The distraught relatives of three women whose bodies were found at the Springfield ‘serial killer’s’ house of horrors last week have spoken out to tell of their shock and grief.
America Lyden, 33, Kayla Escalante, 27, and Ernestine Ryans, 47, were identified on Monday as the women whose bodies had been discovered on May 30 and May 31 at the home of Stewart Weldon in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Ryans had been missing since March, Lyden since December and Escalante is believed to have gone missing around the same time.
America Lyden (left) was reported missing in December, the same month Weldon was released. Kayla Escalante (right) also disappeared around the same time. Both were found dead on his property on May 30 and 31
Weldon was arrested on May 27 after being found with a woman in his car who claimed he’d kidnapped her. She had been stabbed in the stomach and told police she thought she was going to die.
Ernestine Ryans, 47, was the third woman found dead. She had been missing since March
On Tuesday, as prosecutors continued to build their case against him (he has been charged with two counts of kidnapping but is not yet facing charges in relation to the bodies), the victims’ families urged authorities to take harsh and swift action.
‘She didn’t deserve for her life to end in the manner in which it did.
‘And that’s the hardest part for us that she died alone and we couldn’t be there to help,’ Ernestine’s brother Anthony told NBC Connecticut on Tuesday.
Escalante filed a police report in December but that is thought to be the last record of her being alive.
The 27-year-old was a mother-of-one.
America Lyden, who also went by America Canales, was reported missing by her family in December but she had not been seen by them since last June.
Police are pictured searching the man’s home on May 31. Weldon was already in custody after being pulled over for a broken taillight. He had a woman in the car who said she was his hostage
On Monday, her cousin paid tribute to her saying: ‘America was loved by her family very much, very deeply, unconditionally.’
Stewart Weldon was arrested in October last year after taking on nine cops who saw him beating a woman in the street. In December, he was released on bail. He is pictured in his May 27 mugshot
Her sister Mari said the discovery of her body was a devastating end to months of searching for her.
‘This is clearly not the outcome many of us had hoped and prayed for.
‘As most of you know, America had been missing for many months.
‘Friends and family along with Springfield police had been searching for her since last December,’ she said.
She later told The Republican that her sister was ‘sweet’ and was a mother to two daughters.
‘My sister was a good human being.
‘She was just going through her struggles,’ she said.
She told how they had last spoken a year ago and that her sister was known to go offgrid at times.
Escalante’s family has not yet spoken out.