Survivor of family murder-suicide speaks

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) -- A teen left in shock is trying to stay strong after a family tragedy left his two younger brothers murdered after, police said, his father killed them.

Though Manny Zavala has been left in shock, he hopes the sting of a needle will help ease his pain. He hopes the dark ink will erase the darkness from the last few days after, police said, his father, Isidro Zavala brutally killed his two younger brothers and then himself.

According to authorities, he murdered his sons to spite his estranged wife. "No mother should have to bury her kids first," said Manny. "No brother should have to bury their little baby brothers first, when they're so young. It doesn't seem real at all."

"It's absolutely shocking," said David Robinowitz. "It's straight out of a horror movie."

Early Saturday morning, Isidro broke into his wife's Boynton Beach home dressed in black, armed with two guns, ammo, duct tape and scissors.

Police said he first got Eduardo out of bed and strangled him with a rope. Victoria Zavala heard the commotion and saw what was happening. Police said she begged him to kill her instead. "She begged, 'Why would you kill them? Why didn't you kill me?'" said Detective Chris Crawford, "and he said, 'No, you're going to live with this.'"

"I just feel sad," said a young classmate of the victims. "I don't know what the kids did to him. I just feel sad."

The crime was premeditated, according to police. Isidro wrote his son Manny an emotional letter that is being held as evidence by police. He said he has yet to read it. "It might all be explained in the letter that he left me," said Manny, "about what he did and why he did it, but I'm always going to remember them together. No matter what people might say about my father, he loved his sons, he loved his wife."

Manny got a tattoo on Monday in memory of his father and brothers. "What he's doing is trying to heal himself by getting a tattoo," said tattoo artist David Robinowitz, "and I want to help him in that process."

"It's kind of hard to believe," said Manny. "I woke up the next day hoping it was just a bad dream or a nightmare or something, but it hit me the next day that it really did happen, and it really was real. We're going to bury the three of them together. We're always going to remember them together."

The bad dream was made a little brighter for Manny by his new tattoo donated to him by Stroke of Genius Tattoo Parlor.

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