911 calls deepen mystery in deaths of five

Family member was frantic over missing women, children

In early January, Murphy Becenti frantically called police again and again, crying and tripping over his words to say he was afraid his girlfriend, Vanessa George, was going to hurt herself and their two young daughters.

A few days later, on Jan. 8, investigators began discovering their bodies, along with those of Vanessa’s sister Leticia George and her young daughter, in a rugged area of the Santa Ana Pueblo.

The FBI hasn’t said what happened to the sisters and their children, only that their deaths don’t appear to be the result of foul play by a third party. A spokesman said preliminary autopsy results came back without a clear cause of death.

But 911 calls made to the Albuquerque Police Department by Becenti, 34, as well as his mother and the mother of the George sisters, give a glimpse into what might have happened before the sisters disappeared. It’s unclear exactly when those calls were made.

Both Becenti and Vanessa’s mother said she sounded suicidal. And Becenti said Vanessa, 25, called him and threatened to hurt their children.

Then, he said, Vanessa took her daughters — 4-year-old Zoe and 1-year-old Chloe — and her sister Leticia, 20, and Leticia’s daughter, 3-year-old Haliegh Toledo, to the mountains for a ritual cleansing. He said he went with her because he was afraid she would kill herself and he wanted to protect his two daughters.

“They brought me with no jacket,” Becenti said.

“They were trying to kill me I think to sacrifice. She was chanting for two days in some foreign tongue.”

He told the dispatcher Vanessa drove away in his truck with her sister and the children, leaving him stranded in the mountains with no jacket. It’s unclear exactly where he was.

Becenti said he called a cousin and was able to get a ride to Rio Rancho, where he called 911.

As Becenti pleads with dispatchers and officers to try to find his children, it’s hard for them to figure out what he is saying happened.

Officers tried to track the sisters using their cellphones, while others responded to Vanessa’s home, finding they had left behind all their belongings, including their cellphones.

Becenti said he was worried about his daughters because they weren’t wearing jackets or shoes and the sisters said they couldn’t eat until after the ritual.