SAN ANTONIO – Neighbors and friends are worried what will happen next after a mother was found dead in what police believe was a murder, suicide.
Deborah Wilson is seeing new meaning in a request her neighbor Linda Vela made last week.
"In case of emergency, can you take care of my son?" Wilson remembers Vela asking her.
Woman found dead in possible murder-suicide at NW Side home identified
Since she had invited the boy in before so he could wait for Vela to return home, Wilson thought that was behind the request. Then, on Wednesday, Vela was found dead in a suspected murder-suicide.
"Just hearing this now, I'm beginning to wonder, is there any other reason why she said that? 'Yes,'" Wilson said, answering her own question.
In the wake of the 46-year-old mother's death, people like Wilson, who knew Vela, worry about her children.
"Now I'm beginning to think as a mother, I'm beginning to think what will happen to those babies? You know? It's very sad," Wilson sad.
Vela and a 48-year-old man, whose identity has not yet been publicly released, were found with gunshot wounds to the head at Vela's home in the 5000 block of Sunset Glade. A gun was found under the man.
Relatives told police the two had a contentious relationship, and Vela had recently kicked the man out of the house, though she let him back in for the holidays.
Police said two boys, 10 and 14, believed to be Vela's sons were home when it happened.
According to a Go Fund Me page, the children's older sister plans to take in her three siblings who lost what one friend described as a loving mother.
"Parents are devoted to their children," said Alex Trevino. "She took it to the extreme."
Trevino, who also works at KSAT, said Vela never missed school activities or her children's sports.
Though he said he hadn't connected with Vela in more than a year, Trevino said he kept up with her through Facebook.
"Her last official Facebook post was, you know, was the kids opening up their presents," he said. "Then this happened. Those children are going to have a hole in their hearts for the rest of their lives. I mean, she was a mom that everybody would love to have."