PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A man accused of stabbing two women to death in the basement of a Northeast Philadelphia home is now being charged with murder and other crimes.
On Thursday, May 23, police identified the double homicide suspect as 43-year-old Leandro Barberena of Philadelphia.
The two victims, identified Wednesday as 75-year-old Angela Trejo and 58-year-old Alma Barberena, were found May 21 in a home on the 6000 block of Bingham Street. Both women, who police said were mother and daughter, suffered multiple stab wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene.
At a press conference Thursday, Philadelphia Homicide Unit Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom said Leandro Barberena was Alma Barberena’s husband and was the person who called 911 to report the deaths.
Police said Leandro told officers he found the two women covered in blood in the basement.
Ransom said Alma had gone to her mother’s house earlier in the day to help with a telemedicine appointment, and investigators believe Leandro showed up at the house at some point.
Police said Alma Barberena had defensive wounds and Leandro had cuts on his hands, which he told investigators he had done while moving tiles.
Investigators found a bloody glove at the scene of the murders and found the matching glove after executing a search warrant on Leandro’s car, police said.
Ransom said there is no history of reports of domestic violence at the Barberena residence and there is no clear motive for the killings at this time.
“We don’t understand the matter here,” he said.
Jack Burkhart, who lived near the victims, told CBS News Philadelphia that Trejo and Barberena were “just really nice people,” and that he spoke to the Trejo the day before she was killed.
“Just to say hello,” he said. ‘She asked how my wife was doing, and [it’s] It’s just hard to believe because they were really nice neighbors.”
