The dispatcher on the 911 call sounded momentarily taken aback when the Union County Sheriff’s Department sergeant first described what was inside the home on Lincrest Terrace on a January morning.
“And what’s going on there?” she asked, when the first call came in at 10:50 a.m.
“It’s an eviction,” replied Union County Sgt. Frank Miller on the other end of the line.
The dispatcher paused for a moment. “It’s an eviction and you have two unresponsive juveniles?” she said, sounding slightly confused, repeating what Miller said seconds earlier.
“Yes, and an unresponsive male,” replied the sergeant. After another pause, he added: “Looks like gunshot wounds.”
Newly obtained audio recordings of the 911 calls made on Jan. 17 following the murder-suicide of a family of four in Union Township give a glimpse into the initial confusion as sheriff’s officers arrived to serve an eviction notice at a quiet suburban home and found the entire family dead inside.
The bodies of Ruben Alarcon, 51, Andrea Alarcon, 42, and their two young daughters were found in their home around 10:30 a.m. by members of the county’s sheriff’s department, officials said at the time.
NJ Advance Media obtained the brief recordings through an open public records request, but the township’s police department denied a request for the police report.
A joint investigation by the prosecutor’s office and the township police department found Andrea Alarcon fatally shot her husband and two daughters before shooting herself, authorities said shortly after the deaths.
Authorities have said very little about the case, which is a rare murder-suicide in which a mother killed her entire family.
The first 911 call from sheriff’s officers on Jan. 17 lasts about a minute and a half, and the second is less than 40 seconds.
In the second 911 call, dialed at 10:54 a.m., Union County Sheriff’s Department sergeant speaks to a different dispatcher and relays officers were still looking for the gun at the house. “Hey, just be advised, an adult — they have gunshot wounds, but they still haven’t recovered the gun yet,” he said.
The two adults and both children had gunshot wounds, the Union County Prosecutor’s Office said. The murder weapon was eventually located near Andrea Alarcon’s body, officials said at the time.
Sheriff’s officers discovered the bodies when they arrived at the home for an eviction, according to the recordings. But, county officials have not provided any other details.
“We understand the public’s interest in this case, however out of respect for the families involved, we will not be releasing any further information at this time,” Lauren Farinas, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, said in a statement released on Jan. 19.
“Our thoughts remain with those affected by this tragedy,” she said.
Farinas said the prosecutor’s office doesn’t have any additional information to release on the nearly three-month-old case. A spokesman for the township’s police department directed inquiries to the prosecutor’s office. The sheriff’s office did not respond to requests to comment.
“It is still in the prosecutor’s hands,” said Union Township Mayor Manuel Figueiredo. “No information on our end.”
School and district officials at Hannah Caldwell Elementary School, where the family’s two daughters, Scarlett, 9, and Emma, 6, attended, also did not respond to a request for comment.
The school district’s superintendent sent a letter to the community confirming the two girls’ deaths shortly after the family was found dead.
“The impact of the death of these two young lives resonates throughout our entire community,” part of the letter said. “It is a challenging time for us all, but we are determined in our commitment to do everything within our power to help our students and staff navigate the effects of this tragic event.”
It’s unclear why Andrea Alarcon allegedly shot her family members and herself. Authorities have not disclosed a motive.
Public records reveal the family appeared to have financial problems.
The family’s house was being foreclosed on by the bank, records show. It was sold in a sheriff’s sale on Oct. 31 for $332,000, according to the foreclosure documents. The Alarcon family, listed as the owners before the foreclosure, had owned the house since 2000.
Murder-suicides in which a mother kills her entire family is rare, said said Susan Hatters Friedman, a forensic psychiatrist at Case Western Reserve University, who has studied the phenomenon — known as filicide — for years. Maternal filicide is when a mother kills her children.
There are roughly 500 annual cases in which an American parent is arrested for the homicide of their child, but a large percentage of cases end in suicide and no arrest, she said.
It is far more common for fathers to kill their children and wives than for mothers to commit the murders, Hatters Friedman said.
“It’s really not a usual thing that a mother kills the whole family, and the father as well,” she said. “That tends to be a crime that is gendered in the opposite direction usually.”
In a 2005 research paper on filicide-suicide cases, Hatters Friedman and her co-authors found no mothers in their sample attempted familicide — annihilation of the entire family.
The motives for killing families are sometimes related to mental health issues, but not always, she said. The cases sometimes involve stressed parents, parenting or financial issues and a lack of social support.
It is unclear what happened in Andrea Alarcon’s case or if the foreclosure on the family house was tied to the motive for the killings.
A foreclosure “would certainly be a stressor on families,” Hatters Friedman said. “But that said, you know, the vast, vast, vast majority of people who it happens to aren’t thinking of killing their children.”
Union Funeral Home-Lytwyn & Grillo organized a fundraiser in January with a goal of raising $25,000 to help the Alarcon family pay for funeral and cemetery expenses.
A funeral Mass for the Alarcon family was held in January at at St. Michael’s Church in Union. It was followed by a private burial.
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Brianna Kudisch may be reached at bkudisch@njadvancemedia.com.
