A migrant from the Dominican Republic who is suspected of entering the U.S. illegally and getting a fake ID is now being accused of murdering a New York family in their home.
Newsweek reported recently that authorities discovered the bodies of two children and two adults inside of a home that was burning in Irondequoit, a town near Rochester, New York. The bodies were discovered on August 31, but it took authorities nearly two days to fully assess the crime scene and identify the people who were killed.
Emergency responders declared that four people died in the home. That includes 2-year-old Sebastian Ubaldo-Moreno, 4-year-old Evangeline Ubaldo-Moreno, 26-year-old Marangely Moreno-Santiago and 30-year-old Fraime Ubaldo.
At a September 2 press conference, Scott Peters, the police chief of Irondequoit, said:
“This was a horrific scene. In almost 32 years of doing this job, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Last Friday, the Irondequoit Police Department announced that it arrested and charged 34-year-old Julio Cesar Pimentel Soriano on September 7. He is facing four counts of first-degree murder.
The man, who is of Dominican descent, is believed to have first entered the U.S. through Puerto Rico. While he was there illegally, authorities said he was able to obtain a fake state ID for New York, which then allowed him to gain easier access to the U.S. mainland.
In addition to being an illegal immigrant who is now being accused of murdering a family of four in the U.S., Soriano is also wanted for a murder he allegedly committed in 2019 in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic National Police list him as a fugitive.
Peters further said that, on September 2, they were only able to release limited information about how the family died. In the time after, he said that Soriano allegedly started multiple fires in the home to try to cover up the deaths of the four family members.
As the chief said:
“When you murder innocent children, there is no excuse for it.”
Peters further said he wasn’t able to say whether the attack was random or targeted. However, he did say that the family’s home was on a quiet street where not many problems have been reported.
Crews arrived only a few minutes after the initial call for a house fire came into authorities around 5:20 a.m.
Shane Metcalfe, the fire chief, explained:
“Firefighters immediately began to search. They started where we would most likely find victims in a house fire — in bedrooms, sleeping presumably. They searched the second floor, searched the first floor and found some different fires throughout the building and ultimately found the deceased victims in the basement.”
Last Friday, police officials said they still were being limited by what they were able to say about the case, as the investigation was still ongoing.
Since Soriano is an illegal immigrant, it’s possible that federal authorities could get involved in the case.
