Man fatally shot wife, teen daughter and himself, police say

FORT WORTH -- A man apparently shot his wife, teenage daughter and then himself during a loud argument at their home in far north Fort Worth, police said.

The family then apparently lay dead in the home for two days after neighbors mistook the gunshots for firecrackers.

The bodies were found Wednesday evening by a Fort Worth police officer who had gone into the house in the 4600 block of Birchbend Lane.

Irving police, who had been called by Irving school officials, had asked Fort Worth police to check on the welfare of the woman, said Lt. Paul Henderson, police spokesman.

An officer found the body of the girl, 14, in a bed, with her mother, 36, slumped next to her on the floor, Henderson said.

The 44-year-old man was lying in the room's doorway, shot in the head. The gun lay near his body, Henderson said.

The victims were identified as Eliana Vece, and her daughter Mailen Pizarro, according to the Rev. Roland Johnson, pastor at Primera Iglesia Bautista of Keller, where the mother and daughter attended church.

Johnson said the mother and daughter were from Argentina. Johnson said the man's name was Jim. According to Tarrant Appraisal District records, the owner of the house is James Vece.

Eliana Vece was a teacher in the Irving school district and has taught at Brandenburg Elementary School in Irving.

The Fort Worth officer who went to check on the woman's welfare got no answer at the door.

"After speaking with a couple of neighbors, he ran into a neighbor who said he had heard yelling coming from the house" about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, Henderson said.

The neighbor said he heard sounds that he thought were fireworks, Henderson said.

With that information, the officer opened a window of the house and found the bodies, he said.

The house is in the Summerfields neighborhood near North Beach Street and Basswood Boulevard.

Neighbors said the family had lived at the residence for about five years.

"This terrible incident shocked this quiet north Fort Worth neighborhood and the officers who responded to it," Henderson said.

Several neighbors said the family was always quiet, which made the yelling at the home seem out of character. Police were told that's also the reason that neighbors didn't worry about the yelling.

Most in the area described it as a quiet street and said they were shocked by the events. A few said they regularly saw the family out walking a dog and that the daughter, Mailen Pizarro, had several friends and a boyfriend in the neighborhood.

Claudell Cobbs, like many others gathered in the 4600 block of Birchbend Lane, said he'd seen the police cars and barricades accompanied by TV news vans lining the street and walked over.

"It's kind of a shock to us because it's a pretty quiet neighborhood," said Cobbs, a 17-year-old who lives a couple of blocks away.