MIRAMAR — Almost three many years after certainly one of South Florida’s most brutal murders, the household of Marie Altidor and Theresia Laverne aren’t any nearer to seeing justice for his or her family members.
A bunch of greater than 50 family, pals and supporters reaffirmed their perpetual seek for solutions this week at a fee assembly in Miramar.
They banded collectively in white T-shirts with pictures of the victims within the unsolved 1997 quadruple murder: Marie Altidor, 29; her two infants, 6-week-old Sabrina and 2-year-old Samantha; and her mom, Theresia Laverne, 68.
A number of family flew in from different states for his or her probability to make one more public plea for one thing extra to be carried out, to share their hope that somebody would possibly nonetheless come ahead with new data that would present a long-awaited break within the case.
The April 30, 1997, murders stay certainly one of South Florida’s most horrific crimes. All 4 victims had been discovered shot and bludgeoned to demise with a hammer inside the house on South Crescent Drive that Marie Altidor shared along with her husband, George Altidor.
The crime scene contained in the Altidor residence had been staged to make it seem as a drug-related residence invasion. Miramar Police detectives have stated for the reason that starting that there have been no indicators of pressured entry into the house. By 1999, the lead detective had dominated out motives together with theft, medicine, random violence or political ties in Haiti, the place each Marie and George Altidor grew up, the Solar Sentinel reported.
Toddler Sabrina was mendacity in her bassinet. Laverne was discovered facedown within the kitchen. Marie Altidor in a pool of blood within the eating room. It took a while to search out Samantha, who was mendacity behind a sofa in a small spot recognized to be her hiding place.
A major piece of proof grew to become a message scrawled in marker on a wall contained in the household room: “I need my 100,000 / They stole my medicine.”
The South Florida Solar Sentinel’s newest season of Felonious Florida reexamined the chilly case throughout six episodes with never-before-released audio and unique entry to Miramar Police’s full case file, which the lawyer for the household cited in an Oct. 24 letter to Chief Delrish Moss demanding “renewed investigative assets” on the case. The podcast revealed gaps within the early days of the investigation that would have uncovered crucial proof.
A brutal 1997 Miramar quadruple homicide stays unsolved. A brand new podcast investigates why
Miramar Police thought of George Altidor, Marie’s then-husband and the daddy of the 2 little ladies, a suspect not lengthy after the murders, and finally the solely suspect, based on studies from the Solar Sentinel archives. He stays a suspect right now, detectives say within the podcast, Felonious Florida: The Altidor Bloodbath.
Chief Moss has vowed his division has not and won’t hand over making an attempt to convey the case to an finish. He maintains police don’t have sufficient proof to make an arrest.
“What’s actually crucial is that somebody on the market is aware of one thing,” Moss informed reporters this week. “And if they’ve data and so they convey it ahead, that will be extra useful than something that we in all probability have already.”
5 detectives have labored on the case since 1997. They’ve examined and retested the entire proof out there as know-how advances, and the case has been introduced to the State Lawyer’s Workplace a number of occasions through the years, stated Moss, who was a Miramar resident on the time of the murders.
Moss informed the fee they might once more be assembly with the State Lawyer’s Workplace in a number of weeks.
Annoyed household
The Altidor/Laverne household has been listening to the identical message for years, and their frustration is palpable.
“For us, it’s like every single day,” Carline Laverne, certainly one of Marie Altidor’s sisters and daughter of Theresia Laverne, informed the Solar Sentinel.
She hopes that after their newest public plea, somebody who has data would possibly lastly make a cellphone name. The household is drained, she stated.
“I’ve religion, a technique or one other, that this shall be solved,” Carline Laverne stated. “I don’t know if it’s tomorrow, however that case shall be solved by some means.”
Alain Laverne, a brother of Marie Altidor and son of Theresia Laverne, stated the household’s hope continues to be that the killer shall be put behind bars.
“In spite of everything these years, we all know that there are individuals who know what occurred. So we’re nonetheless at the hours of darkness,” he stated. “We would like renewed consideration to this case as a result of this case will be solved. It can’t be a chilly case.”
In recent times, the police division has revisited the case to check proof utilizing new developments in DNA know-how, together with the preserved wall with the killer’s message.
The wall had gone via three rounds of testing through the years, however no DNA proof was discovered throughout any of the testing, Chilly Case Detective Danny Smith stated within the podcast’s sixth episode “George and Florence.” The detective retired in late 2024.
Decker Act
Regardless of the previous efforts, lawyer Kertch Conze, a former Miami-Dade prosecutor who’s working with the Laverne/Altidor household professional bono, believes extra will be carried out.
“Whether or not it’s via extra testing of proof, talking to witnesses or the straightforward addition of human assets … One thing must be carried out for this household. They’ve waited and grieved for the previous 28 years. We’ll hope that they won’t wait for one more 28 years and let this case die by itself,” Conze informed the fee.
The proposed “Decker Act” may gain advantage the Altidor case, Conze informed the Solar Sentinel. The invoice was launched within the 2024 and 2025 Florida legislative periods and, partially, would require regulation enforcement businesses to conduct full reinvestigations of sure chilly instances. It was named after Marilyn Decker, who was strangled to demise, stabbed and left in a canal in Davie in 1987. The chilly case was just lately solved after new DNA testing recognized the suspect, who died in 1995.
If a invoice had been to cross, Conze stated statewide assets might be out there, with the Florida Division of Legislation Enforcement.
“It’s an excellent factor, however on the identical time, now we have to have it handed and proper now it’s not even actively pursued,” he stated.
Solar Sentinel editor David Schutz and knowledge from the Solar Sentinel archives contributed to this report.
