WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) -- Investigators traced a man accused in a quadruple murder earlier this month involving a prominent Washington, D.C., family and their housekeeper to New York.
The potential suspect was identified by police late Wednesday as Daron Dylon Wint, 34, and police were trying to determine his whereabouts.
Wint is wanted in connection to the May 14 deaths of Savvas Savopoulos, 46, and his wife Amy Savopoulos, 47, the couple's son, Philip, 10, and their housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57.
Police believe Wint was in Brooklyn with $40,000 he stole from the family, Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said. Police were tipped off to Wint's whereabouts when his girlfriend allegedly called authorities and said he was staying with her in Brooklyn. She said Wint was returning to the District to turn himself in.
A $25,000 reward was being offered for information leading to his arrest. Wint is considered armed and dangerous -- he has been arrested for assault and rape in the past.
Lanier said it appears as though Wint is connected to the family through Savopoulos' business.
"It does appear that this was not a random crime," she said, adding, "We have not ruled out that there are others involved."
On May 14, Washington, D.C., firefighters responded to a blaze at the family's multi-million dollar home in the city's northwest. The victims' bodies were subsequently found during the investigation. Officials said later that all four had been victims of a homicide.
The family's two teenage daughters were away in Pennsylvania and New Jersey at school at the time.
Police got a break in the case when they were able to link Wint to a DNA profile left on a slice of pizza inside the family's home, the Washington Post reported. Investigators believe the family and the housekeeper were held captive inside their home overnight on May 13 -- and that pizza was ordered during the ordeal. ABC News placed the pizza delivery around 9 p.m.
Medical authorities previously said some of the victims had shown signs of sharp- or blunt-force trauma prior to their deaths. Officials also believe they may have been bound and doused in gasoline. The boy's body was burned so badly that he has yet to be formally identified, NBC Washington reported.
The Post report said the following day, when the family was still believed to have been alive, Savopoulos's personal assistant dropped off $40,000 in cash at the home. However, it has not yet been revealed whether the assistant made contact with Savopoulos, the killer, both, or neither during the delivery.
A few hours later, the home was on fire and the occupants were dead. The cash and Savopoulos's Porsche were also gone. The vehicle turned up a short time later, burned out in a church parking lot in suburban Maryland.
Savvas Savopoulos was the president and chief executive at American Iron Works, located in Maryland. The firm helped build Washington's Verizon Center, which is home to the NBA's Wizards and the NHL's Capitals.
Neighbors and acquaintances have said the Savopoulos family were well-liked and were active members of their community. They were also well-known in several prominent social and professional circles in the D.C. area.
The family lived in a very upscale neighborhood in the city's northwest -- not far from the personal residence of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, but very far from where anyone might expect such an incident to occur.
Investigators are now trying to flesh out a timeline of Savopoulos' movements in the hours before the fire. Police documents reportedly show that he made a flurry of phone calls to a bank, his assistant, an accountant, a construction company executive and his office in the hours before the fire -- a time police believe the family were being held captive.
The phone calls then suddenly stopped just before noon on May 14, and the fire was reported at 1:15 p.m., the Post report said. The sudden halt in phone activity at 11:54 a.m. might suggest the victims were killed and the fire was started around that time.
Police documents also revealed that the last phone call was between Savopoulos and his assistant -- and that the assistant attempted to call Savopoulos once again at 1:40 p.m. but got no answer.
Investigators have not yet detailed any possible motives and have not specified how the victims were killed -- nor has it been determined when or how Savopoulos encountered the killer or killers.
Another housekeeper for the Savopoulos family, Nelitza Gutierrez, reportedly told police that she received strange text messages from the family on the evening of May 13 -- the day before the slayings. One told her not to show up for work the following day.
Gutierrez also said Savopoulos left her a voicemail message that same evening, saying his wife was sick and his son was recovering from a concussion. He then asked her to notify Figueroa's family and inform them she was planning to stay the night at his home -- something Gutierrez said she also found unusual.
"I didn't hear from her so I called her, and every time I called the phone it was just going straight to voicemail," Figueroa's husband told ABC News.
The following day, the husband said he went to the home, knocked on the door and rang the doorbell -- but no one answered.
Then the following day, Gutierrez said, Amy Savopoulos sent her a text message that read, "I am making sure you do not come today," the Post reported.
