‘How do you begin to say goodbye?’: A 21-year-old Kansas man allegedly killed his parents and sister while a toddler and 2 teens were inside the home
A 21-year-old Kansas man is accused of shooting his parents and his sister to death inside their family home while three younger family members were in the house, according to Law&Crime. Juan Valenzuela-Silva was booked on suspicion of capital murder after the Wichita shooting, which police say left three people dead and a toddler and two teenagers unharmed.
Police say Sedgwick County Emergency Communications received a 911 call at 11:29 a.m. last Saturday from a caller who initially did not respond to dispatchers, then reported that people had been shot at a home in the 5000 block of East Blake Street in southeast Wichita. Officers found Juan Valenzuela-Ayala, 49, Brenda Silva-Cervantes, 40, and Daisy Valenzuela, 25, shot to death inside.
A 17-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl, and a two-year-old girl were also inside the home and were left unharmed, police said. The first priority for responding officers was getting the toddler and the two teenagers to safety, and the Wichita shooting was “an unimaginable tragedy for a family that lost three loved ones in a single act of violence,” Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan said in a statement.
Prosecutors say he now faces capital murder and child endangerment charges
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett announced on Wednesday that Valenzuela-Silva is charged with capital murder in the deaths of his father, mother, and sister, along with one count of aggravated child endangerment. The suspect is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail on a $100 million bond, and his first court appearance took place Wednesday afternoon.
As the suspect was not at the home when officers arrived, a search began in the hours after the Wichita shooting. Police determined he had left in a 2014 Infiniti QX60, and officers warned the public that he was armed and dangerous. Investigators entered the vehicle information into the Flock automated license plate reader system, which indicated the car was traveling south out of Wichita, possibly toward Oklahoma.
A Butler County deputy later located the vehicle with help from the Kansas Highway Patrol Air Support Unit, and deputies conducted a traffic stop south of Augusta on Saturday afternoon. Valenzuela-Silva was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on a bond of $100 million.
Police have not released a motive for the killings, saying only that they were tied to “a domestic incident.” However, the charges are accusations at this stage, and Valenzuela-Silva has not been convicted of anything in connection with the Wichita shooting, which means a court will ultimately decide what the evidence shows.
As Kansas law applies capital murder to the intentional and premeditated killing of more than one person as part of the same act or related transactions, the charging document accuses Valenzuela-Silva of exactly that. If convicted of capital murder, the 21-year-old could face the death penalty.
In Massachusetts, a 17-year-old was charged earlier this year in the Acton family double homicide after his mother and 14-year-old brother were found dead at their home. He faces two counts of murder and is being charged as an adult. Both that case and the Wichita shooting involve a son accused of killing relatives inside the family home.
A GoFundMe page created for the family’s funeral expenses asks, “How do you begin to say goodbye to three people you love at the same time?” The page says the family lost three lives in a single tragedy and describes a heartbreak that is “difficult to comprehend,” a message that has followed the Wichita shooting since the victims were identified.
As Kansas law gives prosecutors up to a week after an arraignment hearing to notify the court and the defense of a death penalty bid, a decision could become known soon after Valenzuela-Silva is arraigned.
