MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A woman spoke to Local 10 News Monday, a day after she discovered four people dead inside of a home in Miami-Dade County’s Kendale Lakes neighborhood.
“He opened the door -- the chain was still on the door -- so when we saw that I said, ‘Somebody’s in here!’” Joanna Cruz said.
Cruz said she didn’t immediately realize that the four people who lived there had just been involved in a murder-suicide.
“I saw the elderly lady’s body on the bed to the right, the elderly man’s body on the other bed to the left, blood coming out of their mouth and the wife in the other room, also with her head facing up with blood,” Cruz said. “I said he either shot them or stabbed them because there was blood, and it looked like it was dried up, so it was a few days already.”
Cruz said her mother originally went to the home to deliver food to the woman in her 80′s who lived there and was in hospice care.
But when no one answered door, she called Cruz so she could deliver a spare key.
Cruz said they then found the bodies of the woman, her husband, their son and his wife.
She said the son fatally shot both of his parents and his wife before turning the gun on himself.
“It creeped me out because I said, ‘Well, if there’s somebody with a gun then you know we’re gonna be shot too,’” Cruz said.
According to investigators, the hospice patient was 84-year-old Mercedes Morato, who was killed by her son, 62-year-old Jesus Requeira Jr.
Authorities said Requeira Jr. also killed his father, Jesus Requeira Sr., 83, and his girlfriend, Kerstyn Marie Stahre, 61.
Detectives spent hours at the home on Southwest 137th Court, investigating it as a murder-suicide.
Police said officers discovered the bodies after being called to the home to conduct a welfare check, adding that a gun was found next to one of the bodies.
“When the officers got here, the door, the residence was secured. So it’s not a public safety concern. We’re not looking for anyone,” Detective Angel Rodriguez said. “The preliminary information revealed all four decedents resided in the same residence.”
Neighbors who spoke to Local 10 were shocked by the news.
“Very surprised, because it’s not normal in this neighborhood,” one neighbor said.
Neighbors are understandably upset as they’re now left to wonder why someone would be motivated to carry out an act like this.
“I feel like I’m in a nightmare because it’s very unpleasant to see that, and an elderly woman that was a beautiful soul -- a beautiful person,” Cruz said.
No other details about the crime have been released by police.