Dayana Gutierrez, Claudia Menjivar and Carlos Josué Gutierrez.Photo: GoFundMe
The family of a mother and her two children whowere found slain in their Virginia homeon Saturday is reeling after the violence.
“My sister Claudia Mejivar was a strong, hardworking woman [who] loved her children and lived for her children,” Dora Menjivarwrote on a GoFundMe page. “They adored their mom and now they are in heaven together.”
“We will never understand such a vicious crime that has left us in deep pain,” Menjivar wrote.
On Saturday, Mejivar and her two children were found dead in their Herndon home. According to Herndon Police Chief Maggie DeBoard, investigators believe their murders were connected to the suicide of a man found hours earlier in the area. According to DeBoard, before the man’s suicide, he made statements that prompted officers from a different police department to contact Herndon police to request a welfare check at Mejivar’s home.
Officers subsequently went to Mejivar’s home, where they discovered a “horrific” scene, DeBoard said.
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While authorities have yet to release the victims' names, their family has identified them as Mejivar, her daughter Dayana Gutierrez, 12, and her son 10-year-old Carlos Josué Gutierrez.
Gutierrez told thePostthat Menjivar had come from El Salvador to provide for her family and worked as a housekeeper at a hotel.
“She was a good mom to my nephews. She was a hard-working girl,” Gutierrez said. “She didn’t have any problems with anyone.”
According to Gutierrez, Saturday was Dayana’s 12th birthday.
Now, as authorities continue to investigate the murders, Mejivar’s family is working on bringing the bodies of their loved ones back home.
“She always said if something happened to her, her wish was to be buried back in our country El Salvador,” her sister wrote. “Our parents are elderly and it is their last wish; to see their daughter one last time.”
Mejivar leaves behind a third child, a 16-year-old boy, in El Salvador, according to the GoFundMe page. A motive for the murders remains unknown.
source: people.com
