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A man has been arrested and charged with murder after a 29-year-old woman and her two children were found shot to death Tuesday night at their home in Des Moines, Iowa, police said.
Officers were called to the home at around 11 p.m. where they discovered the bodies of Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez, her 11-year-old daughter, Grecia Daniela Alvarado-Flores, and her 5-year-old son, Ever Jose Mejia-Flores, authorities said.
All three victims sustained gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. An autopsy will determine the cause and manner of deaths, police said.
Marvin Oswaldo Esquivel-Lopez, 31, was arrested Wednesday and charged with three counts of first-degree murder, police said.
Investigators said Esquivel-Lopez and his wife and children shared the house with Flores-Rodriguez and her children.
Des Moines police spokesman Paul Parizek said the victims were renting the lower portion of the duplex from the suspect and his family, according to video from NBC affiliate WHO of Des Moines.
There was a dispute before the killings, and afterward Esquivel-Lopez called 911, police said.
"Everybody wants to know why. The community wants to know why this happened — particularly the two precious little kids," Parizek said. "The sad part is, we may never know why."
The man identified by police as Esquivel-Lopez is in the country illegally and his real name is Marvin Oswaldo Escobar-Orellana, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer said Escobar-Orellana is "a twice-removed illegal alien from Guatemala" who was deported from the United States in 2010 and 2011. He has a prior federal conviction for illegal entry into the U.S. in 2010, the spokesman said.
The suspect is being held without bail at the Polk County Jail, according to online jail records.
Neudauer said ICE deportation officers have filed an immigration detainer and administrative arrest warrant.
