A year later, answers still elusive in Estates murders

It’s a Saturday afternoon and the sun is shining over the house at 3275 Randall Blvd. in Golden Gate Estates.

A slight breeze blows through the trees on either side of the yard and fresh flowers adorn the front doorway.

By all accounts, the small, one-story peach house with the white picket fence looks like a pleasant place to live — maybe even a quiet place to rear a family or escape the rat race. But this house is, in fact, the scene of Collier County’s biggest unsolved homicide.

It was a year ago that Collier County sheriff’s deputies responded to a call at the home and found four people dead from gunshot wounds.

The dead later were identified as Rodolfo Delgado, 38, and Maribel Abril, 41, who rented and lived at the home, as well as Cesar Garcia, 36, of Homestead, and Ariel Pino, 31, of Miami. Investigators believe the four were killed between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 25.

Investigators also believe the home was being used as a marijuana grow house. They recovered 104 marijuana plants, worth about $104,000, from the house and another $10,000 worth of drug-growing equipment.

One year later, no arrests have been made in the case and no suspects have been named. Collier County sheriff’s investigators have tracked down leads on both the east and west coasts of the state, sheriff’s spokeswoman Brigid O’Malley said.

Photo by LEXEY SWALL, Daily News file photo

Yubey Figueroa, right, a crime scene investigator, and Paul Morris, with Domestic Animal Services, cross the crime scene barrier at 3275 Randall Blvd. where four people were found dead inside the home just after 3 a.m. June 25, 3005.

“They’ve run down a lot of leads and so far nothing has worked out,” O’Malley said. “They develop new leads all the time.”

Even though the home was being used to grow drugs, O’Malley said, it hasn’t been established that drugs were the motive for the killings. And investigators said last week that they weren’t aware of any property taken from the home.

Because of its remote location and distance from Naples, Golden Gate Estates lends itself to grow houses, O’Malley said.

In fact, in the months before the killings, deputies arrested Giando Garcia, of Carol City, on charges of participating in a marijuana growing operation at 3230 Randall Blvd.

Kristin Adams, also a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office, said investigators are waiting for any new information on the killings but do continuously review their cases.

“It’s only a year old, so it’s not something they’re going to put behind them and leave alone,” Adams said.

At the time of the killings, the house at 3275 Randall Blvd. was registered to Alfredo and Macia Valdettaro, who bought it in 2002 for $83,500, according to county property tax records. In May the home was sold to Jose Miranda and Diego Benitez for $370,000, the Collier County Property Appraiser’s Office said.

Neighbors say the people who live in the house now are quiet, but many didn’t want to discuss the homicides that took place there last year.

Pam Hornug, who lives down the road from the house, wasn’t home when the killings occurred. She said she got home the next day and saw the police and media swarming the house.

Hornug said she and her family are in the process of moving to Miami because her boyfriend got a new job there. She said the killings had nothing to do with their decision to move. In fact, Hornug said she is sad to go.

“It’s really quiet here,” Hornug said. “Its a nice neighborhood and we’re not worried about anything.”

Sheriff’s deputies patrol the area all the time, she said.

Hornug said that when they leave, they’re renting their house to friends.

“They know all about (the killings) and they’re not worried about it,” she said. “They love it out here.”

Juan Cusido, who lives next door to the house at 3275 Randall Blvd., said he’s not scared to live in the neighborhood either. He said he believes the people who were living next door were killed because they were mixed up in the drug business.

“I’m not concerned about nothing,” Cusido said. “I’m concerned about my chickens and my bull and my cow, and that’s it.”

At least one neighbor said he was concerned about the killings.

Saintilus Devariste recently purchased a home across the street from the house at 3275 Randall Blvd. He lives there with his wife and daughter and said nobody ever told him about the killings.

“I got a shock,” Devariste said. “If I would have known someone got killed on this street I wouldn’t have bought this house.”

Mark Teaters, president of the Golden Gate Estates Civic Association, said he believes the area is a very safe place to live. But as more and more people make Golden Gate Estates their home, the more bad apples that move in, he said.

Things have improved dramatically since the Sheriff’s Office opened a substation in Golden Gate Estates, but still, people who live there need to do everything they can to keep themselves safe.

“I think that was a rude awakening,” Teaters said. “When that happened, I think some people didn’t know that stuff was going on — they weren’t aware that it was going on next door.

“A lot of people out here don’t know their neighbors,” he said. “This has really brought people together.”