Suspect confessed to killing dad from missing family: Police
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Left (Clockwise from top left): Geraldina Peguero-Mancebo, Junior Cabrera-Colon, and their son Jayden (GoFundMe). Right: Jose Luis Rodriguez (Reading Police Department).

A Pennsylvania man who was charged with the murder of one member of a family now faces charges in connection with three of their deaths.

At a press conference on Monday, Berks County District Attorney John Adams announced that 61-year-old Jose Luis Rodriguez was being charged with two additional counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Geraldina Peguero-Mancebo, 30, and her 1-year-old son Jayden. According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, Rodriguez allegedly admitted to executing Peguero-Mancebo by shooting her in the head and then dumping her body “because she did not want to leave her husband.”

Police charged Rodriguez with the murder of Peguero-Mancebo”s husband, 33-year-old Junior Cabrera-Colon, on Sept. 19.

Peguero-Mancebo and her son were found in separate locations outside Reading, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 19 and 20, respectively. According to the criminal complaint, Peguero-Mancebo was seen getting into a white Nissan Quest that was registered to Rodriguez at around 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 12. She was carrying Jayden in her arms when she got into the back seat. Police tracked their cellphone movements, which revealed that both Rodriguez and Peguero-Mancebo were parked at a location on East Huller Lane, where Rodriguez allegedly told police that he planned to kill her.

Rodriguez told police that he and Peguero-Mancebo were in an “intimate relationship” and that he “provided money” for her, including rent money for her apartment. When she purportedly told Rodriguez that “she did not want to leave her husband,” he told police that he became “infuriated” because “she was constantly taking his money.”

Police said that Rodriguez shot Peguero-Mancebo “in the back of the head,” then drove to another location to dump her body. He then allegedly “drove Jayden down the street and threw him in a lake,” confirming to police that the baby “was alive when he threw him face-down in the muddy water.” An autopsy performed on Jayden confirmed that “[m]ud was present in the lungs, indicating that Jayden was alive at the time of submersion.”

Rodriguez told police he decided against bringing the baby boy to a hospital “for fear of getting caught.” He ultimately directed police to the alleged murder weapon, which he had stashed underneath someone else’s home under their porch. The 9 mm handgun was reported as “lost in shipping” by UPS in June.

During Monday’s press conference, Adams confirmed that the mother and baby were allegedly killed before the father was. Cabrera-Colon was found dead on Sept. 13 of a gunshot wound to the head near Baer Park in Reading.

Rodriguez remains in Berks County Jail where he is being held without bond. He is now charged with three counts of first-degree murder, 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 scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 3.

A GoFundMe page raising money to have the family’s bodies returned to their native Dominican Republic said that the couple also shared three other children, ages 8, 10, and 13 years old.

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