A Pennsylvania man has been charged with three murder counts after admitting he killed a man and his wife, then threw their 1-year-old baby facedown and still alive into a marshy pond to drown, Berks County prosecutors announced Monday.
Jose Luis Rodriguez, 61, was already jailed on one charge of first-degree murder and abuse of corpse after admitting he killed 31-year-old Junior Cabrera-Colon on Sept. 13 with a gunshot to the head.
On Monday, prosecutors added two more counts of first-degree murder and abuse of corpse after Rodriguez confessed to also killing Cabrera-Colon’s wife, 31-year-old Geraldina Peguero-Mancebo, and the couple’s son, 1-year-old Jeyden Junior Peguero, all because Peguero-Mancebo wouldn’t leave her husband.
Rodriguez had been a close family friend, Peguero-Mancebo’s cousin told local station WFMZ.
“I can’t imagine anything more horrifying than throwing that 1-year-old child into that pond of water and leaving him there to die,” Berks County District Attorney John Adams said at a press conference. “This was cruel. It was horrible. It was a different level. In reflection, it just makes me want to cry.”
The complex timeline began when patrolling police found Cabrera-Colon’s body at about 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 13 dumped in a park in Reading, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The investigation led to Rodriguez, who confessed on Sept. 18, alleging self-defense during an argument.
Investigators then learned that Peguero-Mancebo and Jeyden had been reported missing on Sept. 15. Police found the mother’s body on Sept. 19 in a grassy field in a remote section of Ontelaunee Township in Berks County, about 10 miles south of Reading. The next day authorities found her son’s body “partially submerged in a marshy area,” the Berks County Attorney General’s Office said in a statement. An autopsy revealed that his tiny lungs were full of mud.
“The defendant confirmed that Jeyden was alive when he threw him face-down into the muddy water,” Adams said Monday, adding that he’ll consider seeking the death penalty.
