Teens Arrested in Family Slaying

M O N T E R E Y   P A R K, Calif., July 27, 2000 -- The suburban community of Pico

Rivera was stunned when someone apparently slipped into an unlocked

home and stabbed a beloved coach and three of his children to

death.

Then today came another shock — word that the family’s16-year-old adopted daughter and her 17-year-old boyfriend had beenarrested. Sheriff’s investigators said forensic evidence linked thetwo to the crimes, but wouldn’t offer details.

“We find when investigating these crimes that history tells usyou start looking in close and you work out,” Capt. Frank Merrimansaid, explaining why Los Angeles County homicide detectives lookedfor a suspect among the four surviving family members.

Investigators said they were still trying to determine whatmotivated the pair of suspects, although neighbors had said therewas friction between the boyfriend and the girl’s father.

Serial Killing Originally SuspectedDistrict Attorney Gil Garcetti said he probably will charge thepair as adults after getting the case Friday or Monday. A newCalifornia law gives prosecutors rather than judges the authorityto decide whether juveniles should be tried as adults for somefelonies, although they still are ineligible for the death penalty.

Richard Flores, 42, sons Richard Jr., 17, and Matthew, 10, and13-year-old daughter Sylvia were killed early July 21. Flores’wife, Sylvia, 39, was wounded and remains hospitalized. Hercondition was unavailable today.

The mother, who was able to offer limited information toinvestigators, didn’t learn of the deaths until Wednesday. She wasnot told of the arrests, investigators said.

“I think we have an obligation to protect her because she’s ina traumatized recovery status,” Sheriff Lee Baca said.

Amid a heat wave, the family and others in their quiet PicoRivera neighborhood slept with their windows open the night of theattack. Neighbors feared a serial killer might be on the looseafter the Flores family members were stabbed and slashed.

“I think this is important that this is not some serial killerout there,” Baca said. “Needless to say, these murders defylogic, they defy humanity, they defy explanation.”

Terrifying OrdealThe mother told authorities she awoke to find a young manwearing a blue bandanna stabbing her husband and herself but couldnot identify him in the darkness. An 18-year-old daughter,Esperanza, woke up and found her mother, who urged her to call forhelp.

A bloody knife was found outside the home’s back door, but itwas unknown if other weapons were involved. Lt. Marilyn Baker saidinvestigators had not determined whether one or both suspectscommitted the killings and in which order the deaths occurred.

Besides the mother and the 18-year-old daughter, the survivingfamily members included the 16-year-old suspect’s sister.

Family RememberedThe suspect and her sister were adopted by the couple aftertheir own mother — Sylvia Flores’ sister — died. Investigators saidthe girls had been members of the Flores family for “quite sometime.”

The Flores family was well-known in their community, where theyparticipated in youth sports and other activities. The fathercoached youth baseball, basketball and football teams, and themother taught religious education classes at St. Hilary CatholicChurch.

More than a thousand mourners packed St. Hilary for a serviceSunday night in memory of the family many described as a model —one friend called the victims “the ideal picture of the NormanRockwell family.”