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A Hannibal murder case is stirring debate about the rights of victims and suspects in domestic cases.
It’s also prompting questions about the boundary between immigration enforcement and racial profiling.
Thirty-two-year-old suspected illegal Mexican immigrant Manuel G. Cazares is charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the stabbing deaths of his ex-girlfriend and another man.
The bodies of 27-year-old Amanda R. Thomas of Hannibal and 25-year-old Carl P. Epley of Monroe City were found Saturday morning in Thomas’ apartment at 12B Starlight Ridge in Hannibal.
Thomas’ two children, one of whom was fathered by the suspect, are safe and staying with family members.
Thomas’ mother, Jolene Schaubroeck, said Monday that authorities knew Cazares had a history of violence against her daughter and that more should have been done to keep the suspect away from her.
“He told her, ‘I’m going to kill us both,’” Schaubroeck remembers her daughter quoting Cazares. “I said, ‘If we don’t do something about this man, we’re going to have a big problem on our hands.’ She said, ‘Mom, I have no faith in the system.’”
At a news conference Monday, Hannibal Police Chief Lyndell Davis said his department “exercised our authority to the extent we could under the law.”
“We’re sympathetic to the families’ loss and the devastation to the children,” Davis said. “But, in retrospect, there’s nothing in the system that would have prevented this from happening.”
At the crime scene
Cazares turned himself in at police headquarters at 9:48 a.m. Saturday and told authorities two people were dead in a Hannibal Housing Authority apartment.
Responding officers found Thomas and Epley in a bedroom of the rental unit. Davis said there was no sign of forced entry.
A kitchen knife from the apartment that’s believed to have been the murder weapon was recovered.
Epley was a chef at the Rustic Oak Cabin in Perry and Thomas was attending nursing classes at John Wood Community College in Quincy, Ill. Both were graduates of Monroe City R-1 High School.
Davis said authorities “don’t know the history of the relationship” between Thomas and Epley, and that they were still trying to piece together the victims’ whereabouts in the hours before their deaths.
Marion County Coroner Peggy Porter pronounced Thomas and Epley dead at 10:55 a.m. She said they died Saturday morning, but wasn’t specific. An autopsy was to be done Monday in Columbia.
Davis said his department made sure there was “no other threat to the community” before releasing information about the crime on Saturday, and held off discussing other details until Monday because doing so earlier would have been “irresponsible.”
A Hannibal murder case is stirring debate about the rights of victims and suspects in domestic cases.
It’s also prompting questions about the boundary between immigration enforcement and racial profiling.
Thirty-two-year-old suspected illegal Mexican immigrant Manuel G. Cazares is charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the stabbing deaths of his ex-girlfriend and another man.
The bodies of 27-year-old Amanda R. Thomas of Hannibal and 25-year-old Carl P. Epley of Monroe City were found Saturday morning in Thomas’ apartment at 12B Starlight Ridge in Hannibal.
Thomas’ two children, one of whom was fathered by the suspect, are safe and staying with family members.
Thomas’ mother, Jolene Schaubroeck, said Monday that authorities knew Cazares had a history of violence against her daughter and that more should have been done to keep the suspect away from her.
“He told her, ‘I’m going to kill us both,’” Schaubroeck remembers her daughter quoting Cazares. “I said, ‘If we don’t do something about this man, we’re going to have a big problem on our hands.’ She said, ‘Mom, I have no faith in the system.’”
At a news conference Monday, Hannibal Police Chief Lyndell Davis said his department “exercised our authority to the extent we could under the law.”
“We’re sympathetic to the families’ loss and the devastation to the children,” Davis said. “But, in retrospect, there’s nothing in the system that would have prevented this from happening.”
At the crime scene
Cazares turned himself in at police headquarters at 9:48 a.m. Saturday and told authorities two people were dead in a Hannibal Housing Authority apartment.
Responding officers found Thomas and Epley in a bedroom of the rental unit. Davis said there was no sign of forced entry.
A kitchen knife from the apartment that’s believed to have been the murder weapon was recovered.
Epley was a chef at the Rustic Oak Cabin in Perry and Thomas was attending nursing classes at John Wood Community College in Quincy, Ill. Both were graduates of Monroe City R-1 High School.
Davis said authorities “don’t know the history of the relationship” between Thomas and Epley, and that they were still trying to piece together the victims’ whereabouts in the hours before their deaths.
Marion County Coroner Peggy Porter pronounced Thomas and Epley dead at 10:55 a.m. She said they died Saturday morning, but wasn’t specific. An autopsy was to be done Monday in Columbia.
Davis said his department made sure there was “no other threat to the community” before releasing information about the crime on Saturday, and held off discussing other details until Monday because doing so earlier would have been “irresponsible.”
Couple’s background
Schaubroeck, a Quincy native who now lives near Lincoln, Neb., placed her daughter with family members in Monroe City when the girl was very young.
Schaubroeck said she did so because of what she called her own domestic abuse concerns with her partner, a man who was not Thomas’ father.
Despite the distance between them, mother and daughter kept in contact through telephone calls, e-mails and visits about five times a year.
“We were very close,” said Schaubroeck, whose last contact with her daughter was an e-mail last Wednesday.
Thomas and Cazares met about three years ago. He was a waiter at Gran Rio restaurant and she was employed next door at International Eyecare in the Steamboat Bend Shopping Center.
Gran Rio manager Jose Mata called Cazares “an average worker.” Thomas had also held jobs as a phlebotomist and a medical assistant.
Schaubroeck said the two didn’t live together, but Cazares often spent time at Thomas’ apartment.
Schaubroeck believes her daughter’s troubles with Cazares erputed during Thomas’ pregnancy. The couple’s son, Taybryn, was born in August 2007.
Reported violence
Hannibal police arrested Cazares for assaulting Thomas with his fists on Dec. 22, 2007, and for property damage at Thomas’ apartment on Feb. 22, 2008.
Cazares didn’t go to jail, but began serving two years of probation in the property damage case on Feb. 29, 2008. He also was ordered to pay $314.50 in court costs and $174 in restitution.
His probation officer, Kathy Flowerree, said the payments were completed by June 2008.
Records show Thomas sought and received orders of protection three times to ban Cazares from having contact with her.
Hannibal police arrested Cazares again on Feb. 10 of this year for allegedly violating the latest court order by harassing Thomas on the telephone. A hearing had not been set.
Schaubroeck said she works as an advocate for abused and neglected children, and that Cazares had what she called “all the typical behavior patterns” of a domestic abuser.
She said it started as verbal abuse and progressed to physical assault.
“He was insanely jealous,” Schaubroeck said. “He’d drag her out of bed in the middle of the night and say she’d been with another man. He was getting worse and worse and worse.“
Schaubroeck said she had talked with police and the Marion County prosecutor’s office about Cazares, but that he was not charged with violating the orders of protection.
Enforcement problems
Police say domestic abuse cases are complicated when a couple shares a child, and that they have to walk a fine line to avoid violating the rights of both sides.
Schaubroeck claims Cazares would tell authorities he simply was trying to speak to his son when he’d call Thomas. She also said Cazares showed up and talked to Thomas’ seven-year-old daughter at a recent sporting event.
“It was that typical, manipulative (behavior) getting to her through the kids,” Schaubroeck said.
Schaubroeck says more should have been done to enforce the protective orders Thomas had gotten against Cazares.
“Once there’s an order of protection, the judge has set the rules,” she said.
Davis said Hannibal police have stepped up their enforcement of laws against domestic violence and take such cases very seriously.
“As soon as we have probable cause, we make an arrest,” he said.
But Davis and others cautioned the system doesn’t work in every case, no matter how many safeguards are in place.
“If someone is intent on hurting somebody, there’s little that could be done,” Davis said.
Judy Edmonson is executive director of AVENUES, which provides a shelter and other programs for abused families. She works closely with law enforcement to prevent domestic violence.
Edmonson called an order of protection a “powerful tool” but admitted it’s “only a piece of paper.”
“Overall, the system does work,” she said. “There are times that things fail.”
Immigration status
There’s a discrepancy over Cazares’ immigration status.
Davis said police were told by federal authorities that Cazares was in the country illegally.
Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Cazares’ status still is being researched because it’s the first time his agency has encountered the suspect.
Mata said Cazares showed paperwork and a Social Security number when he applied for the waiter’s job at Gran Rio.
Davis said at Monday’s news conference that he wasn’t sure if Hannibal police had checked on Cazares’ status in any of its other encounters with him before last weekend.
The customs agency works with local law enforcement to catch suspected illegal aliens, but the task can be difficult.
Hannibal Police Capt. James Hark said officers must prevent legitimate questions of immigration status from degenerating to unethical racial profiling.
“A lot of these issues aren’t black and white,” Hark said. “There are a lot of shades of gray in immigration issues.”
What’s ahead
Cazares is in the Marion County Jail on $1 million cash-only bond. A court date has not been set.
Funeral services for Thomas are at 10 a.m. Thursday at Garner Funeral Chapel in Monroe City. Visitation is from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Services for Epley are at 10 a.m. Thursday at the James O’Donnell Funeral Home in Hannibal. Visitation is from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday.
