Local

Text messages reveal possible motive in Deltona woman's presumed killing

DELTONA, Fla. — Channel 9 has learned new details in the case of a missing Deltona woman and her two children who are believed to be dead despite their bodies being nowhere to be found.

Luis Toledo was arrested in October and has confessed to killing his wife, Yessenia Suarez, but maintains an accomplice killed the children, 9-year-old Thalia Otto and 8-year-old Michael Otto.

All three are presumed to be dead, though their bodies have never been found.

In text messages released Monday between Suarez and Toledo, Suarez showed remorse for her relationship with a co-worker. Suarez was possibly having an affair with the co-worker, a man named Kevin Dredden, investigators said.

According to court documents, Dredden told detectives the two had planned to meet the day before Suarez and the children disappeared, but he had to cancel. Investigators believe Toledo became aware of the relationship shortly after and that's when the couple began texting about it.

Saurez wrote to Toledo, "Please don't let this get the best of you. I (expletive) up. I recognize that…just please let's try to move on from this incident…whether together or separate…please think about my kids."

The texts went on to say, "If you love them how you say you do…I need to be able to provide for them and can't afford to lose my job over it. I will get another job just so you can trust me again."

Dredden also told authorities he received several strange text messages from Suarez the night before she disappeared.

WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said the messages help show why Toledo would want to murder his wife and stepchildren.

"The discovery certainly showed that Toledo had a motive to commit the homicide. He believed she was having an affair," said Sheaffer.

The text message thread came just hours before Toledo showed up to Suarez's workplace in Lake Mary and confronted, then slapped her.

She asked Toledo via text, "Now that the secret is out, would it be possible to move on from this?"

And after admitting she made a mistake, she wrote, "Please don't do anything stupid! I beg you! For everything that's even left in our relationship."

"The bottom line is this is beneficial to the prosecution because it reinforced the theory that the motive of the killings was the fact that she was having an affair," said Sheaffer.

In the meantime, Toledo was recently on suicide watch after jail officials said he stashed a cup with some pills in his cell.

A prosecutor had suggested Toledo may have been trying to gather a lethal dose of medication. He's also refused meals.

According to a corrections report, Toledo attempted suicide in October while being questioned by authorities. Authorities said he barricaded himself in a restroom and broke a mirror, cutting his neck and arm with glass shards.