A man who allegedly bludgeoned two boys to death with a hammer and kidnapped their mother at the Jersey Shore surrendered yesterday because his hiding spot was too cold.
Ricardo Gonzalez, 24, had run into the woods near a Garden State Parkway rest stop Thursday night after the mother, Wanda Gonzalez, freed herself and ran out when he stopped the car.
Toledo was charged with the murders of Zabadiel, 7, and Karlo, 14, and the kidnapping and robbery of their mother, said Ocean County Prosecutor Thomas Kelaher. He was held on $2 million bail yesterday.
The suspect, an immigrant from Mexico, shares a last name but is not related to his victims, and is not romantically involved with the mother, Kelaher said. He had been living as a boarder with the family in their Stafford Township home since October.
The bloody bodies of the two boys were found Thursday night after Wanda Gonzalez called her ex-husband and the boys' father, Carlos Gonzalez, to tell him that she had been abducted and forced to withdraw money from an ATM.
Carlos Gonzalez went to the home and found the bodies of his sons in the basement of their split-level home on Middie Lane. He collapsed after seeing the horrific scene and had to be treated for shock.
Authorities said Wanda Gonzalez had been hogtied with neckties and wires and driven away in her own minivan, but she managed to loosen her bonds as her kidnapper drove along the Garden State Parkway. When the abductor stopped at the Monmouth service area near exit 100 at about 8:30 p.m., the woman ran screaming into the station. The suspect fled into a nearby wooded area and crawled into a drainage pipe that runs under the parkway.
Soaking wet, he used a cell phone to call police and say he was freezing and needed help. Ricardo Gonzalez was taken into custody as he shuffled toward the entrance to the rest area concession building.
Ricardo Gonzalez, who is undocumented, spoke mostly in Spanish and stared at the floor during a brief court appearance in Ocean County Superior Court in Toms River. Authorities said a motive for the killings was not immediately clear.
"It's quite a tragedy," said Marilyn Gallagher, a neighbor. "I don't know why they take it out on little kids."
Originally published on January 21, 2006
