Friday, Dec. 19, 2008

Fort Worth police reopen investigation of murder-suicide

By JAY BOARD

Police have reopened the investigation of a double murder-suicide that claimed the lives of three family members in early August, according to a recent letter from the city of Fort Worth to the Texas attorney general’s office.

The letter is in response to a request, filed by The Keller Citizen under the state’s open-records law, for documents related to the incident in which James Vece, 44, apparently shot his wife, Eliana Vece, 36, and stepdaughter, Mailen Vece, 14, then himself in their far north Fort Worth home.

"[T]he investigation has been reopened ... Because the City believes the release of the submitted information would interfere with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of a crime, the City requests a ruling from your office concluding that the City may withhold this information," the letter said.

The letter is dated Dec. 10 but was received by the Citizen on Tuesday. The request seeks, among other information, results of a police search of computers found in the Veces’ house which may have contained images and videos of Mailen and other women.

Few details were available by press time, including what prompted the decision for police to take another look at the case. Detectives were not available for comment. A police spokesman, Lt. Paul Henderson, said he did not know of the investigation’s status.

Homicide Detective Sarah Jane Waters said last month that the case was closed in October, an unusually long investigation. No motive was determined, largely due to the Vece family’s private nature, she said.

However, Waters asked city legal staff on Nov. 20 to withhold the requested documents, citing the reopened investigation, said Cherl Byles, the assistant city attorney who wrote the letter.

A related police report was released Nov. 12 after the attorney general’s office ruled it could not be withheld. The city had argued the report was private because it contained information about suspected child abuse.

In the report, a summary of initial findings revealed that a hidden camera in Mailen’s bedroom was recording Aug. 6 when police arrived at the house in the 4600 block of Birchbend Lane and discovered each of the family members had been shot the head early the previous morning. The footage was apparently being saved to a computer that was part of a complex set of electronic equipment and recording devices, the report said. The setup was in a room that could be locked with a key.

The summary also said that about three weeks before the shootings, Eliana Vece, a first-grade bilingual teacher at Brandenburg Elementary School in Irving, told a co-worker that her husband had asked her daughter to undress in front of him. The co-worker, who has not been named, did not immediately notify Child Protective Services.