WASHINGTON — More than two months after members of a D.C. family and their housekeeper were killed in their burning Northwest home, police are still waiting on crucial evidence.
DNA testing results are not yet back from a federal lab processing evidence that was found in the Savopoulos home on Woodland Drive in May.
The list of evidence found in the home is daunting — a bloody baseball bat, a water bottle with a fingerprint on it, duct tape found near one of the victim’s bodies — all likely containing DNA or finger prints.
Analysts with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives forensics lab are processing the evidence for D.C. police and say there is no time frame on when they’ll deliver their findings to prosecutors.
The U.S. attorney’s office confirms it has no set time when it expects to get the findings from the lab.
Not only does the testing for an “extensive amount of evidence” take time, but analyzing and writing reports that are court ready can be painstaking, says Tom Faison, spokesman for the ATF.
Detective Jeff Owens, who is heading the D.C. police investigation into the case testified Monday in court that he believes more people are responsible for killing Savvas, Amy and Philip Savopoulos and their housekeeper Vera Figueroa. But police have made only one arrest.
Prosecutors charged Daron Wint, 34, of Lanham, Maryland with one count of murder based on DNA left on a pizza crust found inside the family’s home. ATF analysts matched the DNA found on the pizza to Wint’s profile contained in a national DNA database.
Police testified Monday that DNA left on another piece of evidence — a green vest left in Amy Savopoulos’ stolen Porsche — also was Wint’s.
Investigators believe that the four victims were held captive for almost a full day and then killed when a $40,000 ransom was paid. The captors beat, cut or stabbed and also strangled members of the family.
