Fascinating & in-depth update on MN family massacre,48 y.o.Primitivo Rivas brutally slaughtered 4 child-slaves,his live-in lover,then killed self
Joe1orbit
A couple of days ago I posted the news that an arson fire in Minnesota had
killed SIX people, all members of the same family, and that the Daddy-hubby, 48
year old Primitivo Juan Rivas, was the prime suspect. He had been experiencing
serious financial problems, and the thinking was that he had decided to
exterminate his erntire family, along with himself, to get rid of the financial
problems. After all, the lives of his SUBHUMAN family members only had VALUE,
as long as HE himself was alive, to enjoy and USE them for his own benefit,
according to the Sacred Family Unit doctrine of your ultra-diseased society.
Below we get confirmation that Primitivo DID carry out this impressive family
massacre-suicide. He killed FIVE, his two biological child-slaves, aged 16 and
18, his live in lover, and both of HER daughter-slaves, that he was serving as
a stepDaddy to, aged 4 and 6. After killing them all, he STABBED himself, lay
down in the burning house, and let the fire turn him into a Crispy Critter.
Autopsies on all 5 harvestees of Primivito show that they were ALL actively
murdered BEFORE the fire was set. He STRANGLED his 37 year old gal-pal & two
small daughters to death, but turned to BEATING and STABBING as his murder
method, in getting rid of his 16 year old son and 18 year old daughter. So,
this was a VERY hands-on, intimate slaughter spree, no guns were used,
Primitivo got to PHYSICALLY FEEL each of his victims die, as a result of his
hands-on violent attacks.
Arson investigators say that Primitivo CAREFULLY planned out the fire itself
as well, setting it in such a way as to guarantee maximum destruction of the
house and all occupants. He spread gasoline throughout the house, before
igniting it. This was obviously done AFTER he had already murdered all five
family members.
We get the MOST intriguing new detail, that Primitivo was DUE to report to
PRISON by this PAST Monday, to begin serving a 90 day JAIL sentence that had
been imposed upon him, for failing to pay child support to his ex-wife. He
failed to show up, and a warrant for his ARREST was issued. At that SAME time,
Primitivo was in the process of planning out, or executing, this very
impressive rampage.
It is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS, the manner in which your evil society BRUTALLY
COERCES all of it's biological creators into allowing themselves to be LEGALLY
ROBBED, of their legally earned money, even IF they want NOTHING to do with
their biological creations. It is so VERY appropriate that this outrageous form
of legal robbery by your perverse society, should be the final SPARK, no pun
intended, that ignited this PROLIFIC family massacre.
I just LOVE how the second article below, provides a "blow by blow" account
of EXACTLY how detectives & forensic experts believe Primitivo carried out this
massacre. The DETAILS are what I love, because they allow me to VISUALLY
recreate, in my own mind, the step-by-step ACTIONS that Primitivo took, and to
imagine what his THOUGHTS & feelings were, at each step. A REAL shame that
Primitivo did not seem to leave ANY kind of diary, written or audio/video
testimonial in which he EXPRESSED his FINAL thoughts, feelings, and mindset.
The Sacred Family Unit doctrine of your society, is TOXIC in nature. The
manner in which humans are TIED DOWN and COERCED/FORCED to remain BEHOLDEN to
one another, under the marriage, alimony, child support laws, EVEN if they do
NOT DESIRE to have ANYTHING to do with the people they created or married,
CANNOT be rationally justified, and it provokes JUSTIFIED, LEGITIMATE homicidal
rage within the people it victimizes, such as Primitivo. I am PROUD that he
found the strength and insight to direct his justified rage & hate OUTWARD,
killing others, before making the foolish decision to kill himself, as well.
You can view photos of four of the FIVE harvestees, over at:
http://www.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisSlug=LONS11
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of yesterday's Associated Press news wire:
Authorities Describe Farmhouse Fire
FARIBAULT, Minn. (AP) - A fire in a farmhouse where six people were found dead
this week was started by a man who killed everyone inside - including his
children - before stabbing himself, authorities said Friday.
Primitivo Juan Rivas, who had serious legal and financial problems, strangled
his girlfriend and her two children, beat and stabbed his son to death and
killed his daughter before setting the house on fire and stabbing himself in
the chest, authorities said.
The six bodies were found Wednesday in the smoldering ruins of the farmhouse. A
large butcher knife was recovered from the rubble and gasoline was found at the
scene, authorities said.
``A lot of thought went into how that fire moved,'' said state fire marshal Tom
Brace. ``This was not a fire where somebody `flicked a Bic.' Clearly, the idea
was total devastation.''
Rivas, 48, was supposed to start serving a 90-day sentence Monday for failing
to pay child support to his ex-wife, but he never showed up at the Dakota
County Jail. A warrant for his arrest was issued later that day.
Rivas, a computer engineer, had been out of work for more than a year and had
run up thousands of dollars in credit card debt and defaulted on his mortgage.
An order signed Tuesday showed Rivas owing more than $10,000 in child support,
medical support and spousal maintenance as of March.
The victims were identified as Rivas' girlfriend, Catherine Ranft, 37; her
daughters' Meredith Stephiewski, 6, and Caroline Stephiewski, 4; and his
children, Tyler Rivas, 16, and KiAnn Rivas, 18.
AP-NY-12-10-99
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 12/11/99 online edition of The
Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper:
Published Saturday, December 11, 1999
Autopsies reveal gruesome murder-suicide in farmhouse fire
Richard Meryhew and Pat Doyle / Star Tribune
FARIBAULT, MINN. -- After returning home late Tuesday from his son's high
school basketball game, Primitivo Juan Rivas strangled his live-in girlfriend
and her two children, beat and stabbed his son to death and killed his daughter
before setting fire to his Rice County farmhouse.
Then he grabbed a butcher knife and stabbed himself in the chest, ending his
own life, investigators said Friday.
"It's a horrid tragedy," Rice County Sheriff Richard Cook said. "Our feelings
go out to the friends and the family."
Cook said authorities believe Rivas' "desperation over a large debt load along
with extreme dissatisfaction with the legal system" and the prospect of three
months in jail for failure to pay child support triggered the murder-suicide.
Rivas' "impending incarceration seemed to weigh heavy on his mind," the sheriff
said.
Using dental records, investigators identified the badly burned victims as
Rivas, 48; Catherine Ranft, 38; her daughters Caroline Stepniewski, 4, and
Meredith Stepniewski, 6; Rivas' son, Tyler, 16; and his daughter, KiAnn, 18.
All but KiAnn Rivas, a University of Minnesota student who stopped at her
father's home Tuesday night after her brother's game, lived at the farmhouse,
about 15 miles west of Faribault.
Cook said evidence showed that Rivas strangled and beat Ranft and strangled her
daughters. He said that Tyler Rivas apparently had been stabbed and beaten and
that KiAnn Rivas was so badly burned that the cause of her death could only be
listed as "homicidal violence."
Investigators weren't sure how Rivas died -- he severed his heart when he
stabbed himself, but there was also evidence of smoke in his lungs, according
to autopsy reports.
Cook said investigators plan to do follow-up work on the case next week, but
"beyond this point, there is no other suspect or motive to pursue."
'A funeral pyre'
Cook said Friday that investigators may never know the order of deaths or
exactly what transpired inside the house late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
He said authorities believe the killings took place sometime between 10 p.m.
and 4 a.m., based on interviews with family members and friends and evidence at
the scene.
The sheriff said Ranft talked with her sister by phone at about 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Primitivo Rivas called his daughter's boyfriend at about 11:55 p.m. to say she
wasn't going to return to the Twin Cities that night.
Rice County sheriff's deputy patrols keep the fire scene secure. The chickens
in the foreground were roaming around the fire scene and belonged to the Rivas
family.
Rivas told him that KiAnn "was having problems with her car and he'd bring her
back in the morning," Cook said.
Based on the medical examiner's report and information gathered by
investigators, authorities believe Rivas killed the others, then went outside
to pull three vehicles, a boat and a trailer within inches of the house. He
then set fire to several outbuildings. At some point, he went to the basement
and set fire to the house. He later went upstairs, where he grabbed a butcher
knife and stabbed himself.
The fire was reported to authorities about 4:40 a.m. Wednesday, when neighbor
Tanya Newman spotted flames while driving by on her way to work.
When firefighters arrived minutes later, authorities say, it was obvious that
the fire wasn't an accident.
In addition to the house and vehicles, five sheds or outbuildings, all more
than 25 yards from of the house, were burning out of control.
"Clearly, this was an arson fire," State Fire Marshal Tom Brace said. "And the
amount of devastation looked to me as though it was almost like a funeral pyre
was being placed.
"He essentially burned everything he owned."
Brace said all the outbuilding fires were set independently of each other. The
house fire started in the basement, he said, where several accelerants,
including gasoline and lighter fluid, were found.
"There was no way the fire went from one outbuilding to another to the house,"
Brace said. "A lot of thought went into how that fire would move. This was not
a . . . fire where somebody 'flicked a Bic.' Clearly, the idea was total
devastation."
Rivas' body was found with Ranft and her daughters in a corner of the basement.
A butcher knife was found nearby, Cook said.
Tyler and KiAnn Rivas were found in another part of the basement.
All six appeared to have died upstairs, Brace said, but their bodies fell into
the basement when the underlying floors burned out and the house collapsed in
flames.
Financial woes
Friends and family members who spoke with authorities during the investigation
described Rivas as "nonviolent in nature," Cook said Friday.
But court records indicate that Rivas became increasingly bitter in recent
years as his life began to unravel following his divorce in 1996 after 21 years
of marriage.
He lost his job as a computer engineer, didn't pay his bills and fought
continuously with his wife over child-support and spousal-maintenance payments.
He blamed many of his problems on a legal system that he believed had treated
him unfairly.
By the end of 1997, he owed $4,000 in spousal maintenance.
When his ex-wife remarried, Rivas' obligation to pay maintenance ended. But in
early 1998 he began to fall behind on child-support payments. When he lost his
job in June of that year, he stopped paying any of the $1,081 that was due
monthly. He claimed that he lost his job because he was concentrating too much
on his legal battle and not enough on work.
Rivas then resisted a series of legal efforts to force him to pay
child-support, spousal-maintenance and medical-support bills that eventually
grew to more than $10,000. Upset with his lawyer, Peter Watson, Rivas also
refused to pay his legal bills.
When Watson sued him, Rivas wrote a letter to the judge, accusing the attorney
of being more concerned with the interests of Rivas' wife during the divorce.
Watson denied that accusation, and Hennepin County District Judge Delila Pierce
in August ordered Rivas to pay him $2,486.
That didn't end the matter.
Rivas continued to fight the system; he ignored the court order. Another judge
ordered him to show why he shouldn't be held in contempt. Rivas testified in
Hennepin County District Court on Nov. 23, saying he wasn't happy with the
legal system.
Watson said Rivas "felt victimized" by the system. In particular, he believed
"that men were not treated fairly" by the courts, the attorney said.
At about the time Rivas faced contempt proceedings, a criminal conviction for
failing to pay child support was closing in on him in Dakota County. He was to
begin serving a 90-day jail sentence on Monday, two days before the fire, but
failed to appear.
He had other problems, too.
Records filed in Rice County in mid-October show that Rivas was about to lose
his farmhouse. He hadn't made a mortgage payment in at least seven months and
owed more than $6,000 in principal, interest and taxes on the property, which
he bought in December 1997.
Grief and sympathy
In a statement issued Friday, Debra Hanneman, KiAnn and Tyler's mother, and her
husband, Gary Hanneman, thanked family and friends for support amid "a terrible
tragedy."
"We also are deeply saddened by the knowledge that another family has also lost
two children, as well as the mother of those children," the Burnsville couple
said. "We extend our sincere sympathy."
The Hannemans declined further comment.
A memorial service for KiAnn and Tyler Rivas has been scheduled for 10:30 a.m.
Monday at Easter Lutheran Church, 4200 Pilot Knob Rd., Eagan. Visitation will
be held after 2 p.m. Sunday at Klecatsky & Sons Funeral Home, 1580 Century
Point, Eagan.
Funeral services for Catherine Ranft and her daughters will be held at 1 p.m.
Monday at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 4625 W. 125th St., Savage.
Visitation will be from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at Gill Brothers Funeral Chapel,
9947 Lyndale Av. S., Bloomington.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 12/10/99 online edition of The
Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper:
Published Friday, December 10, 1999
Investigation into suspicious fatal fire near Lonsdale intensifies
Richard Meryhew and Pat Doyle / Star Tribune
FARIBAULT, MINN. -- As authorities awaited official word on how six people died
in a Rice County farmhouse Wednesday morning, they stepped up their pursuit of
a theory that the house was set on fire by the owner as part of a
murder-suicide.
"It's a scenario," Rice County Sheriff Richard Cook said Thursday. "It's one of
our main scenarios."
Cook said the owner of the home, Primitivo Juan Rivas, is a prime suspect.
He was heavily in debt, facing foreclosure on his property and jail time for
failure to pay child support.
The positioning of four of the bodies -- including those of two young children
-- immediately raised suspicions of foul play, Cook said. So did fires that
appeared to have been set at the same time in the house, outbuildings and three
cars, a boat, a trailer and a recreational vehicle -- all pulled to within
inches of the house.
Missing and presumed dead are Rivas, 48; his son, Tyler, 16; his daughter,
KiAnn, 18; his live-in girlfriend, Catherine Ranft, 38, and her daughters,
Caroline, 4, and Meredith, 5 or 6. All but KiAnn Rivas, a student at the
University of Minnesota, lived at the Erin Township farmhouse.
All of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and found amid charred debris
in the basement of the farmhouse after the top floors collapsed.
Four victims were found "bunched together" in the northeast corner of the
basement, "all tightly intertwined," Cook said. He added that there didn't
appear to be evidence suggesting that they'd been tied up.
Preliminary autopsy results on the six are expected this morning.
Cook said he hoped to confirm the identities of the victims, as well as to
learn how they died and whether any of them were killed before the fire was
set.
Angry at system
As investigators began checking on Rivas' financial problems, a fuller picture
of the unemployed computer engineer began to emerge.
He was embittered by a divorce and upset with the U.S. legal system, which he
believed was rigged against men, according to documents and his former lawyer.
Early this week, as he faced a 90-day jail term for failure to pay child
support, Rivas also faced a court judgment for failing to pay the lawyer who
handled his 1996 divorce.
"He never said, 'I don't have the money,' " attorney Peter Watson recalled. "It
was, 'I'm not paying, period.' "
The case offers a glimpse of a man who appeared to become unstable during his
divorce and then sparred with a court system that sought to force him to pay
his debts.
Court records show Rivas accused Watson of being more concerned with the
interests of Rivas' wife during the divorce proceedings. He wrote Hennepin
County District Judge Delila Pierce this summer to claim that the court process
eventually cost him his job at Cypress Semiconductor Inc. in Bloomington. He
told her he had reneged on the legal bill to teach Watson a lesson.
"He should instead be paying me (more than his claim against me) for all the
damage he caused to my children and me," Rivas wrote the judge. "I didn't
change my mind about paying him. Instead I saw the need for him to realize the
size of the damage he caused."
Watson said he gave Rivas a vigorous and fair representation and obtained the
release of pension money for him. He sued Rivas for the legal fees. Judge
Pierce in August ordered Rivas to pay Watson $2,486.
Rivas didn't. So Watson returned to court in October to get the money. District
Judge Diana Eagon ordered Rivas to show cause why he shouldn't be held in
contempt of court. He testified at a hearing Nov. 23.
"His defense was, he was not happy with the legal system," Watson said. Rivas
had "a high level of dissatisfaction with the entire system, the process, and
he felt victimized."
Rivas' distrust included "a feeling that men were not treated fairly" by the
courts, Watson said.
"I don't know what happened to him during the divorce. He had, up until the
divorce, a steady job and a good career. He was responsible."
Earlier this week Gary Hanneman of Burnsville, who is married to Rivas' former
wife, described him as "vengeful" and said he threatened to "take her down
financially" after the divorce.
A school wonders
While investigators searched for clues Thursday, officials at
Montgomery-Lonsdale High School, where Tyler Rivas attended class and played
basketball, struggled to understand the loss, the third to hit the community
this fall.
In late October, a 20-year-old graduate who lived in Lonsdale committed
suicide. And shortly before Thanksgiving, a sophomore classmate of Tyler's
killed herself.
"Our community, and certainly our school -- we were reeling already," Principal
Karen Norell said. "And it's numbed us. The talk among teachers this morning
was 'How can we do this again?' "
Throughout the day, students stopped in the office and in hallways to console
one another or share hugs. Many wore tiny blue ribbons -- the color was picked
because it matched Tyler's eyes -- on their shirts or sweaters.
More than 100 students sought help by talking with teachers and counselors.
"We're letting them cry, we're letting them talk; there are a lot of hugs and
tears," said Ruth Gersemehl, a school social worker. "They've asked a whole lot
of questions that we don't have answers to. And some are angry."
Norell, too, found it difficult to understand.
She'd gone to the fire scene Wednesday and said "it just wiped you out. It took
the air out of you."
She described Tyler Rivas as "a regular kid, a fun kid. He was a prankster and
a jokester. Kids liked him. He had a kindness to him. . . . People ask me what
he was planning to do. And I say Tyler wasn't planning to do anything but play
basketball and flirt with girls."
Norell wondered, too, about Tyler's father and his possible role in the deaths.
She said she met him about a year ago, shortly after he moved to Rice County
and before Tyler enrolled in the district. Tyler previously had lived in
Burnsville with his mother, Norell said.
"If this is the Juan who perpetrated this, it's not the Juan I dealt with," she
said. "I'd see him in school, and he was always smiling, or I'd see him uptown,
and he'd walk across the street to shake my hand. He was always interested and
supportive, and he was quite outgoing, quite talkative.
"If we called and needed Juan at school, he would come."
Norell said Rivas told her last week that he and his former wife were disputing
child-support payments. But, she said, she had no idea it was so serious.
On Tuesday night, Rivas attended Tyler's season-opening basketball game, and
watched with Ranft and his daughter as Tyler, a reserve forward on the
sophomore team, played the final two quarters.
Norell said all seemed well within the family.
"Tuesday was a good day in Tyler's life," she said. "He was pretty fired up
about his first basketball game."
On Thursday, students were asking about funeral arrangements and making banners
and writing letters to Tyler's mother.
Tonight, when the sophomore team takes the court for its second game, teammates
will honor and remember him by wearing a red patch on their jersey sleeves.
Norell said a moment of silence is planned before tipoff.
-------------------------------------------------
The following two news articles both appear courtesy of the 12/11/99 online
edition of The St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper:
Saturday, December 11, 1999
6 deaths ruled murder-suicide
Inquiry: Troubles overwhelmed man
KERMIT PATTISON and LESLIE BROOKS SUZUKAMO STAFF WRITERS
FARIBAULT, MINN.
Primitivo Juan Rivas killed his son and daughter, his girlfriend and her two
young children, set his farmstead ablaze and committed suicide because of
desperation over debts and legal problems, authorities said Friday.
Investigators concluded that Rivas strangled and stabbed his family with a
butcher knife early Wednesday. Afterward, investigators believe, he used
gasoline and lighter fluid to ignite several fires around the farm and then
stabbed himself in the chest as his home turned into an inferno.
``It looked to me as if almost a funeral pyre was being placed,'' said state
Fire Marshal Tom Brace.
The six bodies were found in the ashes of the farmhouse that burned to the
ground early Wednesday in Erin Township in Rice County. Authorities said dental
records confirmed the remains belonged to Rivas, 48; his girlfriend, Catherine
Ranft, 38; her two children, Meredith Stepniewski, 6, and Caroline Stepniewski,
4; and Rivas' children KiAnn Rivas, 18, and Tyler Rivas, 16.
Rice County Sheriff Richard Cook said investigators believe Rivas snapped under
the pressure of mounting debts and anger over his legal problems. The
unemployed computer engineer faced foreclosure on his property, owed his
ex-wife at least $10,000 in child support and failed to report to the Dakota
County jail Monday to serve a 90-day sentence for delinquency in making the
payments.
``His impending incarceration seemed to weigh very heavily on his mind,'' said
Cook.
Investigators settled on the murder-suicide theory after a preliminary report
from the Ramsey County medical examiner's office concluded that the other five
victims were killed before the fire. Cook said investigators had no other
suspects or motive to explain the deaths.
Cook said investigators had pieced together the following sketchy version of
events:
On Tuesday night, Juan and KiAnn Rivas watched Tyler play in a basketball game
at Montgomery-Lonsdale High School.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Ranft spoke by telephone to her sister in Burnsville.
Just before midnight, Juan Rivas spoke with KiAnn's boyfriend by telephone.
Rivas said his daughter had car trouble and he would give her a ride back to
school in the morning. KiAnn was a student at the University of Minnesota.
What happened next remains a mystery. Cook said investigators suspect Rivas
began killing his family sometime before 4 a.m. Wednesday.
The medical examiner's office determined that Ranft died of strangulation and
head trauma, and her two children, Meredith and Caroline, both died of
strangulation.
Then, investigators theorize, Rivas killed his two teen-age children in another
room. The medical examiner's office concluded that Tyler died of sharp-force
injuries and head trauma and KiAnn died by violent means that could not be
determined because her body was severely damaged in the fire.
Authorities said Rivas methodically set fires in several outbuildings and moved
vehicles, a boat and a camping trailer next to the house so they would burn
with the house.
``A lot of premeditation and a lot of thought went into how that fire would
move,'' said Brace. ``This was not a random act where someone `flicked a Bic.'
Somebody had careful planning. The idea was total devastation.''
As the fires began to burn, investigators believe, Rivas stabbed himself in the
chest, puncturing his aorta. The autopsy found signs of smoke inhalation,
suggesting he remained alive while the fire burned. Cook said investigators
found a large butcher knife near Rivas' body.
The fire quickly consumed the farm, about 40 miles south of the Twin Cities.
Brace said the entire house collapsed into the basement and investigators had
to excavate up to 8 feet of debris to recover the badly burned bodies.
A former co-worker was stunned by the investigators' conclusions.
Roger Rolbiecki worked with Rivas at Cypress Semiconductor, in Bloomington, in
the late 1980s and early '90s and remembered Rivas as a gentle friend and hard
worker.
``He was an absolutely mild-mannered guy,'' said Rolbiecki. ``He got along with
everybody. There has got to be something more to this on what drove Juan to
this extreme.''
The lawyer who represented Rivas during his 1996 divorce on Friday recalled his
own conflict with his client.
Attorney Peter Watson, of Minneapolis, said he had to sue Rivas for failing to
pay his $2,400 bill. Watson received a Hennepin County District Court judgment
in his favor last month.
Rivas had told Watson that he would not pay the fee because he was dissatisfied
with the attorney's work, but Watson said Rivas had already negotiated all the
terms of his own divorce before hiring Watson to look over some last-minute
changes.
Watson added that ``there was nothing in his demeanor that would indicate he
had any propensity for violence.''
``He was generally angry with the whole deal,'' the attorney added.
------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, December 11, 1999
Suicide: Explanations explored
RUBEN ROSARIO STAFF WRITER
Juan Rivas had enough financial stresses in his life to overwhelm most people.
Authorities now believe they may have helped push him to kill five members of
his extended family in a tragic last act of desperation and defiance.
Experts who research suicide, the eighth leading cause of death in the United
States, say financial setbacks such as the ones Rivas faced are usually present
in such cases.
``When men kill their families, this is the kind of scenario we often see,''
said Charles Ewing, professor of law and psychology at the State University of
New York at Buffalo and a published author and researcher on the subject of
familial homicides.
``Generally speaking, their economic legs have been knocked from underneath
them, and men feel they are the center of the family,'' Ewing added. ``As the
most important person in the family, he believes that the family can't possibly
go on without him and if he kills himself, then the rest of the family has to
go.''
Dr. Lanny Berman, who has researched murder-suicides and serves as executive
director of the American Association of Suicidology in Washington, D.C.,
explains it as a symbiotic connection between the killer and his victims.
``In a multiple homicide-suicide, the person feels that his life is
intrinsically meshed with others to the point that they can't distinguish
themselves from them. They are, in a sense, part of his ego.''
The intimate, intensely personal methods Rivas allegedly chose to kill his
victims before setting the fire that consumed their rural Rice County house
also strengthens the theory that he was killing part of himself through them,
experts say.
There are no national statistics kept on murder-suicides, and funding is
lacking on suicide research, prevention and intervention. But one study in the
early 1990s estimated that murder-suicides account for less than 1 percent of
the average 31,000 suicides and 20,000 homicides that occur annually. It is
believed that about a dozen murder-suicides take place each week in the United
States.
All but 5 percent of the perpetrators are men, most are middle-age white males,
and firearms are the weapons of choice in three out of every four cases,
studies have shown.
Rivas, a 48-year-old unemployed computer engineer, had been fired from his
$50,000-a-year job more than a year ago, according to public records. He had
been unable to find similar work in recent months and was chastised by a judge
for not doing enough to land a job. He was supposed to surrender Monday to
begin serving a 90-day jail term for non-payment of more than $10,000 in child
support and alimony payments to his ex-wife.
Rivas, described as a likable man and loving father, was also facing
foreclosure on his 10-acre farmstead.
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