61-Year-Old Sugar Daddy Killed 32-Year-Old Woman ‘Because She Did Not Want to Leave Her Husband,’ Then Threw Her Baby In a Lake, Cops Say
A 61-year-old man is accused of murdering a 32-year-old woman and throwing her baby into a marshy lake after she refused to leave her husband for him.
Jose Rodriguez, 61, faces first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Geraldina Peguero-Mancebo and her 1-year-old son, Jayden Junior Peguero.
Authorities located Peguero-Mancebo’s body in a grassy field on September 19 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Her child’s body was found the next day in a nearby marsh. Both were reported missing a week before their bodies were found.
According to a criminal complaint cited by Law&Crime, Rodriguez told detectives he and Peguero-Mancebo were in an “intimate relationship” and that he “provided money” for her, including money to pay her rent.
“The defendant indicated to detectives that he was infuriated because he said that Geraldina was taking his money, and he admitted that he shot Geraldina in the back of the head,” Berks County District Attorney John Adams said at a press conference.
On September 12, the day of the alleged murders, authorities say Peguero-Mancebo was seen that evening getting into a white SUV that was registered to Rodriguez. She was reportedly carrying young Jayden in her arms when she got into the back seat.
Using cellphone data, investigators tracked her movements to a location where Rodriguez confessed he planned to kill her.
Rodriguez told police that he fatally shot Peguero-Mancebo in the head “because she did not want to leave her husband,” and then drove to a field where he dumped her body.
He said he thought about taking Jayden to a hospital, but decided against it “for fear of getting caught.” He confessed that he “drove Jayden down the street and threw him in a lake.”
Prosecutors said Rodriguez confirmed the baby “was alive when he threw him face-down in the muddy water.”
“He was partially submerged in think mud and water in an allege covered, stagnant body of water approximately 15 feet from the shoreline,” Adams said.
Autopsy results corroborate the statements, revealing that “[m]ud was present in the lungs, indicating that Jayden was alive at the time of submersion.”
Authorities say Peguero-Mancebo’s husband, 32-year-old Junior Cabrera-Colon, was killed after his wife and child. Cabrera-Colon was found dead on Sept. 13 with a gunshot wound to his head. Rodriguez also confessed to killing him, then dumping his body on a roadside, according to detectives.
The 61-year-old also told police he stashed the murder weapon underneath the porch of someone else’s home. The 9 mm handgun was reported as “lost in shipping” by UPS in June.
Rodriguez was jailed without bond. He currently faces three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of third-degree murder, two counts of abuse of a corpse, two counts of possession of an instrument of crime, tampering with evidence, and carrying a firearm without a license.
Adams said his office is considering filing a motion to seek the death penalty in the case, but no decision on that front has been made yet.
According to a GoFundMe, Peguero-Mancebo and Cabrera-Colon left behind three children, ages 13, 10, and 8, who are all currently studying in the Dominican Republic. The fundraiser was organized to pay for burial expenses and financial support for the now-orphaned children.