The scene where a Brockton woman was found dead Sunday. The body of her son, 2, was found later by investigators. (Courtney Sacco for The Boston Globe)
February 15, 2011
This story was reported by Brian Ballou, Maria Sacchetti, and Milton J. Valencia of the Globe staff. It was written by Valencia.
BROCKTON — The killing of an Ecuadoran native, a mother of three whose body was found in a large metal trash bin Sunday, became even more chilling yesterday when authorities discovered that her 2-year-old son was dead as well, stuffed in a bag beside her.
The body of 25-year-old Maria Avelina Palaguachi-Cela was first reported to authorities by a passerby just after 9 p.m. Sunday. Authorities found a second bag — containing the body of her son Brian, who was to turn 3 next month — as they sifted through the trash bin hours later.
Palaguachi-Cela’s common-law husband, Manuel Jesus Caguana, said he returned from a construction job in Virginia late Sunday, in a panic because he had been unable to contact his wife since Thursday.
“They said, your wife is dead,’’ he said, in tears over the phone. “I said, no, no, she had never been in any trouble. I don’t know . . . I don’t know how to understand this.’’
Caguana said he reluctantly took the two-week job in Virginia to help support his family here, as well as the couple’s two daughters, who live in Ecuador.
The couple shared an apartment on Warren Avenue in Brockton with two other men, not an unusual arrangement among immigrants with limited resources. One of the men is now missing, his room cleared out, Caguana said.
Authorities would not respond yesterday to questions about a missing roommate or whether suspects had been identified. Authorities would say only that they believe the murder was not random and that the parties knew each other.
“It’s a very heart-wrenching case, when you’re dealing with a 2-year-old child,’’ Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said yesterday. “Who would do that, I mean who would do that to a 2-year-old child?’’
He added, “We’re going to continue to work hard to make sure we get justice for this little boy and this woman. We won’t stop until we get the person or persons responsible for this.’’
The bodies were located in a large metal trash bin behind the family’s apartment on Warren Avenue. Palaguachi-Cela’s body was discovered first, Cruz said. As investigators sifted through the trash bin, they feared that the second bag also contained a body, but an identification could not be made until they examined the evidence. Police confirmed the discovery of the boy’s body yesterday.
“We want to make sure we have everything we can and we tie in everything we can,’’ Cruz said. “It’s a terrible crime scene, especially when you think of what happened to a small child.’’
The discoveries — just hours before the trash was scheduled to be picked up Monday, according to neighbors — startled an urban community that has seen violent crime before, but was shocked by the deaths of a mother and someone so young. These are the first homicides of the year, after only eight last year, a relative low for this city of close to 100,000 people, according to Brockton police.
