READING, Pa. – A family from the Dominican Republic closes another chapter to a tragic story during a sentencing hearing Tuesday afternoon, in relation to a triple homicide in Reading last year.<\/p>\n
A family traveled to the U.S. and obtained justice.<\/p>\n
“We’re grateful because it’s not a relief, but the closing of a chapter,” says Heinel Medrano, Geraldina Peguero Mancebo’s cousin.<\/p>\n
The case has been an emotional roller coaster since Geraldina Peguero Mancebo, her husband Junior Cabrera Colon, and their 1-year-old baby went missing in Reading.<\/p>\n
“At first we thought maybe she was scared, she might be running,” Medrano says.<\/p>\n
Days later, Junior was found dead.<\/p>\n
“We thought she was alive because scammers gave us false hope,” Medrano says.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Jose Rodriguez from Reading contacted the family in the Dominican Republic, pretending to be a worried friend.<\/p>\n
“Everyone thought he was helping us until we found out a few days later that it was him,” Medrano says.<\/p>\n
The truth emerged when police called Geraldina’s sister.<\/p>\n
“She screamed so loud everyone realized it,” Medrano says.<\/p>\n
Geraldina and Junior met their tragic end with a bullet.<\/p>\n
“The baby got the worst of it,” Medrano says.<\/p>\n
Their baby was thrown alive into a pond, drowning to death.<\/p>\n
The family shares a message: “We need to learn to forgive because I can’t imagine what that man must have in his head to do that,” Medrano says.<\/p>\n
Like many immigrants, they had come seeking a better life.<\/p>\n
“My cousin understood that by coming here she would give her mother and children back home a better life, it was a sacrifice,” Medrano says.<\/p>\n
They leave young children behind in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n
“I promise we’re going to take care of the children, raise them, and do everything we can to give them the best life they deserve,” Medrano says.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez faces life in prison.<\/p>\n
“Breathing the same air as him was so difficult,” Medrano says.<\/p>\n
But forgiveness.<\/p>\n
“It was truly liberating,” Medrano says.<\/p>\n
They remember their loved ones:<\/p>\n
“From my cousin, to always carry a smile and have faith,” Medrano says. “From Junior, patience. He was always calm and loved his kids.”<\/p>\n
The family says they will now travel back home and focus efforts on providing the best life they can to the orphaned children in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. – A family from the Dominican Republic closes another chapter to a tragic story during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[13323,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-166738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-dominican-republic","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}