A woman and her son are slain in Boston On a summer evening in Boston, the lives of 43-year-old Elvira Pimentel, a Hispanic female, and her 17-year-old son, Elvis Sanchez, were violently cut short. On August 7, 2011, both mother and son were found shot at 3964 Washington Street. The Boston Police Department responded to the scene where both were pronounced deceased in what the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner would rule a homicide.
The investigation into their deaths quickly became intertwined with another homicide case.
Investigators began to explore a chilling connection between the double murder and Sanchez's recent involvement with the justice system. It is believed their killings may have been an act of witness intimidation. Sanchez had been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in the investigation of the shooting death of 23-year-old Wilfredo Martinez, which had occurred in a housing development near Sanchez's Roslindale home.
While officials with the Suffolk District Attorney's office stated that Sanchez was not a "cooperating witness" in the Martinez homicide or any other slaying, they acknowledged that he had been brought to court with the hope that he would provide testimony. It remains unclear what, if anything, Sanchez communicated to the authorities. The brutal slaying of both a potential witness and his mother highlighted the pervasive fear of retaliation that often silences communities and hampers criminal investigations in many Boston neighborhoods. The Reverend Jeffrey Brown of the Boston TenPoint Coalition, an antiviolence organization, remarked on the immense pressure and threats that potential witnesses and their families often face.
In the years that have followed the tragic deaths of Elvira Pimentel and Elvis Sanchez, their case has remained unsolved. Despite the strong suspicions that their murders were a direct result of Sanchez's connection to the Wilfredo Martinez homicide case, no arrests have been made and no suspects have been publicly identified in their killings. The Boston Police Department continues to list the double homicide as an open and unsolved case, a painful reminder of a day when a mother and son were silenced together.
