Nearly a year after the gruesome deaths of a couple, their young son and their housekeeper inside a mansion in Northwest Washington, another housekeeper for the family says she still struggles with what happened and often wonders why she is still alive.
Savvas Savopoulos, 46; his wife, Amy, 47; their 10-year-old son, Philip, and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57, were found dead inside the Savopoulos family's multi-million-dollar mansion last May.
Nelly Gutierrez worked for the family for nearly two decades. The day of the murders, she received a text message from Amy, asking her not to come to the home.
"I think about what happened that day, every single day," Gutierrez said.
Darron Wint, 35, of Lanham, Maryland, is accused of holding the victims captive for roughly 18 hours between May 13 and 14. Wint allegedly extorted $40,000 from them, killed them and set fire to the house.
Wint pleaded not guilty earlier this year to the 20 felony charges he's facing in the brutal crime.
Police previously said they believed Wint had help from others, but no other suspects have been identified.
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Weeks before the murders, Gutierrez said Figueroa told her she often saw men watching the house.
"That's what she told me. But I never paid too much attention, because I was busy," Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez was busy in the days leading up to the murders because Amy asked her to help the family as they focused on opening a karate studio in Chantilly, Virginia.
On May 13, Amy left a voicemail for Gutierrez, asking her if she could clean the studio before the grand opening the next day.
"We're down to the wire," Amy said in the voicemail.
Gutierrez agreed and asked Figueroa to help. But Figueroa opted to work at the Savopolos' homes instead of at the karate studio -- a decision investigators said may have cost her her life.
Gutierrez says Savvas' assistant usually drove him around, but on May 13, Savvas drove himself to the karate studio in Amy's car, leaving his own vehicle in the driveway at home. Gutierrez believes the suspect may have seen Savvas' vehicle and thought he was home.
At about 5 p.m. that evening, Savvas received a call from his wife, asking him to come home.
"He said, 'I gotta go. Can you close my business?'," Gutierrez said. "That was the last time I talked to him."
Gutierrez believes Wint was already inside the Savopoulos home when Amy made the call and before Figueroa got a chance to leave. Gutierrez still struggles with the fact that she could have also been trapped inside.
"He knows, you know, what happened," she said. "Why I'm still here."
Before their deaths, Savvas left a voicemail for Gutierrez, telling her to stay home because Amy was home sick. Savvas said Figueroa was staying with her and the couple was "going through some stuff with Philip." He asked that Gutierrez send a text message to confirm the voicemail was received.
A final text message was sent to Gutierrez from Amy's phone on May 14."I am making sure you do not come today," the message said.
That message may have saved her life.
Hours later, the house went up in flames.
"It's so painful. Sometimes its too hard for me," Gutierrez said.
