a1902: Questions linger over '97 killings (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Questions linger over '97 killings

By Tanya Weinberg, Vicky Agnew
and Thomas Monnay Staff Writers
Posted April 28 2002

MIRAMAR · For the first time since two babies, their mother and grandmother
were beaten, shot, and stabbed to death five years ago, relatives will not
mark the April 30 anniversary with a prayer service outside the house where
the family lived and died.

The vicious crimes in The Knolls development have not been solved, nor have
relatives stopped their prayers for the dead and for justice. But this year
the priest and relative who led the services will be in Haiti, and other
family members will stay scattered around the United States.

The only South Florida resident, Carline Pierre, will take flowers to the
North Miami-Dade cemetery where her sister, Marie Carmel Altidor, 29, and
nieces, infant Sabrina Altidor and toddler Samantha Altidor, are buried. Her
mother, Theresia Laverne, 68, is buried in Haiti, where she lived before
coming to help care for newborn Sabrina.

Police say George Altidor, 38, the father, husband, and son-in-law to the
victims, remains the only suspect. Police have never gathered enough
evidence to make an arrest, and recently an anonymous donor withdrew a
$15,000 reward offer.

Once a plant manager for a Hialeah air conditioner manufacturer and
part-time real estate agent, Altidor is married for the third time and
studying in Oklahoma to become a Baptist minister.

As a child in Haiti, George Altidor took religion and school life seriously,
according to Marie Carmel's relatives. In South Florida, he was a member of
the Haitian Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami.

Altidor divorced his first wife, Yanick Dolcine, with whom he has a son, in
September 1991. He and Marie Carmel, whom he married in February 1994, knew
his current wife, Florence Daudin, through their church.

The latest marriage has left his second wife's family disturbed and in
disbelief.

"When I learned he remarried, I was speechless," Pierre said. "Everybody was
shocked. It hurts to see George is done with grieving while everybody else
is still mourning."

She said Altidor's current wife, whom he married last year, often visited
her sister's home. Altidor also spent time in Daudin's Miramar home on
Knolls Road, she said, telling his wife he was fixing her air conditioning.

"She knew everything about us. She was crying with us when the murders took
place," Pierre said. "Oh, my God. I've heard they had a very nice wedding."

Police said Altidor told them he was at Daudin's house the night before the
murders, fixing the air conditioning.

"This case is always on my mind, and more so the past two weeks," said
Miramar Police Detective Ron Peluso.

Altidor's attorney said Altidor and his new wife were not involved before
the murders, and they would likely move back to South Florida after Altidor
finishes seminary school.

"He's always been a very religious person and this event in his life, in
large part, drew him to pursue it more seriously," said Richard J. Diaz.

Pierre has become the plaintiff in a 1999 civil lawsuit accusing Altidor of
negligence and intentional homicide. Pierre's father, the original
plaintiff, has had surgery for a heart condition that worsened after the
murders. He lives with relatives in Boston, where doctors operated on him to
remove cancer from his stomach. He's been wearing a pacemaker since he
collapsed when told of the murders in 1997.

Another outstanding lawsuit involves the $120,000 in life insurance Altidor
tried to claim after the deaths of his wife and daughters. Because Marie
Carmel's family has also sought the claim, the insurance company filed an
action to put the money into the court's custody.

Meanwhile, Pierre's lawsuit has achieved little in getting Altidor to
provide more information since he gave police one eight-hour interview the
day after the murders. The attorney representing Pierre, John Thomas Getz,
did not return numerous phone calls.

On his attorney's advice, Altidor has declined to give depositions or answer
written questions relating to the murders. Diaz says his client has used his
Fifth Amendment protection to prevent police from twisting any statements.

Diaz says his client stopped cooperating with police because they
interrogated a then-lawyerless Altidor, using "Gestapo tactics" like
throwing cups of water at him.

Peluso, who's been in charge of the investigation for the Miramar Police
Department, denies that.

"No. 1, we acted in a professional manner. No. 2, I invited the two of them
to come in, with the attorney there to monitor all the questions. And they
have still refused," Peluso said.

Peluso questions why Altidor has not expressed interest in catching the
killer. Diaz says his client provided police with the only lead he could
think of, a letter that could be interpreted as threatening. Peluso says it
was nothing more than a letter of condolence from Altidor's
ex-brother-in-law.

"We followed up on various leads, but we continued to turn back in George's
direction," Peluso said.

Police found no evidence of forced entry into the home, or that anything was
stolen. On the wall someone had written, "I want my $100,000 drug money.
They stole my drugs." But investigators ruled out drugs, and other motives
such as Haitian politics, random violence, and revenge.

"There was a lot of rage in those killings, which is not indicative of a
home-invasion robbery," Peluso said.

Five years ago, George Altidor called his brother-in-law, said he was
worried he couldn't reach anyone at home, and asked that Rochener Seraphin
check in on his family.

Inside the cream-colored house at a bend on Crescent Drive, Seraphin found a
stunning scene. In the dining room, Marie Carmel lay beaten, stabbed and
shot, her mother shot and beaten. In her bassinet, 6-week-old Sabrina lay
still, beaten to death. In the family room, 2-year-old Samantha's beaten,
lifeless body was crouched between furniture like she was trying to hide.

Many neighbors now refuse to discuss the murders that once shattered the
easy neighborly atmosphere of their quiet street. Some pointed out that the
killer is still at large, others said they were just trying to forget.

A few neighbors expressed appreciation that the firefighter who briefly
lived in the former Altidor home after buying it in 1999 had fixed it up,
changed its landscaping, and painted it a new peach color. People stopped
avoiding walking by the once overgrown yard and started acting neighborly
again.

"The thing that was really rewarding for me was I saw a difference in the
neighborhood," said David Lawyer, a Miami-Dade firefighter. "It was so
strange when I first moved there. You didn't see people in the street, in
the yard. You just saw people getting out of their cars and go into their
houses."

When Lawyer found out about the murders after buying the place he considered
moving and suing because he had not been notified of the crimes. But as he
transformed the house, he grew to feel comfortable there. Some friends and
relatives, however, did not share his ease.

"There was just a little apprehension that made things uncomfortable," he
said.

So the second time a real estate agent friend approached him with a seller,
he accepted. Johndale Carty, a defensive back for the Atlanta Falcons
professional football team, bought the house two years ago. His sister and
niece live there, as does he when in Florida.

As neighborhood memories of the killings fade, and the hope for new leads
dwindles, another of Marie Carmel Altidor's sisters worries police will
close the case before relatives get the answers that could bring them some
peace.

"We hope one day, we'll know who did it and why," said Marlene Rene, who
lives in California. "We don't know who killed those four people and why
they did it. That's what we would like to know. ... God will answer our
prayers."

Tanya Weinberg can be reached at tweinberg@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7923.





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