Deputies: Father killed self, daughters in rural Collier County

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OCHOPEE, Fla. — A father and two daughters were identified as the three people found shot to death a week ago in a car along U.S. 41 in rural Collier County.

Miami resident Jesus Valencia, 47, shot and killed himself and his two daughters — 18-year-old Jael Valencia and 7-year-old Melani Valencia — the Collier County Sheriff’s Office said. The motive remains unclear.

A man discovered the bodies in a car that was by the side of the road on Oct. 20 near the Miami-Dade County line.

The body of one woman was sitting in the driver’s seat covered in blood and two other bodies were in the backseat of the dark gray Chevrolet, said James Brunson, who lives nearby.

Brunson said he initially saw the car by the road at 9:30 a.m. and didn’t think much of it, but when it was still there at about noon, he knocked on the window. That’s when he spotted the bodies and notified authorities.

“When I came back and I decided to knock on the window, there was no response. I knew it was bad. I could see it wasn’t good,” Brunson said.

Miami police said the deaths were tied to the death of a woman, 47-year-old Neina Flores, who lived in Miami-Dade County. Flores was found dead Oct. 19 in an apartment at Northwest 51st Street and Fifth Avenue just south of the Little Haiti neighborhood in Miami. Her address is the same listed for Valencia and his children.

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