BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA – The oldest son of a man who murdered his two younger boys in front of their mother has said nothing appeared to be wrong as they discussed watching the Super Bowl together hours before the killings.
But on Saturday morning, police awoke 19-year-old Manny Zavala, drove him to a police station in Boynton Beach, Florida, and told him that his father had committed a grisly murder-suicide.
Isidro Zavala, 45, went to his estranged wife’s home in South Florida on Saturday around 1.50 a.m. and attacked his two sons Eduardo, 12, and Mario, 11.
When his wife Victoria Flores Zavala, 36, came across her husband strangling her sons, she pleaded with him to take her life instead – but he said he wanted her to suffer the loss.
Zavala, who then shot himself dead at the home, allegedly carried out the murders after his wife of 20 years served him divorce papers in October.
They were scheduled to go to court on Tuesday for a mediation hearing.
Now, amid the mourning for his two little brothers, Manny Zavala has said he had no idea of the extent of his father’s anguish – and said he would not hate his father for what he had done.
Manny, who did not live with either parent, explained to the Sun Sentinel that he had invited his father to watch the Super Bowl with him when they spoke on Friday.
‘There was no indication there was anything wrong,’ he said. ‘He said OK. I had no idea that’s the last time I would see him.’
He described his father, who set up a landscaping business after moving from Tamaulipas, Mexico, as a hard worker who was never angry and had never hurt his mother.
‘I don’t know what he was thinking,’ Manny said. ‘But he made a mistake, and I’ll never hold that against him.
‘Growing up, I had a lot of hatred, and my father tried to teach me not to carry that.
He did anything and everything for us. Until the end he loved me and my brothers very much.
He loved us to the very end.’
Zavala left two notes before carrying out the killings, and police have told Manny one is addressed to him.
He has not yet been allowed to read it but police have described it as ‘emotional’.
‘I expect an explanation of why he did the things that he did, his thoughts, his actions,’ Manny said. ‘
What could he say? Give me some encouraging words.’
He added that his mother was staying with family members and will probably not return to the home.
‘She is trying to stay strong for me,’ he said. ‘We just have each other now.’
He added that his father and brothers would be buried together.
Mrs Zavala, 36, was watching TV at around 1.50am on Saturday when she discovered her estranged husband choking one of her sons with a rope.
He also allegedly shot his youngest son several times at the home in Boynton Beach. One boy was found dead in a screened patio area, and the other was in the kitchen.
Mrs Zavala told authorities her husband said that she had been spared so she could suffer the loss of her children, according to police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater.
She was not injured. Officers found both boys dead at the scene, and they found Zavala, dressed all in black, dead with self-inflicted gunshot wounds in the chest and head.
Zavala’s roommate said he last saw his friend on Friday evening at their house, less than a mile away from the crime scene.
Mariano Batalla said that Zavala said he couldn’t attend a friend’s birthday party because ‘he had to do something important’.
Mr Batalla said he returned from the party around midnight and repeatedly tried to call Zavala, who never answered his phone.
Zavala’s truck remained parked in their driveway.
Police woke Batalla about 5 a.m. and told him what happened.
‘I feel so, so, so sad because he’s my best friend,’ Batalla said. ‘It’s a big surprise for me. He don’t tell me nothing about this.’
Children who live across the street say they last saw Mario several days ago when they were flying kites with another friend.
They remembered him playing in their backyard or playing video games, and they could not understand why Mario’s father would kill him.
Police said they had never visited the Zavalas’ home.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families said the agency also had no previous history with the family.
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