Police on St. Thomas Sunday identified the male victim of an apparent murder-suicide that happened on the night of Feb. 10 near the former site of the J. Antonio Jarvis Elementary School on Prindsens Gade.
St. Thomas/St. John/Water Island Chief Rodney F. Querrard announced Sunday that 49-year-old Leonardo Leonardo-Soto was the previously unidentified man found dead at the scene along with 35-year-old Confesora Duarte.
According to a VIPD bulletin released at the time of the double homicide, residents called 911 to report multiple shots fired in the vicinity of the J. Antonio Jarvis school and later led police to a nearby home where Leonardo-Soto and Duarte were both lying dead in the kitchen.
Both were natives of the Dominican Republic, police said, and both had suffered at least one gunshot. A .38 caliber pistol was found at the scene, police said at the time.
“Preliminary investigation indicates this was a homicide/suicide,” Querrard said when the homicides were reported on Feb. 11.
“Preliminary investigation also indicates that both individuals knew each other,” he said. “The Police Department will make its final determination at the conclusion of this investigation and the findings of the medical examiner.”
Police requested help from the community, asking anyone who might know something about the situation or may have seen or heard something relative to the matter to call Major Crime Sergeant Lionel Bess at 340-642-8449.
