Fort Greene Is Site of Apparent Triple Murder, Suicide

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The decomposed bodies of a woman and her two children were found in their Brooklyn apartment yesterday. Police said they believe the three may have been beaten to death with a baseball bat days ago.

Just feet away, police said, the body of a man who lived with them in the Fort Greene apartment was also found. His death likely was the result of a drug overdose.

The man, identified by police as Hector Viera, 34, was found in the kitchen of the apartment with a hypodermic needle stuck in his arm.

Police yesterday said the deaths appeared to be a murder-suicide carried out by Viera, although it wasn’t clear what led him to violence. Neighbors and relatives said they had not seen or heard from the family for more than a week.

Police discovered the four yesterday at about 8:15 a.m. Haydee Soto, 42, was found in the master bedroom and her 12-year-old daughter, Valerie Rivera, was in another bedroom. Soto’s son, John “J.J.” Borday Jr., 15, who suffered from muscular dystrophy and used a wheelchair, was found in the hallway. Police came to the sixth-floor apartment on North Portland Avenue after Soto’s adult daughter notified police about a foul odor.

Police said a bloody baseball bat was found inside the apartment.

It was unclear how long they had been dead, but neighbors said they had not seen the family since last Friday. A man who said he lent Soto a hammer before Thanksgiving said he had not seen her since. “Last week, I started calling and knocking,” Victor Vasquez, 53, said. She never answered.

Yesterday, relatives said they panicked when they were unable to reach Soto and the children, prompting Soto’s daughter to check up on them yesterday. “They were trying to call for a few days and nothing,” Soto’s ex-husband, Raphael Soto, 43, said. Mr. Soto said his daughter finally went to investigate yesterday morning, and ended up calling police.

Mr. Soto, who said he and his ex-wife split up two decades ago, said he and his children — the adult daughter who discovered the slain family, and an adult son who also suffers from muscular dystrophy — were distraught. “It’s the first time I’ve seen my son cry,” Mr. Soto, who appeared shaken, said. “I’ve never seen my son cry before … I never had a reason to.”

Yesterday, those who knew the family gave conflicting reports about the relationship between Viera and Soto, who were half-siblings and may have been romantically linked. However, they spared few niceties for Viera, whom they described as abrasive and combative. “I didn’t like him off the bat,” Mr. Soto said. “I told my ex-wife I didn’t trust that guy … to be careful.”

Neighbors echoed his concern, and said Viera was known in the neighborhood for taking drugs and for having an angry streak. “He loves fighting with people,” a neighbor, Carlos Solis, 21, said. A friend of Valerie Rivera said Viera hit her friend at least once, leaving red marks on her cheeks. “She hated Hector,” Carmen Tirado, 15, said. “J.J. hated him, too.”

Around 2 p.m. yesterday, investigators from the Medical Examiner’s office arrived to remove the bodies as neighbors watched in shock. “It hurts me because that’s my best friend,” Ms. Tirado said, just before Rivera’s body was wheeled out. As she watched the crime scene unfold, she said she had planned to burn CDs with Rivera that afternoon. “She was like a little sister to me,” she said.

Appearing outside the crime scene, City Council Member Letitia James, who represents parts of Brooklyn, offered few details of the police investigation, but said the scene in the family’s home was “gruesome.”

“It is unbelievable,” she said.


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