The odds are stacking up against Daron Dylon Wint, 34, a quadruple murder suspect who once worked for the company run by one of his murder victims. No one informed this Black man the ABC hit drama “How to Get Away With Murder” is fictitious. Who believes they can get away with holding a millionaire and his family hostage, demanding ransom and killing them in 2015? Wint was caught and arrested late Thursday night during a traffic stop, bringing to an end a manhunt that had reached New York.
He was one of America’s most wanted, literally, in the brutal murders of American Iron Works CEO Savvas Savopoulos, 46, his wife Amy, 47, their son Philip, 10, and their housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57, who were found after a blaze engulfed their home in Washington, D.C. on May 14. Three of the bodies were doused in gasoline and showed signs of torture. The $2 million mansion, which is vice president Joe Biden’s residence, was set on fire. The couple’s two teenage daughters were away at boarding school at the time. The family’s Porsche cabriolet was missing and $40,000 in cash dropped off the day prior by Savopoulos’ assistant was missing.
The U.S. Marshals hunted down this menacing murder suspect and located him at a Howard Johnson Inn hotel in Maryland. He was about to get away in a Chevrolet Cruze with two female passengers and following a fleet maintenance truck with other suspected accomplices — including Wint’s brother — and $10,000 cash.
A native of Guyana, Wint moved to the U.S. in 2000 at the age of 20 and settled in Maryland where he had family. In 2005, his father, Dennis Wint, took out a restraining order banning him from having contact with anyone in his immediate family because he threatened to shoot his father, and threatened his wife, Pamela, and sister, 8. Darrin sought a court order to ban Daron from the family’s home in Lanham, Maryland, one of the locations searched by police investigating the Savopoulos family murder.
The order also sought to keep Daron away from the elementary school and day care that his sister was attending.
Wint has a history of unlawful conduct, including other death threats, assault and malicious destruction of property. He enlisted in the Marines but didn’t make it through boot camp.
The Savopoulos family released this statement expressing their gratitude to authorities and the community:
“We are thankful to law enforcement who have worked so diligently to bring about an arrest in this case. ‘While it does not abate our pain, we hope that it begins to restore a sense of calm and security to our neighborhood and to our city. We are blessed to live in a community comprised of close circles of friends who have supported us and grieve with us. We are grateful, as well, to the men and women of the fire department for their professionalism and caring. Our family, and Vera’s family, have suffered unimaginable loss, and we ask for the time and space to grieve privately.”
Daily Mail and The Associated Press compiled this timeline of events, actions that wouldn’t even make an episode of “Law and Order: CI,” because the perpetrator would be caught mid-episode.
Wednesday, MAY 13
3 p.m.: Housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa is supposed to leave for the day, according to a second housekeeper, Nelitza Gutierrez.
5.30 p.m.: Amy Savopoulos calls her husband, telling him to come home to watch their 10-year-old son because she has plans, Gutierrez says.
9 p.m.: A Domino’s pizza deliveryman takes two pizzas to the home. Money has been left outside for him so he takes it and leaves the pizzas.
9.30 p.m.: Savvas Savopoulos calls Gutierrez’ phone and leaves her a flustered-sounding voicemail. She doesn’t notice it until the next morning. Though Savopoulos had indicated earlier that his wife was going out, in the voicemail he said she is sick in bed and another housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, is staying overnight. He also says in the voicemail that Figueroa’s cellphone is dead and the family doesn’t have a charger for it, which Gutierrez says is odd.
Thursday, MAY 14
Morning: At some point, Figueroa’s husband, Bernardo Alfaro, goes to the house and knocks on the door, but no one answers. While there, Alfaro told WJLA-TV that Savvas Savopoulos called his cellphone and told him that Amy had gone to the hospital and Figueroa had accompanied her.
‘My feeling was that somebody was inside,’ Alfaro said. He continued trying to call his wife and got no answer.
Also that morning, Savopoulos makes a flurry of phone calls, including to his bank. His assistant drops of $40,000 at the home.
9.30 a.m.: Gutierrez receives a text message from Amy Savopoulos’ cellphone saying ‘I am making sure you do not come today.’ Gutierrez says she calls Amy Savopoulos immediately, but the call goes to voicemail. She texts her and doesn’t get a response.
10.30 a.m.: The family’s 2008 blue Porsche 911 is last seen at the home, D.C. police Chief Cathy Lanier said. Later in the day, it is found torched in a parking lot in New Carrollton, Maryland, about 13 miles from the Savopoulos house.
1.30 p.m.: D.C. Fire and EMS responds to a call for a fire on Woodland Drive and find the bodies inside the home. They immediately suspect someone may have intentionally set the house on fire.
Wednesday, MAY 20
Police announce a suspect in the slayings: Daron Dylon Wint. He is identified after his DNA was found on a pizza crust at the scene.
Thursday, MAY 21
Police say Wint may be in Brooklyn, New York.
He and four others, including his brother, are found and stopped by police just before 11.30 p.m. on Route 1 in Northeast D.C.