Triple Murder
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Triple Murder
February 25, 1999
Reuters
(ORANGE COUNTY) -- Authorities say that the mother and two pre-school
children
found dead in an east Orange County apartment last week were murdered.
Sheriff's detectives say it appears 18-year-old Deszeray Heath was
murdered,
then her body was set on fire to cover the crime. Two-year-old Quanzetta
Unique
Williams and her nine- month-old brother, Quavick Lenard Williams, were
left in
their beds to die from smoke inhalation. Detectives say the victims'
husband
and father, 21-year-old LaVictor Williams, is a suspect. He found the
bodies
February 17th.
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The following appears courtesy of today's Associated Press news wire:
2/25/99
Father suspected of setting fire that killed mother, 2 children
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A fire at an apartment where a mother and two
children
died was intentionally set, investigators said.
Someone killed 18-year-old Deszeray Monique Heath and set her ablaze and
left
the children to choke in their beds from the smoke, Orange County
sheriff's
investigators said Wednesday.
The killer had access to the apartment and set the fire to cover up the
slaying, Sgt. Ron Corlew told reporters.
Ms. Heath and her children - 2-year-old Quanzetta Unique Williams and
9-month-old Quavick Lenard Williams - died in the Feb. 17 fire at the
Sunchase
Apartments east of Orlando.
LaVictor Williams, 21, father of the children and Ms. Heath's boyfriend,
has
become a strong suspect, Corlew said.
``He's the only one who last saw them alive and first saw them dead on
the
scene,'' Corlew said.
Williams has told authorities he left the apartment at about 4:30 a.m.
and
returned to find the bodies shortly after 8 p.m.
Although police have confirmed some of what Williams said he did during
his
16-hour absence, some time is unaccounted for, Corlew said.
Wednesday's announcement didn't surprise Ms. Heath's neighbors, some of
whom
recalled the disputes between the couple that spilled into the parking
lot.
Some said they had seen Ms. Heath pounding on a car with Williams in it.
Corlew called the arson ``atrocious'' and said it could have been worse
had the
fire spread through seven adjacent apartment units.
Instead, the fire snuffed itself out pretty quickly, he said.
Investigators wouldn't say how Ms. Heath died or what weapons were found
inside
the apartment because no one has been arrested.
Crimeline and the State Fire Marshals Office are offering a $7,500 cash
reward
for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 2/25/99 online edition of The
Orlando
Sentinel newspaper:
Police: Kids died in fire set by killer
Pedro Ruz Gutierrez
of The Sentinel Staff
Published in The Orlando Sentinel on February 25, 1999.
The fire at an apartment where a mother and two children died last week
was no
accident.
Someone killed the 18-year-old mother, set her ablaze and left the
children to
choke in their beds from the smoke, Orange County sheriff's
investigators said
Wednesday.
The killer had access to the apartment and set the fire to cover up the
slaying, sheriff's Sgt. Ron Corlew told reporters.
Deszeray Monique Heath and her children -- 2-year-old Quanzetta Unique
Williams
and 9-month-old Quavick Lenard Williams -- were buried last weekend
after the
Feb. 17 fire at the Sunchase Apartments east of Orlando.
Corlew called the arson "atrocious" and said it could have been worse
had the
fire spread through seven adjacent apartment units.
Instead, "The fire snuffed itself out pretty quickly," he said.
LaVictor Williams, 21, father of the children and Heath's boyfriend, has
become
a strong suspect, Corlew said.
"He's the only one who last saw them alive and first saw them dead on
the
scene," the homicide sergeant said.
Williams has told authorities he left the apartment at about 4:30 a.m.
and
returned to find the bodies shortly after 8 p.m.
"He's been cooperative to a point," Corlew said. ". . . Each time we
interview
him and they get to the hard questions, he gets defensive."
Some of what Williams said he did during his 16-hour absence has been
confirmed, Corlew said, but some time is unaccounted for.
"We know where he went, he confirmed some of that," he said.
Investigators aren't saying how Heath died or what weapons were found
inside
the apartment because no one has been arrested and the investigation is
still
open.
Williams has not commented publicly, but his mother, Iris Johnson, told
The
Orlando Sentinel last week that her son had nothing to do with the
deaths and
was deeply distraught about them.
She said he has nothing to hide, despite a criminal record, and that he
resented being portrayed as a suspect in the media.
Initially, homicide and arson investigators referred to Williams only as
a
cooperating witness.
Wednesday's announcement did not surprise Heath's neighbors at the
apartment
complex off Goldenrod Road.
Several recalled the disputes between the couple that spilled into the
parking
lot.
Some said they had seen Heath pounding on a car with Williams in it.
Elizabeth Nolan, an 18-year-old college student, said she and her
roommate
broke their lease and are ready to leave by month's end.
"Walking to my car at night, it's an eerie feeling we get around here,"
Nolan
said .
Williams, according to neighbors, didn't seem to spend a lot of time at
the
apartment but when he showed up, they said, he always had different
cars.
Investigators have looked into whether Williams' relationships with
other women
had any connection to the fire.
He has at least two other children with two other women, one of whom
once got a
court order against Heath because of threats and harrassment.
"It hasn't led us anywhere except that there'd been problems between him
and
Ms. Heath and he and others," Corlew said.
Crimeline and the State Fire Marshals Office are offering a $7,500 cash
reward
for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of Heath's
killer.
------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 2/19/99 online edition of The
Orlando
Sentinel newspaper:
Father: Woman 'killed my kids'
Pedro Ruz Gutierrez
of The Sentinel Staff
Published in The Orlando Sentinel on February 19, 1999.
Investigators searched through soot Thursday for answers to a mysterious
fire
that killed an 18-year-old mother and her two children at their east
Orange
County apartment.
The body of Deszeray Heath, 18, was charred, but her 9-month-old son,
Quavick
Lenard Williams, and 2-year-old daughter, Quanzetta Unique Williams,
showed no
evidence of burns, officials said.
Heath's boyfriend discovered their bodies shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday
and
then shouted to the world that she had killed the children, neighbors
said.
"I woke up with the guy screaming. . . . He was screaming, 'She killed
my kids,
she killed my kids,' " neighbor Elizabeth Nolan recalled Thursday.
Nolan, 18, said the man paced up and down his neighbors' apartment units
at the
Sunchase Apartments off Goldenrod Road.
Investigators offered no theory Thursday on what they think happened.
The
deaths are suspicious, according to a spokesman for the Orange County
Sheriff's
Office, which is conducting a full-scale homicide investigation.
Several residents of the complex said the couple fought often, sometimes
sparring in the parking lot outside the eight-unit apartment building.
Other residents recall seeing children wailing outside the apartment and
hearing the yells of the parents through building walls.
"We just heard numerous fights," said Nolan, who, like Heath and her
boyfriend,
rented a $619-a-month apartment. "We got the feeling they weren't stable
after
a while."
Deputy sheriffs had no record of responding to disputes at the apartment
building.
While residents tried to make sense of their young neighbors' fatal
encounter
with fire and smoke, arson and homicide investigators combed through the
apartment collecting more evidence for lab tests Thursday.
They sifted through soot-filled debris, fabrics and furniture at the
sealed
apartment for clues. Samples from the building at 7514 Suntree Circle
were
forwarded to a state laboratory by the State Fire Marshal's Office.
Because the children apparently did not die of burns, forensic
pathologists
will be paying close attention to carbon-monoxide levels in the bodies.
What
they find will determine whether the victims were breathing smoke at the
time
of their deaths, veteran fire investigators said.
Heath was found in one bedroom and the children were in another,
sheriff's
investigators said. Cpl. Angelo Nieves, a sheriff's spokesman, said the
father
gave a statement to investigators and is cooperating with them.
He is considered a witness, not a suspect, Nieves said. Authorities did
not
release his name, but birth records for the children list LaVictor
Williams,
21, as the father. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Court records show both Heath and her boyfriend grew up fast. At 15, she
was
giving birth to Quanzetta at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children &
Women. Last
summer, she gave birth to Quavick.
In April 1997, a judge issued a court order barring Heath from contact
with a
neighbor on Forest City Road who accused her of threats, harassment,
scratching
her car, breaking her windows and following her to work.
The neighbor, Shannon Graham, also said Heath had attempted to kidnap
her son,
once pulled a gun on her and kept knives and other weapons at home.
Three years older, LaVictor Williams also became entangled with the law
early
on. At 15, he was convicted of felony drug possession and served time.
In June 1993, a year later, he held up four pedestrians on South
Parramore
Avenue with a 9 mm and shot at one of them.
Charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder and robbery, he
was
convicted of robbery with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to three
years
minus time already served in 1993.
He served about four months and was given probation, which he violated
in early
1994 when deputy sheriffs charged him with sale and delivery of cocaine.