Crowley vigil honors slain mother, daughters

Police remain mystified as to what prompted a 36-year-old man to apparently kill his fiancee and her two daughters inside the Crowley home that they shared Sunday, before fatally shooting himself.

“There was no indication that anything was going on in this household. I believe they had some get-together recently with family members and everything was fine,” Crowley Police Chief Luis Soler told reporters Tuesday.

“This is just as odd to us as it is to the family. No one saw this coming.”

It also remained unknown Tuesday why Sam Morales spared the life of the woman’s 9-year-old son, whose call to a relative summoned police to the residence in the 200 block of Kennedy Drive Sunday afternoon.

There, officers found the bodies of Morales, Xiomara Leon, 34; and her daughters, Linda Gonzalez, 18, and Yasmine Zavala, 13, in different locations throughout the house.

Leon and Gonzalez died of multiple gunshot wounds, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed Tuesday.

Zavala had been strangled.

Morales died from a gunshot wound to the head but a manner of death had not been ruled on as of Tuesday afternoon.

Police said Tuesday, however, that they believe Morales’s gunshot wound was self-inflicted and that the preliminary investigation points to the deaths being a triple murder/suicide.

The 9-year-old survivor was not physically hurt and has since been released to the custody of other family members.

Soler would not disclose the boy’s statements to investigators about what he saw and heard in the house that day but said “he did not witness much of the tragedy as it unfolded, just some of the aftermath.”

“There are so many questions”

Leon and Morales had been together for four years.

Soler said police had received no reports of previous domestic violence between the couple and that Morales, a Concealed Handgun License holder, had no criminal history.

Child Protective Services also had no prior history with the family.

Robert Arndt, a co-worker and friend of Leon’s, said he had gotten to know Morales through Leon as the couple were frequently together. He described Morales as a “prankster” and said he never saw any signs that Morales could be violent.

“He was a fun guy to be around,” Arndt said. “There was never anyting in my mind that would have put that question there.”

Arndt said Morales also seemed to serve a fatherly role to Leon’s three children.

“He saw the boy kind of as his own son,” said Arndt, who has started up a fund to benefit the 9-year-old.

Arndt said Leon was known as “Mama Xio” at the AT&T store where she worked in sales because of her tendency to act motherly and helpful to others.

“She was always going out of her way for other people but didn’t want people to do that for her,” Arndt said.

Arndt said he recalls Leon happily telling co-workers about getting engaged to Morales.

“There are so many questions,” Arndt said. “Some of them will be answered. It may be better that some of them aren’t answered. None of it makes sense.”

The investigations continues

The Crowley school district’s crisis response teams will be on hand early next week at David L. Walker Intermediate School, where Zavala has been a sixth grade student.

Gonzalez had graduated earlier this year from Crowley High School and was working at the school as substitute teacher and tutor, said district spokesman Anthony Kirchner.

Soler said the investigations remains far from closed as investigators try to determine a timeline of the tragedy that unfolded Sunday.

He said investigators seized a semi-automatic firearm from the home and well as several pieces of electronic equipment, including phones and cameras.

“It is our hope some of those items will reveal more clues as to what transpired,” Soler said.

Still, he admitted to reporters on Tuesday, “I don't know if we’ll ever know exactly why it took place.”

This story was originally published December 30, 2014 at 8:57 AM with the headline "Crowley vigil honors slain mother, daughters."