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Police perplexed by quadruple murder of prominent D.C. family

Officials are considering all four deaths homicides, and are trying to find out who drove one of the family's cars eight miles away and lit it on fire.

By Doug G. Ware

WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- Four people who were found dead in a mysterious house fire in Washington, D.C., this week were murdered before they were burned by the flames, authorities said Friday.

The fire started Thursday and heavily damaged the Northwest D.C. home by the time firefighters arrived. When they began going through the rubble, they found the bodies of four people, investigators said.

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Those who died in the home were subsequently identified as Savvas Savopoulos, 46, and his wife Amy Savopoulos, 47. Investigators tentatively identified the other two as the couple's son, Philip, 10, and their housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57.

The couple's two teenage daughters were away at boarding schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey at the time of the fire, officials said.

The deaths shocked the upscale D.C. neighborhood and the family has been described by neighbors and friends as well-liked. Savvas Savopoulos' sister, Debra Masser, said she had spoken to her brother that morning and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, the Washington Post reported.

Police are trying to determine exactly what happened inside the home and the sequence of events. After the fire, which investigators say was intentionally set, a Porsche belonging to the family was found burned out in a church parking lot nearly eight miles away in Hyattsville, Md. Authorities aren't yet sure how it ended up there and why.

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Further, officials said sharp object or blunt force trauma wounds were discovered on three of the four victims -- and that all four are considered homicides. CBS Washington reported that police indicated that at least one of the victims may have been doused with gasoline.

Police are asking for the public's assistance in the case, particularly from anyone who may have seen the burned-out Porsche between Wednesday -- the day before the fire -- and Thursday afternoon. Police didn't specify why they expanded that time frame to include Wednesday, or who they believe may have driven it to the Hyattsville church.

Savvas Savopoulos was the president and chief executive at American Iron Works, also located in Hyattsville. The firm helped build Washington's Verizon Center, which is home to the NBA's Wizards and the NHL's Capitals.

Neighbors described the family as an integral part of their community, where they had lived for about a decade.

"The community where they lived really loved them," neighbor Coco Palomeque said.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who has known the family for more than 20 years, said in a statement that he was saddened. Savvas Savopoulos had previously raised money for Van Hollen's campaigns, the Post reported.

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"My heart goes out to the Savopoulos family at this time of unspeakable tragedy," the statement read. "They were an important part of the community and will be deeply missed."

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