Police on nationwide search for suspect in D.C. family slaying

Police and federal agents searched Thursday for a welder suspected in the slayings of a wealthy construction executive, his wife, their 10-year-old son and a housekeeper inside their Washington mansion last week.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said “just about every law enforcement officer across the country” is on the lookout for Daron Dylon Wint, 34, a native of Guyana and former Marine now wanted on charges of first-degree murder in the killings of his former employer, Savvas Savopoulos.

Investigators were questioning Wint’s girlfriend in Brooklyn, but his whereabouts remained unclear, according to two law enforcement officials.

Another housekeeper said she believes that the family and their housekeeper were held captive for nearly a day before they were killed, citing an unusual voice mail she got from Savopoulos and a text message sent from the phone of his wife, Amy, 47, telling her not to come to the house.

Also slain before the house was set on fire was the couple’s 10-yearold son, Philip, and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa. Figueroa usually left work around 3 p.m., which led the sur- viving housekeeper, Nelitza Gutierrez, to suspect that an intruder already had her under control before then on May 13.

“Right now, it does not appear that this was a random crime,” Lanier said.

The police chief did not discuss any possible motives and repeatedly declined to describe any evidence.

However, The Washington Post reported that Savopoulos’s personal assistant dropped off a package containing $40,000 in cash at the home the morning of May 14 after a flurry of phone calls between Savopoulos, a bank, an accountant, the personal assistant and his company.