Police in Texas are investigating two fatal domestic violence cases involving Filipinas on the same day.
The body of Alyssa Marie Mejia Rogers, 24, was found in a freezer at her home in Fort Worth, Texas on July 29.
Her husband, Edward Rogers Jr., 66, even reportedly showed off the corpse of his dead wife to a friend. Rogers claimed that his wife had hit her head during a struggle.
Rogers later called around to relatives on Monday and confessed to the crime and to storing the slain woman’s body several days earlier, family members said.
“She was in the freezer for eight days,” Rogers’ former mother-in-law from a previous marriage, Jackie Lee, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
After making the calls, in which he apologized for what he’d done, Rogers then shot himself to death, according to police reports.
The couple had been married only two years after corresponding online. They were undergoing divorce proceedings.
Earlier, Alyssa, who came from the Philippines, reportedly complained of domestic abuse — something her husband denied.
Edward Rogers was in fact arrested because of Alyssa’s claims — and a protective order was filed against him.
Later in the day, a few miles away at the ZaZa Hotel in Dallas, a 911 call was made at 10:19 p.m. about a possible drug overdose.
Firefighers and EMT personnel arrived within minutes. They knocked on the door but no one answered. Even though they could hear screaming and scuffling inside the hotel room, per local standing operating procedure, they could not enter the room until police arrived in case of violence.
Police finally arrive at 11:32 p.m. and entered the room where they were greeted by Peter Nicholas, 30, who was covered in blood.
Inside the room police found Jacqueline Rose Nicholas, a 32-year-old Filipina, dead from an apparent gunshot wound.
“My daughter could have been saved,” says Tess Parguian, Jacquelne Nicholas’ mother, if rescue personnel were allowed to enter the room or if police had arrived sooner.
Besides being partially covered in blood, authorities found Peter with an extension cord wrapped around his neck. He was arrested and faces a murder charge.
The couple had been married eight years according to public records and they have two boys, ages 8 and 3.
“How do we explain to those little angels that their parents are both not going to be there anymore, ya know?” asked Pargulan.
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