Police continue working May 22 at a fire-damaged home in northwest Washington where Savvas Savopoulos, his wife Amy Savopoulos, their 10-year-old son Philip, and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa were found dead May 14. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Four people found with Daron Dylon Wint, a suspect in the brutal quadruple slaying in a private home in Northwest Washington last week, have been released from custody, police said Saturday.
Authorities found Wint on Thursday after a two-day, multistate manhunt for those responsible for the killing of a prominent D.C. couple, their 10-year-old son and a housekeeper. Wint was traveling in the back of a white sedan with a female driver and a passenger, and two men were driving a separate vehicle.
A D.C. Police spokesman said Saturday that none of the others were charged with crimes, but he offered no explanation and would not say when they were released. The four have not been publicly identified.
The decision to release the four individuals has added to the mystery surrounding the savage assault at the Savopoulos residence in an affluent neighborhood near the vice president’s mansion.
Authorities said in court papers on Friday that the killings probably involved a conspiracy, with the victims taken captive by assailants who waited more than 19 hours for a $40,000 ransom before killing them and setting fire to the multimillion-dollar home.
Savvas Savopoulos, 46, his wife, Amy, 47, and their housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57, were beaten and stabbed, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The couple’s 10-year-old son, Philip, was found dead on a charred mattress in his bedroom. He had been beaten, stabbed and burned, police said in the document, and his room and others in the house were doused with gasoline.
Also Friday, Wint, 34, made his initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court. He was charged with first-degree murder while armed.
So far, Wint is charged only in the death of the family patriarch, a wealthy executive who ran American Iron Works, a large supplier of iron and steel to construction projects. Officials said additional charges are likely in the deaths of the wife, son and housekeeper.
Wint appeared in court with his wrists and ankles shackled, escorted by three marshals.
He said only his name at the hearing.
His attorney, Natalie Lawson of the Public Defender Service, said in court that the case was “based on speculation and guesswork.”
Magistrate Judge Errol R. Arthur ordered Wint held until his next court appearance, June 23.
Police have said that Wint once worked for Savopoulos’s American Iron Works firm in Hyattsville, Md., but have not offered a motive. D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier has assured residents that the family was targeted and the crime was not random.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Miller said Wint’s DNA was found on discarded pizza left in the room where the three adults were found dead.
She said police found a fingerprint on a water bottle at the house, and that prosecutors were seeking to compare it with Wint’s fingerprints.
Police also have been examining confusing and mysterious text messages sent among the Savopouloses and another housekeeper, whom they repeatedly told to stay away from the home. They also investigated the actions of Savopoulos’s assistant, who delivered the $40,000 to the house May 14 in the moments before the killings.
U.S. Marshals Cmdr. Robert Fernandez, who runs the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force, said his agents were summoned Tuesday after D.C. police learned Wint’s name.
By Wednesday, they believed he had fled to Brooklyn, where he has family and friends.
Authorities learned Thursday that Wint might be back in the Washington area, at a Howard Johnson hotel in College Park, Md.
A surveillance team noticed Wint leaving in one of two vehicles that pulled out of the hotel parking lot shortly before 11 p.m.
Police followed a box truck and a white Chevrolet Cruze sedan heading toward the District. “It was obvious they were traveling together,” he said.
About 25 unmarked police cars and a helicopter from Prince George’s County followed them into the District where police stopped them and detained five people from the vehicles.
Court documents say authorities found money orders exceeding $10,000 and a large stack of $100 bills, the same denomination delivered to Savopoulos in the $40,000 delivery.
