Neighbours cry over Palmiste family slain on highway

AS news broke of a triple murder today, residents of Palmiste expressed shock and horror and one man even cried as he spoke about the "nice and law-abiding" victims.

A passer-by found the bodies of Carmelita Garcia-Quintero, also called Ingrid, and her husband George Quintero, in the family’s red Nissan Frontier van. They had been shot.

The body of Garcia-Quintero's daughter, identified as Marisol, was in the back seat with gunshots to her head.

Police said at about 6.30 am, the passer-by was walking on the shoulder of the southbound lane of the Solomon Hochoy Highway, near Golconda, where he saw the van parked with its headlights on.

The front and back windscreens were partially shattered by bullet holes.

George Quintero, who was in his 50s, was in the driver’s seat, with injuries to the left side of his face. In the front passenger seat was the woman later identified as Garcia-Quintero, with a wound to the right side of the face. She was in her 60s. The couple were contractors.

The third victim was in her 30s.

Neighbours said the three lived together at Plum Street.

"You would never hear any quarrel or anything from that family. I could not believe it. Up to now, I haven’t told my children because the news will hit them hard," said a resident of Block 5 in Palmiste, near San Fernando.

Garcia-Quintero has another adult daughter who lives elsewhere.

Police from Southern Division, among them Snr Supt Zamsheed Mohammed and Cpls Narine Bisnath and Barry Bacchus, visited the scene, along with police from Homicide Bureau Region III , including ASP Persad and Insps Corrie and Shereen Theodore Persad.