Police in Worcester, Massachusetts, are continuing to search for a person of interest in a stabbing that killed a mother and daughter over the weekend.
The man being sought, identified as 59-year-old William Rodriguez, previously served prison time for fatally stabbing his wife in 2004, the Worcester County District Attorney's Office said Monday.
Two women were found stabbed to death Saturday afternoon in Rodriguez's apartment complex just off Main Street, Worcester police said. They were identified by family members as 58-year-old Ana Maria Martinez and 76-year-old Sergia Acosta.
The women had multiple puncture wounds when they were found inside Acosta's home.
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Members of the victims' family said Rodriguez wanted to be in a relationship with Martinez and became angry when she refused. They said Acosta died helping her fight off her attacker. Police did not confirm those details, saying only that it is being investigated as a domestic incident.
“I think this man is very dangerous,” said Genesis Barrios, the granddaughter of Acosta and niece of Martinez. “I honestly think he’s capable of killing someone else if they don’t catch this man soon.”
Berrios says her aunt had a budding friendship with Rodriguez. The family had no idea he was convicted of killing his wife in 2004 and was paroled in 2019.
Prosecutors confirmed Monday that Rodriguez "is the same person who pled guilty to manslaughter" in October of 2007.
The Telegram & Gazette reported at the time that he had initially been charged with first-degree murder in the 2004 stabbing death of 34-year-old Carmen Rodriguez, his estranged wife.
The victim had filed a restraining order against her husband, according to the newspaper, alleging that he had threatened to kill her because she didn't want to be with him. She was killed 12 days later in the kitchen of the Beechwood Hotel in Worcester, where they both worked.
The district attorney's office said Monday that Rodriguez had been released on parole on June 7, 2019.
Berrios says he never should have been let out of prison.
“The story would be different right now and my grandma and my aunt would be alive and would not be dead if he still would have been in there in prison,” she said.
Berrios says she believes her aunt may have tried to end things with Rodriguez when she learned he was a convicted felon.
“I think someone warned her and she probably looked it up and that’s when she said ‘Oh I can’t be talking to this man anymore’,” said Berrios.
Investigators have not said if they have any leads on where Rodriguez could be. He’s considered a person of interest -- not a suspect -- in the weekend's stabbing deaths at this point.
Rodriguez "should be considered armed and dangerous," police warned. Anyone with information about his whereabouts should call the Worcester Police Department at 508-799-8651.
Rodriguez is described as being 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 180 pounds, with gray hair and brown eyes.
