MIAMI _ Arlety Garcia-Valdes didn't want her baby, who was only a week old, to get sick, as she was staying with relatives who were ill.
So, she took her newborn son to the home of Ernesto Caballeiro, the baby's father, and stayed with him there. Two days later, the police found Garcia-Valdes, her mother and grandmother all dead in Caballeiro's South Miami-Dade house. The newborn was missing.
Friday marks one month since the killings, which occurred Jan. 28 in the home at 21941 SW 187 Ave., or Redland Road, in South Miami-Dade. The four-bedroom house is in a semi-secluded area surrounded by palm trees.
"She went to die there," Reina Valdes, aunt of Garcia-Valdes, told el Nuevo Herald.
The family is trying to understand what motivated the murders. They still hope the baby, Andrew Caballeiro, is alive. They pray that if anyone has Andrew, they will take him to authorities.
The police have not revealed the motive behind the triple homicide, nor many details of what happened.
A frantic call from a family member led Miami-Dade police to the house. There, police found a gruesome scene: the bodies of Garcia-Valdes, 40, Isabel Valdes Gonzalez, 60, baby Andrew's grandmother, and Lina Gonzalez Licor, 84, his great-grandmother. All three had bullet wounds.
The three women were from Pueblo Nuevo, in the Villa Clara province of Cuba. Garcia-Valdes had arrived in the United States four years ago and Lina had lived in the country for a year and a half. It's not clear how long the grandmother lived here.
Although authorities are no longer actively looking for baby Andrew, the family is still hopeful.
Images from one of the four surveillance cameras outside the home showed Caballeiro, 48, arriving at his home around 10 a.m. that day, and leaving an hour later with an AR-15 and the baby, according to the police.
A day later, authorities found Caballeiro dead in Pasco County, near Tampa. The body was in a wooded area near his white Ford van, Florida license plate KUSK23. He had a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to authorities. They found no traces of the child.
Reina Valdes said her mother, Lina, had arrived at the house on Sunday, three days before the Tuesday murders. Reina's sister, Isabel, arrived Monday night after her daughter begged her to come over because she was feeling ill.
On Monday, Reina had a conversation with her niece Arlety, baby Andrew's mother: "She told me that she did not like being in Caballeiro's house because she did not like the area and she didn't like being away from her family."
"In short, the tragedy was going to happen because, I think _ nobody has said anything to us _ that day she told him that she was leaving (the house) and he did not accept it," Reina said.
Arlety and Caballeiro were separated, but he offered to help her during pregnancy. Arlety also was the mother of a 9-year-old girl; Caballeiro was not the father. The girl lives with her uncle, Arlety's brother, with whom Arlety had been staying.
Caballeiro's background
Sources close to the family said Caballeiro was not a violent person, and treated Arlety's grandmother as if she were his own mother, who lives in Cuba.
He has had run-ins with police, however.
In 2004, he was charged with a series of car thefts and managing a store that sold parts off stolen vehicles. He pleaded guilty to one charge and was granted parole, which ended in 2006, according to state records. He was also arrested and charged with aggravated assault and loitering, but both charges were later dismissed.
Caballeiro, who was born in Havana and has lived here for more than 20 years, owned Nesty School Services Co., which transported children to school. People who knew him for over 20 years said he had previously been in the car sales business.
In 2005, he bought the house where the triple homicide occurred. In 2009, lenders began foreclosure proceedings on the home, but Caballeiro obtained another loan and recovered it, according to county records.
Isaac Caballeiro, Ernesto Caballeiro's brother, has declined to comment on the case.
"I've already said I'm not talking to anyone," he said, hanging up the phone.
Police have not provided details about Caballeiro or what happened to his body, citing the investigation.
Reina Valdes still believes that someone has Andrew. It's why a month after his disappearance, she is speaking about the case.
"The family is hopeful because the work that the FBI and the police have done has been very extensive and there's no evidence that suggests that the child is dead," she said.
"If someone has the child, please, have mercy on the pain of the family _ a sister who is 9 years old who already lost her mother, grandmother and great grandmother _ and turn him in," she said.
The 9-year-old child was in her uncle's home on the day of the murders and "thanks to that she was saved." But she misses her mother very much, Reina said.
"If you do not want to identify yourself, give the baby somewhere where the family can communicate and hear about the child, such as at a fire station or a police station," she implored.
In the meantime, police are working on the case.
"Our detectives are still following all the leads they are receiving. We are working with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the FBI, but at this time there have been no changes in the investigation," Detective Angel Rodriguez of the Miami-Dade police department said.
When the police found Caballeiro's body, which was near the van, the baby was not in the van. Only a pacifier was inside the vehicle. Police tested the pacifier's DNA, but tests showed it didn't belong to baby Andrew.
Authorities began looking for the baby immediately after the murders, issuing an Amber Alert. When they did not find him with the father, they intensified the search and the FBI and Texas EquuSearch, a non-profit organization that investigates missing people, joined in.
Law enforcement agencies around the state plastered photos of the baby wrapped in a blanket. Authorities brought in police dogs, combed the areas on horseback and inspected the Everglades. Nothing.
"Time is not on our side," Tim Miller, the founder and director of Texas EquuSearch, told reporters. "We've got a tiny, tiny baby, and we know the animal, alligator activity and stuff could certainly hinder what we're doing."
When Andrew disappeared, he weighed just 7 pounds and measured 20 inches. The police offered a reward of $1,000, raising it to $8,000.
"Although we have not found the baby, the investigation of the case and the search for the child continues," said Rodriguez of the Miami-Dade police department. "Unfortunately, we have nothing new in the case. "
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