Man kills 3 generations of family, including baby, in Modesto, police say

Three generations of a family are dead after a man who lived with them killed a grandmother, mother and baby, Modesto police said.

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Shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday, Modesto police officers came to a home on the 1600 block of Monterey Avenue for a report of a disturbance. When they entered the residence, they first found Fabiola Gonzalez-Nunez, 23, dead from stab wounds. As they moved through the home, they then discovered the body of Maria Silvia Nunez-Villalobos, 54, and a two-week-old baby, both with stab wounds. Nunez-Villalobos was declared deceased at the scene, and the baby was taken to a nearby hospital where he died. A second child, a 3-year-old, was discovered uninjured in the home. Police are not identifying the children. 

Fabiola was the mother of the infant and the 3-year-old, and Maria was Fabiola’s mother, police said.

As officers processed the scene, they learned the suspect might still be in the area, Modesto police said in a weekend news release. To err on the side of caution, nearby Orville Wright Elementary School was evacuated, and students and staff were moved to La Loma Junior High while police searched for the suspect. 

Police found the suspect, Joaquin Escoto, 28, hiding in a residence not far from the crime scene. He was arrested on suspicion of three counts of murder and an outstanding warrant for an alleged DUI in Modesto. 

“Based on the information currently available,” Escoto was living in the home with the victims and was in a relationship with Fabiola Gonzalez-Nunez, police said. While the “exact nature of their relationship remains under investigation,” police said Escoto and Gonzalez-Nunez are the parents of both children in the home. 

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“It’s something we’re trying to figure out because … we never saw him act violent or nothing. We never expected this,” a relative of the family told ABC10. 

Escoto remains in custody and is not eligible for bail. He is due in court on Monday for an arraignment hearing.

“The devastating circumstances surrounding this tragedy have left our family shattered,” a GoFundMe raising money for the victims’ family reads. “In a single moment, generations of love, memories, and dreams for the future were taken from us.”