Police say the woman, Atlanta Deveney, 35, was choked and beaten, and her child, Elijah Rosado, 12, was stabbed in the neck and chest before the apartment caught fire.
Atlanta Deveney's neighbors heard sounds of a violent struggle Saturday morning, including a woman's screams. Then they heard nothing, but smelled smoke.
Police said Monday that Deveney's boyfriend, Carlos Rivera, choked and beat to death the 35-year-old woman inside her Wissinoming apartment and fatally stabbed her 12-year-old son, Elijah Rosado, possibly as the boy tried to help his mother.
To conceal his crimes, police said, Rivera torched the apartment and prevented neighbors from trying to douse the flames.
"He was outside while neighbors were trying to get inside to put the fire out," Homicide Capt. James Clark said Monday during a news conference at Police Headquarters. "He was telling them, don't go inside, saying, 'I'll go in, I'll take care of it.' But he never did."
Rivera, who has a rap sheet for violent arrests, fled the house on the 4600 block of Howell Street before police and firefighters arrived just before 9 a.m. Police had him in custody Tuesday morning.
Firefighters found Deveney's and her son's bodies in a closet under a mattress, Clark said.
While investigators were "still putting together the pieces of the crime," Clark said Rivera might have turned on Rosado when the child tried to stop him from attacking his mother.
"One theory is that he was physically assaulting the mother," Clark said, "and that the son came and tried to come to her aid, and with that, he pulled out a knife and violently stabbed and killed the little boy."
Authorities said Rivera had an outstanding warrant for a gunpoint robbery against Deveney about three months ago.
Clark said Deveney had a longtime abusive relationship with Rivera, who was not Rosado's father.
Despite the couple's past, Rivera was seen helping Deveney when she and her son moved into the Howell Street apartment just last week, Clark said.
Now, police believe he murdered the woman and her child just days later.
Firefighters found Deveney's and her son's bodies in a closet under a mattress. While investigators were "still putting together the pieces of the crime," Clark said Rivera might have turned on Rosado when the child tried to stop him from attacking his mother."One theory is that he was physically assaulting the mother," Homicide Capt. James Clark said, "and that the son came and tried to come to her aid, and with that, he pulled out a knife and violently stabbed and killed the little boy."
Some related articles:
http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/atlanta-deveney-and-teen-son-elijah-rosado-identified-as-bodies-found-under-burning-mattress-59729/
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/10/07/fatal-house-fire-in-wissinoming-being-ruled-a-double-homicide/
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/10/08/double-murder-charges-filed-in-wissinoming-house-fire/