In Washington, DC, on May 13 and 14 of 2015, the Savopoulos family and their housekeeper met a terrible fate when 35-year-old Daron Wint decided to hold the house residents hostage for 19 hours in hopes of attaining a large sum of money. He held the family, excluding the two Savopoulos daughters, hostage. Evidence shows that the family was taped to chairs to be tortured and forced to comply with his demand.
Most likely, after a lot of investigations, it is claimed that he first got to Philip and the housekeeper because Phillip stayed home due to being sick. Later on, the mother arrived, and once he ducked taped her to a chair, he forced her to call the father and convince him to come home. Once he finally got there, ordered the father, Savvas Savopoulos, to call his assistant and request that $40,000 in $100 bills be dropped off at a car sitting in a garage next to the house. According to FBI-UCR, robberies accounted for an estimated $438 million in losses in 2017.
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A few hours after the money had been delivered, the house was burned down, and the charred bodies of Savvas, his wife Amy, and their son Philip Savopoulos, along with the housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, were found by firefighters on the scene. The bodies were found with bruises from being beaten with a baseball bat and stab wounds, showing that the fire is not what killed the people residing in the house. Daron Wint was not caught until a couple of days later. Meaning there was a sizable time gap between the murders and Wint’s arrest. So, what did he do during the time and why did he need the money so badly that he murdered four people, including a child, and burn down a house? What did he go through in life to make him that way? And what happened after he was arrested?
Daron Wint led a secretive life, and even though he knew people who worked in Savvas company, and he was also a previous employee, the two were said to not know each other personally. Wint was an immigrant from Guyana and had a fiancée, now ex-fiancée, Vanessa Hayles. He led a normal life before the Washington mansion murders occurred. What may have driven Wint to commit the crime was the fact that he was broke, homeless, and jobless at the time. During the situation, it was said that the only reason why they started looking into Wint was because of a pizza crust he had left his DNA on after he had ordered it at the Savopoulos family’s house. His whole life had been turned upside down not only because of the horrible deeds he had done but also because of the simple mistake of not eating a pizza crust. But the pizza crust was not the only DNA he left on the scene. A lock of his hair happened to be found with the burnt bodies of Amy and Savvas Savopoulous. There were also traces of blood that matched one of the victims. After Wint had murdered the family, burnt down the house, and burned the vehicles of himself and Amy Savopoulos, he went on his own way. With the money that he had taken from the family, he began to spend ‘lavishly’, as stated by his ex-fiancée Vanessa. His brother-in-law stated that Wint often flashed money in $100 bills around and claimed that he had won the lottery.
Prior to Wint’s arrest, the authorities found two knives and a large sum of cash in his abandoned vehicle. Then finally, on May 21, 2015, seven long days after the tragic murder, 35-year-old Daron Wint was arrested on the charges of over 20 counts, some of which include kidnapping, multiple murders, burglary, and arson. But it wasn’t until October 25, 2018, that he was actually convicted of these crimes. Wint tried to defend himself in multiple ways, for example, by putting the blame on his brothers and having his attorney state that Wint was going to give himself up before the police arrested him. But no matter how hard, the now 37-year-old, Wint tried to plea, the jury was unsympathetic and unwavering. And because of the evidence, and the inconsistency of his story, they sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Three years after the Savopoulos were brutally murdered, their former captor and murderer had finally seen justice for his gruesome crimes. He had forever changed the lives of many people, including the family of Vera Figueroa and the two daughters of Savvas Savopoulos, who now had to live without their mother, father, and younger brother. Wint’s family and friends were completely unaware of the monster that had become of their loved one until the trial was held. Nothing will be able to reverse the damage that Daron Wint has done but with him behind bars, the families of the victims can rest easy knowing that at least something has been done to stop him from harming anyone else.
Works Cited
- Buchanan, Scott. “Robbery Statistics and Prevention Tips: Home Security Tips by the Security Sensei (Jordan Frankel)”. Global Security Experts, https://www.globalsecurityexperts.com/home-security-2/crime-prevention-advice/robbery-statistics-and-tips.html
- “Center for Problem-Oriented Policing”. Home Invasion Robbery| ASU Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, https://popcenter.asu.edu/content/home-invasion-robbery-0
- FOX 5 DC. “Who Is Daron Dylon Wint? What We Know about the Quadruple Murder Suspect”. FOX 5 DC, 23 July 2019, https://www.fox5dc.com/news/who-is-daron-dylon-wint-what-we-know-about-the-quadruple-murder-suspect
- “Robbery”. FBI, 10 Sept. 2018, https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/topic-pages/robbery
- Miller, Daniel, and Stephen Tschida/ABC7. “Daron Wint's Ex-Fiancée Testifies He Spent 'Lavishly' after Murders, Claims He Won Lottery”. WJLA, 24 Oct. 2018, https://wjla.com/news/local/daron-wints-ex-fiancee-testifies-in-murder-trial-says-he-spent-lavishly
- Noble, Andrea. “Lone Suspect in D.C. Mansion Murders Flagged for Deportation”. The Washington Times, 7 June 2015, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/7/dc-mansion-murders-darron-wint-flagged-for-deporta/
- “Stitcher”. Stitcher, 4AD, https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/true-crime-garage/e/60368386?autoplay=true
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