PHOENIX — Tuesday night, a statewide Amber Alert was still in effect after police believed two young boys were kidnapped over the weekend by their father.
It was just before 4:30 on the morning of Sept. 1 when Phoenix Police responded to the call at a home on West Van Buren Street.
Officers walked into the home where they say they found two people shot. They were the boys’ pregnant mother, Oralia Nuñez and their roommate, Omar Gonzalez. Both adults and Nuñez’s unborn child were pronounced dead.
“We have a crime scene. We have to secure it. There’s measures taken in order to do that,” Sgt. Armando Carbajal with the Phoenix Police Dept. told 12 News.
Though police said they were told by a relative the boys were missing, an Amber Alert wasn’t triggered automatically; instead, a process of elimination began.
“Are these children somewhere hiding, perhaps in the house? Are they at a neighbor’s? Did family come pick them up? We just weren’t sure at that time and that’s what makes these investigations so time consuming and cumbersome,” Carbajal said.
Before asking the Arizona Department of Public Safety to issue an Amber Alert, there are some requirements. A child must be abducted. There must be a risk of immediate danger, serious bodily injury or death, and officers must know the child didn’t run away or was taken in some sort of child custody dispute.
After some digging in the West Van Buren Street case, detectives named the children’s biological father, Dimas Coronado, a suspect.
The Amber Alert was finally issued six hours after police were first called.
“We want to make sure that we get it right, we’re not violating anybody’s rights and we’re not putting out misinformation,” Sgt. Carbajal said.
Police believed Coronado took his sons, Jonathan and Victor Nuñez Coronado, to Mexico. Investigators thought Coronado may be driving an aqua green 1995 Ford F-150 pickup with a white camper shell and the Mexico license plate ZUD7164.
If you’ve seen the vehicle, Coronado or the boys, call 911.