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DA: Ecuadorian Man Wanted In Connection With Brockton Murders

BROCKTON (CBS) - Brockton investigators say the man they want to question for the double murder of a young mother and her 2-year-old son, who were his roommates and whose bodies were found in a dumpster outside their apartment Sunday, has flown to his native Ecuador.

They have charged another roommate, Aparicio Velencia De La Cruz, with misleading police on the whereabouts of the Ecuadorian man they want to question in the beating deaths of Maria Avelina Palaguachi-Cela and her son Brian, Luis Guaman. De La Cruz is being held on $50,000 cash bail.

Police say De La Cruz told them Guaman, who has several aliases and is wanted in New York on kidnapping charges and in Massachusetts for assault, had a heated argument with the victim last week then said he was going to New York.

WBZ-TV's Ron Sanders reports.

But investigators say De La Cruz told his girlfriend in Connecticut that he had seen plane tickets Guaman had for Ecuador.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said investigators learned that only two and a half hours after the bodies were found, Guaman flew out of JFK Airport to Ecuador, using an alias.

WBZ spoke briefly Wednesday afternoon with the mother's boyfriend and father of their child, Manuel Jesus Caguana through an interpreter. He told police he had been in Virginia working a construction job until Sunday night when he came home because he was worried about Maria and Brian. The district attorney says Caguana is cooperating and helping in the search for Luis Guaman.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz reports.

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"We're going to use everything that we can use and deal with all the appropriate agencies and countries and people in between to get justice for this little boy and this woman because that's what they're entitled to," vowed Cruz.

The district attorney said although Ecuador does not have an extradition agreement with the U.S., federal agencies including the F.B.I. are working with state and local investigators to solve the murders.

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