Husband Charged In Escondido Officer's Murder

[Anthony]

Freddy Perez-Rodas is accused of killing his wife, who was an Escondido police officer. Charges were filed yesterday. The suspect is facing one count of murder and one count of arson, according to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

Police say the suspect allegedly placed her body in a storage locker and burned their home to cover up the crime.

Fire investigators responded and "it was determined to be an arson immediately," said Murrietta Police Lt. Tony Conrad.

Authorities learned it was the same address in connection to a missing person, 25-year-old Laura Perez.

Soon after that homicide investigators arrested Perez-Rodas who had reported the fire.
During questioning investigators said the suspect informed them that his wife had been shot in the chest three times and he transferred her body to a storage locker in Moreno Valley. Police said Perez-Rodas then led them to his wife's body. They also discovered a large amount of cash at the scene. Police also said they had found the weapon used in the alleged crime.

Perez-Rodas pleaded not guilty to all counts, and his bail was set at $2 million.
Prosecutors say Perez-Rodas may have used the money to avoid arrest and should be considered a flight risk. Because the suspect has family in Guatemala, the judge agreed, ordering the suspect be held on a $2 million bond.

Escondido Police Chief Craig Carter described Perez as "a wonderful officer who had a bright future."

"It's never an easy thing. We're going to be one day at a time, " Carter said. "I'm encouraging officers to remember we're here for the victim, which in this case is Laura." For every Laura, there's hundreds out there and we need to continue to do our job," Carter added.

Laura Perez joined the Escondido Police Department last October. The couple has a 4-year-old child who was not injured, police said.

Perez-Rodas is scheduled to be in court on August 15. He faces 50 to 100 years in prison if he is convicted on all charges.

 

[Muthoni]

The one who suffers the most in this case is the four year old child. Their world has turned over losing a mom and a soon to be absent dad. His father killed his mom; that will remain with him/her for the rest of their life. The human mind is very complex; what happens that a person kills the person they are supposed to share a life with?

 

[Riggy]

The first thing that came to mind after reading this was the child. He's going to have a very troubled childhood and early life after this. I have huge sympathy for someone like this. He'll never be able to understand why anything like this happened and he may even get anger issues. He needs to be taken into extreme care and counselling.