Mansion Housekeeper's Husband Tells of Strange Phone Call Before DC Fire
— -- The husband of a housekeeper that was found dead in a D.C. mansion that was set on fire last week said he called his wife repeatedly when she didn't return home, but kept getting her voicemail so he went to check out the home himself, only to receive a strange phone call.
Bernardo Alfaro last saw his wife, Veralicia Figueroa, when he dropped her off at the bus stop on May 13, as he did every day, when she went from their Maryland home to the D.C. mansion that belonged to the Savopoulos family.
She never returned home that night, however.
"I kept calling and calling -- nothing," Alfaro told ABC affiliate WJLA.
He went to the Savopoulos home to see what was going on and saw two parked cars at the house, including a blue Porsche that was parked on the street. Police have released photos of that same car because it was later found abandoned and burned in Maryland.
Alfaro said he kept "knocking and knocking and ringing the bell," but to no avail.
He then started walking towards the back of the house when he received a phone call from Savvas Savopoulos, his wife's employer.
Alfaro recalled to WJLA that Savopoulos said, "I'm sorry because I didn't call you last night, she had told me to call you, she had to stay with my wife because she was feeling bad and she had to go to the hospital and asked Vera to go with her."
That matches the description of events that the family's other housekeeper, Nelitza Gutierrez, told ABC News earlier this week.
Gutierrez said that neither she nor Figueroa ever stayed over the Savopoulos' home -- and she said that Figueroa was supposed to work until about 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
Savopoulos told Alfaro that he would call him again later so Alfaro left but never received a follow-up call.
"She was a great woman," Alfaro told WJLA about his wife of 10 years. "She was a lovely woman."
