Mother hangs her children and herself

[Steven Snyder]

From the Fort Worth Star Telegram

Struggling to understand a tragedy
By Deanna Boyd, Melody Mcdonald and Martha Deller
Star-Telegram staff writer

This mobile home near Hudson Oaks is where Berta Estrada and her children were found Tuesday. School officials called the neighborhood close-knit. Estrada's sister lives across the street.
This mobile home near Hudson Oaks is where Berta Estrada and her children were found Tuesday. School officials called the neighborhood close-knit. Estrada's sister lives across the street.

PARKER COUNTY -- It was the crying and gurgling of her baby niece that caught her attention.

Alejandra Estrada had forced her way into her sister's mobile home about 6:20 a.m. Tuesday after receiving a phone call that Gilberta "Berta" Estrada, 25, hadn't shown up at her job at a Wendy's in Weatherford.

Maybe she had overslept, Alejandra Estrada reasoned.

The sound drew her to a makeshift closet in the master bedroom.

At first, she spotted only her sister's feet on the floor. Looking closer, she saw that her sister and her sister's four daughters -- ages 8 months, 21 months, 3, and 5 -- were hanging from their necks, suspended by clothing attached to a clothes rack made from two-by-three lumber.

"I opened the door and saw all of them dead," Alejandra Estrada said.

Only 8-month-old Evelyn Frayre, who was hanging by the sleeve of a sweater, was still alive.

Taken down by her aunt, the baby was airlifted to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth and was listed in good condition Tuesday. She was being kept overnight for observation.

Evelyn's mother and older sisters -- Maria Estrada, 5; Yaneth "Janet" Frayre, 3; and Magaly Frayre, 21 months -- were pronounced dead at the home.

"It's sad. They were a part of my life," an anguished Alejandra Estrada told reporters gathered at the Oak Hill Mobile Home Park on Tuesday afternoon. She said she would seek custody of Evelyn.

Though there was no suicide note and autopsy results are pending, investigators said it initially appears that the young mother hanged the children and herself. Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said investigators had not uncovered a motive.

"It's absolute shock, dismay, disbelief," Fowler said of the officers' feelings at the scene. "It is horrendous."

Problems at home

Friends and family said Berta Estrada had been under financial distress, and court records painted a picture of domestic problems between her and Gregorio Frayre Rodriguez. The records refer to the couple as "common law man and wife."

Berta Estrada had filed a restraining order against Frayre last summer, citing physical abuse, including threatening her with a knife, assaulting her, forcing her to have sex and trying to strangle her. In a lawsuit she later filed in Tarrant County, she asked the court to prohibit Frayre from having access to Evelyn, Magaly and Yaneth Frayre, identified in court documents as his children. The judge, however, granted him supervised visits.

Frayre could not be reached for comment.

In court documents, he listed only a work phone number. A man who answered that number late Tuesday said Frayre worked "off and on" for him at a Parker County construction company. But he declined to identify himself or his company and was not willing to provide contact information for Frayre.

The identity of the older girl's father was unclear Tuesday.

Alejandra Estrada said her sister had come to the United States from Mexico about five years ago on a work permit. She said her sister worked hard to support her family but struggled financially. Berta Estrada had repeatedly tried to get Medicaid and other financial assistance but had been turned down because authorities believed, erroneously, that she was receiving child support, Alejandra Estrada said.

Though Fowler said at least one relative told investigators that Berta Estrada had recently been depressed, Alejandra Estrada and the children's godmother, Filly Echeverria, disputed that.

"She doesn't have any problems. She never took pills or something like that. She always gives us a smile. She'd always be an optimist," Echeverria said. "I don't know what happened in there."

Others said they thought personal problems were taking an emotional toll on the woman.

Maria Martinez, 48, said she cleaned houses with Berta Estrada in nearby Willow Park. Martinez said Berta Estrada had confided that she had been having problems with her estranged husband and that he was trying to get custody of the children.

"We noticed her to be sad, but we didn't realize the magnitude of her sadness," Martinez said.

'She could have stopped'

Fowler said the bodies were found in a makeshift closet, about 10 feet long, and that they were hanging from a two-by-three being used as a clothes rack. He said the children were in a row, with the mother on one end.

"It appears that some of the clothing had been removed from the stick ... and laid on the bed," Fowler said. "I would assume that is in preparation for this act."

The mother's feet were touching the floor, indicating to investigators that she had intentionally bent her legs when hanging herself.

"She could have stopped this at any time. Her feet were on the floor," Fowler said.

A steady rain covered the area as grieving friends and family, some weeping, arrived and later gathered outside Alejandra Estrada's mobile home. Across the street, at her sister's white and brown mobile home, bikes, a swing set and a teddy bear littered the back yard where the girls used to play.

Maria Estrada attended Coder Elementary School in Aledo. Aledo schools are still in session.

Because the girl's classmates are so young, school officials did not inform them of her death but notified parents so that they could do so, Aledo Superintendent Don Daniel said.

However, district counselors will be on hand Wednesday to help Maria's classmates, as well as other neighborhood children who may have known her or her family, he said.

"Most of the parents we notified were aware because they live in a close-knit neighborhood," Daniel said. "We felt it was best that the parents notify the children."

He said Coder Principal Jason Beaty held a staff meeting Tuesday to prepare the staff to help their children cope.

"They were all in shock this morning," he said. "I don't know whether they're emotionally ready to discuss it yet. Mr. Beaty was quite distraught this morning, as was the whole staff."

Beaty said Maria's teacher was also grieving.

"My teacher put her heart and soul into helping our student and sharing her triumphs," he said. "All of our thoughts and prayers are with the family. Something like this is hard to fathom."

Chilling parallels

The scene also attracted other bystanders, including employees of Mary Martin Elementary School in Weatherford.

One first-grade teacher noted that Hudson Oaks suffered a similar tragedy in July 2002 when Dee Etta Perez, 39, fatally shot her 10- and 9-year-old sons and a 4-year-old daughter before taking her own life. She also severely wounded her husband, Manuel "Manny" Perez.

The teacher, who declined to give her name, said she taught the Perez children.

"I hate summer," she said. "There's always so many children that have such family problems. These parents can't cope in the summer."

Brett Ross, 22, said he lives a few doors down from the mother and her daughters, but he didn't really know them.

"I don't really know what to think right now because I don't know exactly what happened," he said. "But, anything like this that happens, when there is a woman and kids involved, it's obviously disturbing.

"It's quite upsetting."

Staff writers Bill Miller and Elizabeth Campbell and correspondents Gale Bradford and Jay Torres contributed to this report.

FAMILY TROUBLES

Gilberta "Berta" Estrada was involved in two lawsuits with her estranged husband, Gregorio Frayre Rodriguez, in the last nine months. Last August, Estrada obtained a protective order against Frayre, identified in Parker County court documents at that time as the father of her two then-youngest children, Yaneth and Magaly Frayre.

Estrada alleged that Frayre had abused her periodically since they began living together in August 2003, according to documents. Among the abuse, she alleged that Frayre threatened to kill her with a knife in February 2004; tried to strangle her in December 2005 and forced her to have sex in January 2006. In June 2006, Estrada alleged that he tried to strike her then-4-year-old daughter. When she tried to intervene, she said, he kicked her and ripped the telephone cord from the wall.

Estrada said Frayre left before police arrived but had tried to find her and her children numerous times, leading her to seek the protective order that was granted by Parker County Judge Don Crestman. Frayre did not attend the court hearing that led to a two-year order prohibiting him from contact with Estrada or her children.

The order also prohibited Frayre from possessing a firearm. The order was to remain in effect until August 2008.

CPS not called

Although Estrada alleged that Frayre abused or tried to abuse her children, no reports were made to Child Protective Services, which never investigated the family, spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales said.

Gonzales said no decision has been made about the custody of the surviving baby, who remains in the hospital.

"There's a possibility she will come into state custody, but we will try to look at family members as options," she said. "Obviously, we'd look for the safest place for the child."

Custody suit

In January, the Texas attorney general's office sued Frayre to establish paternity of Estrada's then-4-month-old baby, Evelyn. The Parker County paternity petition, an effort to seek child support payments from Frayre, was dismissed in April when the attorney general intervened in a lawsuit Estrada had filed previously in Tarrant County, according to a spokeswoman for the attorney general's child support division.

In the Tarrant County suit, filed a week after Evelyn's birth in September, Estrada cites Frayre's violent history in asking the court to award her sole custody of her three youngest children. She was represented by an attorney for SafeHaven Tarrant County, a domestic-violence shelter she listed as her residence when she filed the suit in September.

In a temporary order signed last November, Estrada retained sole custody. Frayre was ordered to pay $300 in monthly child support plus medical and health coverage for the three children. The order allowed him to have supervised visits with the children the first, third and fifth weekends of the month.

Frayre, who represented himself in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

-- Martha Deller

[Steven Snyder]

I tried to come up with something insightful to say about this, but I just can't. Domestic violence, custody fights, and now an entire family gone except for an infant.

[Shroom Man 777]

She was young and already had four kids, lived in a trailer home. 'course she wouldn't be a paragon of mental health, and crap like this happening isn't really that surprising.