Lee County deputies found bloody scene at Lehigh Acres home

By Dennis Culver • May 15, 2010

1:10 A.M. — The 68-year-old Lehigh Acres man charged with killing his 48-year-old wife shot her with an AK-47 then tied her dead body to his car and dragged her to a wooded area, according to the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

Zacarias Jaime Izquierdo was arrested Thursday night on a charge of premeditated murder in the shooting death of Maria DeLourdes Bauza.

Deputies were called to 21st St. Southwest in Lehigh Acres at 9:36 a.m.

Wednesday about a suspicious person covered in blood entering the residence. Deputies arrived at the residence to find a gruesome crime scene.

According to a sheriff's office report:

Deputy Raymond Dimm saw a blue compact car parked in a vacant wooded residential lot and a substantial blood trail leading from the car through grass and dirt and across the street to the driveway of the residence.

Dimm checked the car and proceeded to the residence, where he saw a blood-soaked blanket, blood covering the garage floor and blood splattered inside the residence.

Izquierdo - with blood covering his arms, face, abdomen and legs - approached the deputy.

Izquierdo did not speak English and could not communicate with Dimm as to what happened, so the deputy checked him for injuries.

The Lehigh Acres Fire Control District arrived and Lt. Rudy Naranjo was able to communicate with Izquierdo in Spanish.

Izquierdo told Naranjo he had just killed his wife and her body was underneath his car.

Dimm ran over to the car to find Bauza dead behind the rear of the car and tied to its undercarriage with an orange extension cord.

Izquierdo told investigators Bauza hit him with a shovel, so he went to his bedroom and got a AK-47 semiautomatic rifle out of the closet, loaded the gun and approached her as she sat in the dining room.

Civilian model AK-47s do not require permits, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. They cost between $400 and $1,000.

The suspect said Bauza saw the gun and called him crazy, to which he replied, "Now you're going to pay for what you've done to me."

Bauza tried to escape the house through the garage, the report said, but Izquierdo shot her several times. She fell to the garage floor and died.

Izquierdo told investigators he released the ammunition from the gun, placed it on the kitchen counter and went into the garage to try and load Bauza's body into his car.

When he couldn't get her body in the car, he used an extension cord to tie the body to the rear undercarriage of the car, and he dragged the body out of the garage and across the street.

Izquierdo left the car and the body in the wooded lot.

While at the crime scene, Izquierdo began complaining of chest pains and was transported to Lehigh Regional Medical Center for treatment.

The medical staff, aware that Izquierdo claimed he was struck with a shovel by his wife, X-rayed him as a precaution and could not find any injuries.

Izquierdo's attending doctor told investigators there were no indications he was struck with anything, and investigators did not locate a shovel at the residence during a search.

They were able to determine a neighbor borrowed a shovel from Izquierdo about four weeks ago and had never returned it. It was found in the neighbor's backyard.

From: http://www.news-press.com/article/20100515/CRIME/5150368/Lee-County-deputies-found-bloody-scene-at-Lehigh-Acres-home