A University of Alabama student, her friend and a dog were found dead inside an Alabama home where the pair had been pet-sitting, after the homeowner noticed a suspicious person in her yard through security camera footage.
Jazmine Alexis Bates, 22, and Jose Felix Alvarez-Duenas, 31, were allegedly killed Monday in Brookwood, Ala., by De’Kendrick Crawford, 24, according to WIAT.
Authorities discovered the victims after officers responded to the home, located east of Tuscaloosa, for a welfare check. Concerns grew when Alvarez-Duenas, who worked at a restaurant, failed to respond to phone calls and text messages.
Alvarez-Duenas, a single father of three, had been caring for a co-worker’s dog while she was traveling outside the United States. The homeowner reportedly became alarmed when she could not reach him.
Her concern deepened after she reviewed her home security cameras and saw a suspicious individual on her back porch.
When police arrived at the residence, they found Bates, Alvarez-Duenas and the dog dead inside.
“Immediately upon opening the front door, there was a deceased male lying on the floor that was identified as the person that was house-sitting for her,” Jack Kennedy of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit told reporters Tuesday, according to the station.
Investigators then searched the home and found Bates, a Chicago native who worked with Alvarez-Duenas at Buffalo Phil’s Wings.
“Upon clearing the residence, they were able to find a second deceased individual, a female,” Kennedy said. “She was in the back bedroom in a closet.”
Bates, a business administration and management student, was just five months away from graduating.
Crawford bolted to a relative’s apartment in Northport – around 22 miles from Brookwood – and was arrested 10 hours after the restaurant staffers’ bodies were found.
Crawford was caught hiding in the home’s attic.
“After four hours of tactical operations including drones, tear gas, walls and doors being breached and attics being searched with K-9s, yeah, he never gave up. He cared more about himself than the victims,” Kennedy blasted.
Cops were mystified why the two restaurant workers were targeted as the motive behind the shooting is unknown.
“We don’t know why he targeted them,” Kennedy said.
“They were not doing anything wrong. They had done nothing wrong to him. None of his acquaintances know why this occurred.
“Nothing in our investigation has found that these victims in any way contributed to this; the motive is unknown.”
But the homeowner knew the victims as well as Crawford through work, Kennedy said.
Crawford was charged with capital murder of two or more persons – an offense that carries a sentence of death or life imprisonment in Alabama.
Tributes were paid to the two restaurant workers after the tragedy.
“He was the best dad to those babies, always putting their needs first and making sure they felt loved and safe,” Alvarez-Duenas’ friends and family said in a fundraiser.
“He was also the best friend to many, a wonderful son, and a caring brother to his six sisters.
“Felix never met a stranger and would help anyone in any way he could, always offering a hand or a kind word to those in need.”
Juana Gutierrez Salas, Alvarez-Duenas’ sister, told WBMA, “He was always there for anyone however he could be. He was a charismatic light. He was so full of life and love.”
“To know Felix was to love him! He wasn’t easily forgettable. He had a passion for life. He was dependable, responsible, thoughtful and fun to be around.”
The restaurant said Alvarez-Duenas was “one of the hardest-working people you could ever meet” and said Bates “had a bubbly personality that could light up a room.”
“She had so much life ahead of her and her loss is truly heartbreaking,” it said.
