Burned alive…
Did someone order a murder?
Daron Wint and Savvas Savopoulos were two men who’d left their home countries with a shared destiny in mind.
Chasing the so-called American Dream, they’d made their way there, settling near Maryland.
But that was where the similarities for the two ended.
Savvas – from Greece – grasped the opportunities available, forging an empire with his company American Iron Works.
He settled down with his beautiful wife Amy, and the couple eventually moved with their three children – Katerina, 19, Abigail, 17 and Philip, 10 – into a stunning mansion.
The street was nicknamed Embassy Row for its grandness and host of elite residents, and their family home embodied the dream that’d brought Savvas from Greece.
But Daron’s life couldn’t have been in starker contrast.
From Guyana, after reaching the States he moved from job to job, always struggling to make ends meet. His relatives put him up. For two years, his path crossed with Savvas’, as he worked as a welder at American Iron Works.
When Daron was fired, he tried in vain to get his job back.
Again and again, he fought for it, but ultimately failed.
Although he’d found love and was engaged, his life was far from a fairytale.
Eventually turfed out of his relatives’ homes, he found himself bedding down in his minivan – and dreaming of a better tomorrow.
On 13 May 2015, the two men would cross paths again...
Savvas’ daughters were at boarding school and, on that day, son Philip came home from his school feeling poorly.
The young lad, a fan of Harry Potter, was no doubt sent to bed.
The family’s housekeeper Veralicia ‘Vera’ Figueroa, a kind and caring grandmother, watched over Philip while Savvas’ wife Amy nipped out to buy coffee.
But, when Amy returned, she was ambushed in her home, bound by a muscular man.
Upstairs, Philip and Vera had already been tied up.
The intruder wasn’t there by chance.
He knew exactly what he wanted, forcing Amy to call her husband and, without raising any alarm, summoning him home.
Savvas did as his wife asked, only to walk into a terrifying, waking nightmare. With Savvas’ family held hostage, the attacker demanded $40,000 (over £30,000). Savvas made the calls, asking for the cash to be dropped off at the house. That night, Amy made another call, ordering two pizzas, which were left on the doorstep. And, while the intruder enjoyed the food, a tragedy of epic proportions was starting to silently unfold... The next morning, Savvas’ assistant made the cashdrop to the family home. Hours later, flames engulfed the entire top floor. Windows shattered, black soot staining the previously pristine, white moulding on the roof. The house was a wreck. But far worse, once the fire was out, four bodies were
a tragedy started to silently unfold...
discovered inside – that of Savvas, Amy, Philip and Vera. They were badly burnt, but the wounds they’d suffered in their last moments of life were clear.
They’d been beaten, stabbed and strangled.
A bloodied baseball bat was found inside the house, a sword was missing from Savvas’ martial arts collection.
Amy had slashes to her throat and head.
Young Philip’s body had been burnt beyond recognition – and, tragically, a postmortem showed the young boy had been alive when he’d been doused in petrol and set alight.
The killer was on the run, having stolen the family’s Porsche.
The police at once launched a murder investigation.
With news of the missing vehicle linked on the police airwaves, the Porsche was quickly traced.
It’d been left abandoned and in flames nearby.
Detectives recovered a neon-green vest from inside the car and took DNA samples.
Back at the house, the same DNA was identified on a leftover pizza crust, and from a hair on a bed.
There were matching fingerprints on a knife in the basement, too.
All of these clues pointed to one man – Daron Wint.
Tracked down a week later, outside a hotel in Maryland, Wint was arrested.
He was charged with 20 crimes related to the deaths of Savvas Savopoulos, 45, his wife Amy, 47, their son Philip, 10, and their housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57.
Kidnapping. Extortion. Theft. Arson. Murder…
Meanwhile, the families of the victims were consumed with grief, two teenage daughters orphaned overnight.
In September 2018, the court heard how Daron Wint was a failed US Marine, turned out after just four weeks.
He’d been down on his luck for years, desperate for cash.
He’d had the motive to attack the family of his former employer.
The police had been quick to pinpoint him, their databases already holding his DNA from 39 previous brushes with the law. Now he’d been caught out by his DNA on the pizza slice.
The police had the right man, surely?
But Wint’s defence team argued that he had been set up to take the fall by relatives.
Taking the stand, Wint told the court his half-brother Darrell Wint had duped him into going into the house to do some DIY work.
After having the pizza, he’d apparently realised that Darrell planned to burgle the family, so he’d left.
The defence continued their account, suggesting that half-brother Darrell – and Daron’s other brother Steffon Wint – were the ones to carry out the murders.
Daron Wint, his lawyers claimed, was completely unaware of the killings unfolding on the second floor of the house.
They claimed there was no way Daron Wint could have broken into the house, restrained three adults alone – at one point fighting off Amy, who’d got her hands on the baseball bat – cut the home’s security system and set the house on fire. Darrell and Steffon Wint testified they had nothing to do with the killings.
The prosecution brought forward witnesses to testify against Daron Wint, also using his mobile phone activity to point to his guilt.
They told jurors that Daron Wint had run suspicious Internet searches after the killings: How to beat a lie detector test, 10 hideout cities for fugitives.
So was he guilty, or was his story about his family actually true..?
The police had the right man, surely?
After three days of deliberations, the jury returned a decisive verdict.
Daron Wint was convicted of four counts each of firstdegree murder while armed in the course of a kidnapping, firstdegree murder while armed in the course of a burglary, firstdegree premeditated murder while armed, kidnapping, firstdegree burglary, extortion, arson and first-degree theft.
Wint potentially faces life in prison without parole when sentenced in February 2019.