Father is ‘person of interest’ in slayings

Published 2:29 pm Monday, November 10, 2008

Authorities on Sunday called the husband of a slain woman and their son “a person of interest” in the killings.

Dodge County Sheriff Gary Thompson also identified the dead as Teresa Bugarin, 27, and her son, Ismael Nicholas Bugarin, 12.

Two daughters of Teresa Bugarin also were injured in Saturday’s incident and were in St. Marys Hospital in Rochester hospital with knife wounds. Their names and ages were not immediately released, but the sheriff described them as preteens.

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The sheriff’s office received a 911 call around 6:30 p.m. Saturday saying a young boy had been stabbed at the Valley View Mobile Home Park in Dodge Center, about 20 miles west of Rochester.

The boy and mother died at the scene. The girls were taken by ambulance to the hospital, while Teresa Bugarin’s husband, who’s the children’s father, was flown by helicopter to St. Marys.

Although the sheriff called the 33-year-old man “a person of interest,” he was not under arrest as of Sunday afternoon. The cause of the parents’ injuries was not immediately released, nor were the conditions of him or the two girls.

Thompson said on Saturday night that everyone involved in the incident had been accounted for and investigators weren’t looking for anyone else. He said he was not aware of any history of trouble with the family, that the parents were both employed, and that the trailer park didn’t generate more sheriff’s calls than anywhere else in the community.

A mortally wounded Nicholas Bugarin made it next door and sought help. His friend, 13-year-old Mark Catalan, said he was playing video games Saturday night when he heard screams and went into the other room, where he saw his friend on the floor bleeding from neck wounds.

“He could talk, but just barely,” Catalan said Sunday. “He said he was having trouble breathing and that he was really tired.”

Catalan and his friend, Carlos Castellanos, also 13, stayed with Nicholas as he died in the arms of Carlos’ father, Catalan said.

Catalan said that in the three years he had been friends with Nicholas and spent time with the Bugarin family, he never noticed any problems.

The two boys played on the same Triton Middle School football and basketball teams. Catalan said the Bugarin family never missed a game. And when they weren’t playing sports, the two friends spent time together almost every day after school. He said Nicholas loved going to movies and that they were looking forward to basketball practice starting in the next couple of weeks.

“He seemed happy … he was really funny,” Catalan said of his friend.

Todd Mulholland, who lives two homes behind where the incident occurred, said he was on his way home when he saw the commotion. He said he would see the kids playing outside and the family had seemed friendly.

“They always waved and everything,” Mulholland said. “You’d never really think of something like this happening here.”