Veralicia Figueroa, a 57-year-old woman from El Salvador, had a daily routine. After finishing her housekeeping duties at the Savopoulos family home in a wealthy Washington, D.C. neighborhood, she would leave around 3 p.m. to return to her own house. On May 13, 2015, however, she did not come home. By the next morning, her husband and stepdaughter grew increasingly worried and drove to her place of employment.
They arrived to a strangely quiet and still house, a stark contrast to its usual state, which gave them a terrible feeling.
Inside the stately home, a horrific scene had unfolded. Veralicia, along with her employers, 46-year-old Savvas Savopoulos, his 47-year-old wife Amy, and their 10-year-old son Philip, had been held hostage for approximately 19 hours. The captor, or captors, had subjected the family and their housekeeper to brutal treatment, including beating and stabbing them. The ordeal was allegedly part of a ransom plot where the perpetrators demanded and received $40,000 in cash. To cover their tracks, the assailants set the house on fire before fleeing. Firefighters were called to the scene on May 14, 2015, and discovered the bodies of the four victims. An investigation revealed that Veralicia Figueroa, Savvas Savopoulos, and Amy Savopoulos died from blunt and sharp force trauma. Young Philip Savopoulos succumbed to thermal and sharp force injuries.
The investigation quickly led to a suspect named Daron Wint, a former welder at a company owned by Savvas Savopoulos. A crucial piece of evidence that linked Wint to the crime scene was his DNA, which was found on a pizza crust left in the house. A week after the murders, on May 21, 2015, Wint was apprehended by authorities in northeast Washington D.C. Although prosecutors believed Wint may have had accomplices, he was the only individual charged in the quadruple homicide. In February 2016, a grand jury indicted Daron Wint on 20 counts, including first-degree murder, kidnapping, extortion, and arson. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. However, on October 25, 2018, a jury found him guilty on all 20 counts. Subsequently, Daron Wint was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders.
