A 61-year-old Pennsylvania man, Jose Luis Rodriguez, is accused of murdering a married couple and their 1-year-old son after the wife, Geraldina Peguero-Mancebo, refused to leave her husband to be with him.
Videos by Suggest
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Law & Crime, the incident occurred on September 12. Rodriguez and Peguero-Mancebo, according to the former, were in an “intimate relationship” where the elderly man provided the 30-year-old married woman with money.
At around 8:30 p.m., Peguero-Mancebo entered Rodriguez’s vehicle while carrying her 1-year-old son, Jayden, in her arms, the complaint said. Rodriguez drove them to an East Huller Lane location, where he allegedly planned to kill her.
Rodriguez told police that he grew “infuriated” when Peguero-Mancebo didn’t want to leave her husband, 33-year-old Junior Cabrera-Colon, for him. It was at that moment that Rodriguez allegedly shot Peguero-Mancebo in the back of her head. He is then accused of dumping her body at a location in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Police alleged that Rodriguez then took Jayden and threw him in a lake. An autopsy conducted on the toddler’s body indicated that he was alive when he entered the water. This conclusion was reached given the presence of mud in his lungs.
Finally, the 61-year-old, who refused to take the boy to a hospital “for fear of getting caught,” shot Cabrera-Colon in the head, the complaint alleged.
Bodies Found, Suspect Charged
Cabrera-Colon’s body was found near Baer Park in Reading on September 13. The bodies of Peguary Mancebo and Jayden were found on September 19 and September 20, respectively.
Rodriguez allegedly confessed to the crimes, providing the murder weapon, a 9mm handgun, to the police.
On September 19, Jose Luis Rodriguez was charged with the murder of Cabrera-Colon. Then, during a press conference held on Monday, September 29, it was announced that the 61-year-old man was charged with two additional counts of first-degree murder, in connection with Peguaro-Mancebo and Jayden’s deaths.
In addition to the above charges, Rodriguez is also charged with three counts of third-degree murder, two counts of abuse of a corpse, two counts of possession of an instrument of crime, tampering with evidence, and carrying a firearm without a license. He is being held at Berks County Jail without bond and is scheduled to appear in court on October 3.
A GoFundMe was launched to help support the married couple’s children in the Dominican Republic. The raised funds will also serve to repatriate the victims’ bodies to their home country.