As far as a motive, I don’t have that,” Sheriff Fowler said. He said that the surviving infant was taken to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.

Authorities said they have contacted the deceased woman’s estranged husband. Sheriff Fowler said it didn’t appear that the children all had the same father.

One of the girls was a pre-kindergarten student at Coder Elementary School on Vernon Road, said Don Daniel, Aledo school district superintendent. “Everyone is just in shock and very distraught,” he said.

Aledo schools are in session and the district is arranging for counselors to meet with classmates as well as those who rode the bus with the girl, he said. The district has contacted parents as well as families who live near the girl.

The woman’s co-workers at Wendy’s were shocked by the news. The woman was in a good mood when she was at work Sunday, said Laura Vidal, 21, of Willow Park.

Becky Villa said that Ms. Flores appeared like a good mother. Ms. Villa said she saw the children playing in their yard or at the home of their aunt, who was a neighbor. The children were always clean, well fed and behaved. “There was no sign of anything like this,” she said.

Ms. Villa said her only worry was that the family didn’t have electricity sometimes. “We used to say that maybe we should call someone to help,” Ms. Villa said. “She wasn’t from here so she probably didn’t know there were resources available.”

Richard Lamb said his neighbor seemed no different than any of the other residents who would come outside in the evening pushing strollers. “Sometimes they would do as many as 10 laps,” Mr. Lamb said.

Filly Echeverria, who said she was the children’s godmother, said that her long-time friend wasn’t a monster and that there had been no signs of depression. “She was a good person,” Ms. Echeverria said, fighting back tears. “She always looked so happy.”

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The bodies of a mother and three children were found hanging in a mobile home just outside Weatherford early Tuesday morning.

Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said a neighbor who went to check on the family discovered the bodies at about 6:30 a.m. at the Oak Hill Mobile Home Park in Hudson Oaks.

The 23-year-old woman was found dead along with her daughters, ages 5, 3 and 2, hanging in a bedroom closet, authorities said. Strips of cloth had been used.

An 8-month-old daughter was also found hanging but alive and transported to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth. She was listed in good condition, the sheriff’s office said.

Sheriff Fowler said officials believe it is a murder-suicide. The bodies were found by the woman’s sister, who lives across the street, he said.

This is not the first time that the tragic multiple deaths of a mother and her children have touched Hudson Oaks.

Almost five years ago, on July 16, 2002, a 39-year-old mother drugged then shot to death her three children and then herself. She also shot in the back her estranged husband, a Fort Worth firefighter who had been scheduled to go to the home in the Diamond Oaks subdivision that day.

Capt. Manny Perez survived. He told 911 call-takers the day of the shooting that his estranged wife, Dee Etta Perez, 39, drugged and then shot and killed their three children, Sergio, 10, Diego, 9, and Bianca, 4, before turning the gun on herself.

Police said the bodies of the children were found in their beds in the room they shared.

Hudson Oaks police said they found empty capsules from more than 20 over-the-counter sleeping pills inside the home.

The Tarrant County medical examiner concluded that Mrs. Perez killed herself with a .357-caliber revolver and that she had a large amount of gunpowder residue on her hands.

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