Prosecutor: Southie double-slay suspect knew luxe apt. layout
A former concierge armed with a combat-style knife, fake guns, duct tape and pliers used his inside knowledge of a luxury South Boston apartment building to reach the penthouse, where he bound and stabbed to death two prominent anesthesiologists engaged to be married, a prosecutor said yesterday.
Doctors Richard Field and Lina Bolanos died of “massive trauma” the night of May 5, in separate areas inside their $2 million home atop the Macallen Building in South Boston, according to John Pappas, chief trial counsel for the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office.
“Both individuals were bound ... apparently at various times by various means. They had both sustained massive trauma,” Pappas said at Bampumim Teixeira’s Superior Court arraignment on indictments charging him with first-degree murder, kidnapping by confinement, armed robbery and armed home invasion.
Before police even discovered the bodies in what Pappas would describe as “separate areas of the residence,” he said cops found a large carving knife, hair and blood next to Bolanos’ belongings on a kitchen counter.
Family and friends of the beloved physicians — among them, Field’s brother, sister-in-law and mother, and Bolanos’ godparents — clutched one another and wept as a seemingly carefree Teixeira, 30, pleaded not guilty to the charges and exchanged pleasantries with Suffolk Superior Clerk Magistrate Edward Curley.
“Good morning, Mr. Teixeira,” Curley addressed the grinning defendant.
“Hey, good morning, what’s up?” responded Teixeira, who remains held without bail.
Pappas later said of Teixeira, “To date, there is evidence clearly that he knew the building; no evidence to suggest that he had any kind of personal relationship with either of the victims.”
The prosecutor went into the most intricate details yet about how the couple was set upon sometime between 5 p.m., when Bolanos arrived home 90 minutes before her fiance, and 8:38 p.m., when police received their first 911 call from the Macallen Building that they might be in peril. Field, during the ordeal, managed to text a friend twice, pleading for help, Pappas said.
The prosecutor said Teixeira was briefly employed at the Macallen Building last year as a concierge. “His duties and responsibilities included having a level of familiarity with the entire building, including the parking garage,” he said.
Investigators suspect Teixeira snuck into the garage shortly before 4 p.m. the day of the murders, but “appeared to have been lurking around the building as early as 2:40 p.m.”
Alongside the penthouse was a stairwell that led down to the garage. Another door, which Pappas said was unlocked, accessed a utility room and had a peephole.
When responding police could get no one to answer the penthouse door, they gained entry using a set of keys they found lying in the hallway, Pappas said. “The lights were off and the interior was dark,” he said of the residence.
Two officers who encountered a gloved Teixeira inside, fearing he was armed, opened fire, striking him twice, Pappas said.
Next to another carving knife, he said investigators recovered a black string bag at the scene that Pappas said contained two replica handguns, a roll of duct tape, a mask, pliers, scissors, a tactical knife and more of Bolanos’ belongings.
“Duct tape was clearly used to bind both victims,” Pappas noted.
Bolanos, 38, was a pediatric anesthesiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. Field, 49, ran Beverly-based North Shore Pain Management.
The case returns to court Sept. 12 for a pretrial hearing. The trial is slated to take place no sooner than fall 2018.