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A South Florida man strangled his two young sons with a rope at his estranged wife’s house and then used a gun to shoot one of the boys several times before he shot himself to death, authorities said Saturday afternoon.
Police say Isidro Zavala, 45, early Saturday went to the Boynton Beach home of his wife with the intention of killing her and their children, Eduardo Zavala, 12, and Mario Zavala, 11.
At the crime scene, detectives found a blue bag with a second firearm, extra ammunition, duct tape, cutting shears and a note addressed to Zavala's oldest son, who was not at the residence during the killings, police said.
Isidro Zavala carried out his plan, but with an exception: He spared his wife, Victoria Flores Zavala, 36, so that she could suffer, police said.
“What Mrs. Zavala had to go through -- watch her children killed before her -- is probably the most horrific thing you could ever imagine, at least for me,” said Boynton Beach Police Chief G. Matthew Immler, saying that he himself is a parent.
The motive for the killing "is just speculation at this point," Immler said.
Victoria Flores Zavala contacted police, who arrived at her house in the 400 block of Southwest Eighth Avenue about 1:50 a.m. Saturday.
Officers found one child dead in a back screened patio area. A second child was found dead in the kitchen dining room area. Officers found Isidro Zavala’s body in the kitchen, police said.
Victoria Zavala said that her husband killed their children, police said. She said she and her husband had been separated and that he no longer lived in the house.
She told detectives that she was watching TV when she heard commotion in the house, went to check on her children and saw Isidro Zavala choking one of his sons, police said.
Then he killed them. Mario was the boy who was shot repeatedly, police said. The mother had tried to stop her spouse.
“She tried fighting him off and begged him to kill her and not the children,” Boynton Beach police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said in a press release. “He told her she was going to stay alive and suffer the loss of them.”
Detectives obtained a warrant to search the house, as well as a house in the 1100 block of Southeast Third Street, where Isidro Zavala had been living, police said.
The Zavalas have a 19-year-old son who does not live with his family and was not there when the killings occurred, police said. The note found at the crime scene addressed to him said something to the effect that "he was a good son," police said.
Detectives have called the state Department of Children and Families to investigate. “It should be noted that there is no history of reports of domestic violence or abuse noted at the house,” Slater said.
The Zavala couple married in 1993, records show. In 1999, the pair signed a $73,700 mortgage on the home where the killings occurred, Palm Beach County records show.
In October last year, Victoria Flores Zavala filed for divorce from her husband in Palm Beach County, a case that records showed was still listed as pending.
Immler called Saturday's case "an unusually brutal type of murder," but said such murder-suicide cases unfortunately have been known to happen.
"And certainly I’ve seen it over the years of being a police officer, that there are mentally disturbed people out there who commit these types against their own family members, against their own loved ones," he said.
The police chief turned his attention to the surviving Zavalas.
"Hopefully, as time passes, perhaps their wounds will heal. I doubt it," he said. "You know, I don’t believe you could ever recover from something like this.
"Hopefully, the surviving Zavalas can get the help they need and somehow go on with life."
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He did not have to kill them, but I understand.
Understand what?!!!!
Now THAT is disturbing. Seek help if you understand what this man did.
Well ---- This should lay to rest any arguement about how many crazy people are out there! First we need to ban ropes, then we need to ban guns, then we need to ban crazy people. ( Hmmm - that is the right order isn't it ? ) Ohhhh I know I know, Let's just ban the the people on this blog that can't recognize the economic problems that many face in this country and how many desperate people there really are out there, to include legal and illegal. Let's just all be patient - I believe the best is yet to come ( isn't it ? ) Oopps wrong again! Hope has turned to cope and my change I wanted has now left my pocket and the area. Where oh where has my little paycheck gone?
Bit of a rant there, don't you think?
I would have killed him.
This mother did nothing - nothing to save her sons from that man. I would have died fighting to save their lives as most moms would.
Coward.
There is nothing in the article that says she didn't fight for her children. You assume she did nothing simply because she was unable to save them.
You're quite the coward yourself, hiding behind a computer screen to disparage a woman how has gone through such a tragedy.
@Justis4U, id like to see your youtube vid of her just sitting back with a bowl of popcorn.
i'll bet this man was one of the many men who have been raised (consciously or unconsciously) to think they own the women and children in their lives.
thank goodness we have so many guns in circulation. such allows any idiot to get his hands on one when the situation beckons.
Ever think about strangling yourself, it wouldn't work. A gun on the other hand has shown all those here that Physco's should be killing themselves. I'm glad the gun and he could accomadate you and the others. May you feel better now.
@2little2soon, you missed that rope discussion, didn't you?
Or rope! Gawd you stupid idiots who are scared to death of inanimate objects piss me off!
Guns do one thing very well... THEY KILL !
Evidently so do ropes and duct tape!
IDIOT!
Think about it! IF she had a handgun SHE could have saved her children by popping the dad before he could strangle his child. This is obviously a demented individual. Guns don't have anything to do with it, except she would have been better off and her children IF she had one and could have defended herself and the children. It takes a few minutes to strangle someone, it isn't immediate. Glad he is deceased, the old man, that is.
Not necessarily. Umm...he had a gun, remember? So a gun fight would have helped things? He is on the son and she shoots and kills the child in the commotion? Yeah, right. We weren't there and we don't know what happened.
Need I say this again?
SOMBRERO!
Hat? You feel some need to keep saying "hat?"
Your meds must need adjusting.
It's not just a hat.
Large ego's need large hats.
It's the Napoleon thing.
You sound quite expert on the subject. First-hand experience, I take it?
Oh my god, why didn't she have a gun too?
That would have stopped that for sure!
Yeah, right.
As if, after Sandy Hook, we needed further proof that some people are just pure evil.
What, no libtards wanting to ban rope? Unbelievable.
I wonder what this wife did to make a man that angry and hopeless? I assume cheated on him, then tortured him through the divorce trying to take all his money, his house, turning his kids against him. All men have a breaking point and the woman in this story got this man to his.
Man! I have to say, you're one bitter, twisted POS!
Well you can say whatever you want about me, I have thick skin, but this guy did not snap like this for no reason. Not sure if you've ever seen a man get dragged through the court system and left with nothing to live on, no family, absolutely nothing, but I have seen it and these guys go through hell. Women for some reason get all the breaks int he courts even though this isn't 1940 anymore.
You may be right. But he should have either taken her out, or just himself. In any case I have seen several men reduced to nothing by cheating, vindictive man-hating female users who would have been put down if they had four legs instead of two.
Well, I guess SOME guys are just pussy-whipped, pathetic little crybabies that let what some woman does destroy their lives.
Actual MEN can take personal loss and just move on with their lives. I doubt if you'd know anything about that though.
Wow. So it's her fault...yeah. Bitter and so biased. Pathetic. Men hurt women. Women hurt men. So???? It doesn't make it the other person's fault when someone murders his children. Sorry...adults get hurt every day. You don't go kill kids over it no matter what someone does. Geez.
Life repurposed. Plan B. The sea is your oyster. Sky is the limit. Musical children, it's like chairs but with kids. I've raised 2 kids, not mine. You're NOT my dad!, you know the story. The American Dream. And my 3, are almost strangers. Didn't even recognize my oldest she had grown so much, and changed... wow. Changes. I have a lot of love, need it to combat the shallow, hollow, soulless, frequently misguided mothers in my life. Here's some money. Love ya, goodbye.
Oh, right, it's the victim's fault. Brilliant.
Too bad that poor woman was not armed and therefore unable to even have a chance of defending herself and her sons against this lunatic.
Nobody will ever know now, but I wonder if that POS coward would have had the guts to try this in the first place if he knew that she had a gun and knew how to use it.
Like they've been saying for years, and it's absolutely true - "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns".
When the freaks are planning on killing themselves anyway, no laws on earth will have any effect whatsoever. It's the same with criminals in general. If they let laws restrict their activities, then they wouldn't be criminals.
The only defense is to be armed & trained in the use of a firearm and at least try to kill or disable them first. That's the reality of living in today's sick world.
Except that you weren't there and have no clue what would have helped. He had a gun and he knew how to use it. We have no clue if that would have helped anything and she might have ended up shooting her child...who knows?
Yeah, right. Typical liberal BS. Better that she had no chance at all than to risk the extremely slim chance that she would have accidentally shot one of her kids.
What a load of leftie crap!
Well isn't this just fuggin' great!
Now we are going to have to ban rope, and have only little strings to tie things with. And we will have to have a rope registry and background checks before we can get any rope.
C'Mon you idiot libs, get on the rope problem. If you save only one life the ;loss of rope in the USSA ought to be worth your efforts!
IDIOTS!
LOL if rope kills people, why do you need a gun?
Why do you need an assault rifle? As a FELLOW TEXAN, I don't need an assault rifle to defend my property, my family, or myself. If you can't perhaps you should spend a little more time in the gun range.
Cmon you righties.. accept responsibility that someone innocent DIES, so you can keep your precious assault rifles
I don't own civilian models of the military assault firearms. But even an idiot lib ought to know it is pretty difficult to just walk up on a whitetail deer and strangle it with your shoelace!
IDIOTS!
LOL oh yes, we have a HUGE deer problem here in Texas don't we. Those deers must be TERRORISTs right? What a WUSS
Terry, why must you be so offensive? Trolling a bit?
She should have changed the locks when he moved out.
Allright gun grabbers if the lady had a gun do you think her sons would be dead of course not they would still be alive. but then because gun grabbers are stupid you wouldn't care.
It wouldn't have fit their agenda so no one would have ever heard about it!
We have no idea what would have happened. Really, you have no idea and you are trying to further your agenda.
Terry...you wouldnt know what "their agenda" was if it came up and bit you in the ass.
F. U.
I wonder what would have been the outcome if the female had owned a handgun and shot the criminal POS dead while he was attempting to murder her children?
Oh wait. I forgot. only criminals are allowed to have firearms!
Your compassion for the two murdered children is OVERWHELMING. Wow, you are really drinking the GOP NRA Kool aid ain't ya. You must be a success story for BUSHES no child left behind policy.
Well at least they would still have been alive, but that would not fit you libiots agenda.
So I guess YOU are the ones who cheer those childrens death!
IDIOTS!
Yeah, they would still be ALIVE, if a 'responsible' adult, would not have had 'assault style weapons' that were owned LEGALLY and gotten into the hands of a 'responsible' adult. But according TO YOU, on "ILLEGALS" have guns. Dude, you are bringing down the entire education curve for TEXAS. You must not be from here.
Course, we know that anything that would help children live is a LIBERAL agenda, if it goes against what you rightards think is right.
I don't cheer on anyones death, and unlike you LAUGHING about this situation, I at least have compassion for the victims and their families.
How sad children die and all some can do is call names and be rude. Sad.
Terry...did your mother give birth to anything that lived or isn't completely f*cking retarded?
Wow, 73,000 dollar mortgage. Not bad. Here, because it's Connecticut, I had to get one for almost 300, 000. What a waste.
Real estate is one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated on the American people.
@pained1: Yeah, all those people that own property at a low (or zero) basis are really screwed. Hundreds of millions swindled into buying property against their will.
I hope and pray that this POS father is suffering an excruciating painful eternity in hell for what he did!!!
Dumb people are the archenemy of an enjoyable society.
Let's visit reporting mental health issues once again, if you don't report it and step up to the plate these things will continue to happen. Peple don't be afraid report these people.
Guess that throws out all the Gun Control geniuses theories. Time we started restricting how much rope you can buy...Now I know more geniuses are going to tell me he used a gun. Point is doesn't matter what the instrument of mayhem is, these psychopathic monsters will carry out the deed with whatever they get their hands on. Cmon....break down my door...I dare you....God Bless The N.R.A. Amen.
I tried to send them all back to Cuba or Haiti ..some just get past us.
People need certified lessons to get a driver's license. Yet to get a marriage license, no classes or lessons are required. What's the urge?
Felons aren't supposed to legally own guns but just because someone has a mugshot doesn't mean they were convicted, and may have only been convicted of a misdemeanor.
The more you know...
Yeah... and we should require background checks and waiting times on all rope and hammer purchases too. You MSNBC trolls are so transparent its pathetic.
navyvet...pathetic is your claim to have waiting periods in all ropes and hammer purchases when more than 32,000 americans are killed with guns each year and less than 1,000 are killed with hammers and ropes. Before you wet your underwear note that a figure the NRA has been circulating about "hammer" deaths is misleading. That number of 0ver 2,000 deaths related to clubs and hammers is mostly done with clubs not hammers. Still altogether guns out number clubs and hammer in death related like 15 to 1. See how pathetic your claim is?
There were two mugshots listed to what is probably a common name. thankfully his name wasn't "Smith". Yet the rocket scientists didn't pick yup one was from TX.
Nothing was ever released stating he had a record, much less conviction. Either way. mugshots themselves do not denote a conviction.