Four found dead in apartment

(Brooklyn - WABC, December 10, 2006) (WABC) -- A horrific discovery in Brooklyn: A woman and her two children bludgeoned to death, her boyfriend dead in an apparent murder-suicide.

The bodies were found in an apartment on North Portland Avenue in the Fort Greene section.

Eyewitness News reporter Kemberly Richardson has the latest.

Neighbors say it was strange. They tried to get in touch with Haydee Soto and her family but they couldn't. They say the lights on the apartment 6E had been off for days then there was the sour smell. An odor, which penetrated the hallways, assured them something was wrong.

Friends say they had not seen or heard from Haydee Soto for more than a week, but now the discovery is how neighbors at the Whitman Houses have to remember the 42-year-old, Soto, her 15-year-old son, John Borday, 13-year-old daughter, Valerie Rivera, and 34-year-old boyfriend, Hector Viera.

"This week, I had been trying to call her and knocking the door," family friend, Victor Vasquez, said. "But there was no answer."

Investigators say Soto's sister also expected something was wrong and called police. Officers unlocked the 6th floor apartment and found the four victims at about 8 a.m. this morning.

Sources tell Eyewitness News, it appears Viera used a baseball bat to beat Soto and her two kids to death and then killed himself overdosing.

"They are beautiful kids. They are still babies to me, you know. They used to be with us on the back. They would hang out with us," Carlos Solis, victim's neighbor, said. "They would play baseball and sometimes basketball."

Police say Soto was found dead on the floor in one bedroom, Valerie in another, John in the hallway and Viera in the kitchen.

Neighbors say he was the jealous type. Even though Soto never talked about problems about the relationship, they could sense there was a trouble.

"I would hear loud arguments. I lived on the fourth floor and she lived on the sixth floor. It is weird to hear loud," victim's neighbor, Barry Negron, said. "I heard like bangs. I wasn't sure he was hitting her or hitting different things."

Investigators from the crime scene unit spent much of the day collecting evidence from the apartment including the blood-splattered baseball bat. Police say it took time identifying the bodies because they were decomposed.

Now, there is the big question of whether or not someone from the either children's school ever tried to get in touch with the family. Police say they did not receive phone calls from principals or teachers.

Neighbors say, Soto's son John often used a wheelchair to get along and Soto had a second daughter, a 21-year-old woman who didn't live here.

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•