Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Houston, TX: Suspect arrested in murder of woman, her niece

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Authorities are on the scene of a double murder in northwest Harris County. Police say an aunt and her niece were ambushed inside a garage early Monday morning.
It happened at a home on Mosewood and Hollister at around 1:20am as the two women were returning home.

Late in the afternoon, Harris County deputies arrested a suspect in this case. His name is Ricky Prado, and he is the estranged husband of one of the victims. Sources tell us he was still being questioned by homicide detectives late Monday night. The arrest comes no surprise to the victim's family.

Well after dark, family of the victims were still being comforted by relatives and friends. There has been a steady flow of support, in fact, since early Monday morning, when word first spread that 29-year-old Rachel Prado and her 19-year-old niece Jasmine Rhodes had been ambushed in the garage and shot to death.

"Before I was a wreck, I was a wreck," Ronda Madison said.

Madison lost both her daughter and her sister.

Investigators say the two women had just parked the car in the garage at Prado's mother's house when they were killed. She and her two children had been living there since leaving her husband last fall. He was spotted running away from the scene.

Madison says he had threatened Prado before.

"He'd come over here and do a lot of damage to the cars, houses," she said.

But Rhodes, a college student studying criminal justice, and Prado, an aspiring nurse, were unsuspecting. Their family now is left to grieve.

"He couldn't take the fact that she wanted a divorce and move on, and he started going crazy," Madison said.

The couple had been married for 11 years. Their two children, ages 12 and eight, were inside the home with their grandmother at the shooting. We're told they didn't hear anything but they're now trying to understand what happened.

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