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Woman despondent over failed relationship shoots
triplets, then self
By Michael
Rubinkam Associated
Press
PHILADELPHIA - Miguellina
Estevez had been alone with her 2-year-old triplet sons since the
boys' father moved out, apparently returning to the Dominican
Republican and another woman. She was 19, had no job and spoke
little English. On Monday, after trying to buy
rat poison to kill herself and the boys, police say she shot each of
her sons in the head with a semiautomatic pistol and then turned the
gun on herself. Police found her body in the second-floor bedroom of
her rowhouse and two of her sons dead nearby. The third boy was
hospitalized in critical condition. The boys
were identified as Franklin, Frankelly and Fabian, or "Franky."
Fabian survived the shooting but was declared brain dead by doctors
at St. Christopher's Hospital Tuesday afternoon. Hospital officials
said he remains on life support. The tall, thin
woman had come here three years ago from the Dominican Republic with
her boyfriend, Franklin Sanchez. About two
months ago, recalled a friend, Joselyn Perez, Estevez became
despondent after finding another woman's underwear in Sanchez's
suitcase. Confronted with the evidence, Sanchez
said he was leaving her to marry the other woman in the Dominican
Republic, Perez said. Estevez was devastated.
She went to Perez's hair salon almost every afternoon to
commiserate. "It's difficult when you're 19,"
said Perez, 32. "She just needed to talk to
us." Earlier this month, her mood brightened a
little after Sanchez called and said he wanted to work things
out. On Saturday, however, Estevez went to
Paulina's Grocery and asked for rat poison, saying she wanted to
kill herself. The storekeepers, Lauro Paulina
and his wife Marguerita Diaz, told her they didn't have
any. "Then she said she wanted to go to
Roosevelt Boulevard and throw herself in front of the cars, take her
children with her," Marguerita Diaz said in
Spanish. Diaz told her to seek
help. The next day, Estevez went back to the
hair salon, but instead of discussing her problems, she talked about
remodeling her house. A family friend,
Francisco Rodriguez, said Estevez called Sanchez's relatives early
Monday, begging them to make her an appointment with a psychiatrist.
He said she apparently got an appointment for Wednesday, but he
didn't know any details. Later, Monday, police
say, Estevez placed two of her children on a bed and shot each once
in the head, then put the third boy on the floor next to her and
shot him in the head, and finally shot
herself. "I don't understand it," Perez said
Tuesday. "I couldn't sleep last night." Police
said they were trying to locate Sanchez.
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