Brenton Estorffe murder: Cops have identified clear suspects
Police in Texas have identified suspects in the murder of Australian father Brenton Estorffe after they received a number of tips from locals as his American wife’s chilling 911 call was released.
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Police in Texas have refused to rule out Australian father Brenton Estorffe was a victim of a “deliberate hit” rather than a home invasion gone wrong.
Texan police, in admitting the circumstances surrounding Mr Estorffe’s murder were “odd and unusual”, said they are 100 per cent sure they will find the suspects.
Mr Estorffe was shot dead in his home in Katy last week as he tried to defend his wife and two children.
Detective Thomas Cantu, from Fort Bend County Sheriff’s office, said that police have identified suspects.
The lead detective refused to rule out that Brenton was the victim of a deliberate “hit” - possibly carried out mistakenly at the wrong house, according to well-placed sources - rather than a home invasion bungle.
“I can’t speak on that yet, OK,” said Detective Cantu at the murder scene, when asked if police now believed Brenton was killed intentionally as opposed to an unfortunate home invasion bungle.
“I’m not gonna say that yet. I can’t say that at this point.
“I really can’t. We know some things. Again, keep in mind, we are still chasing people of interest. We have persons of interest, yes. We’re working on some things.
“We’re gonna dig into every aspect of everything.”
He said police were “absolutely” confident of apprehending the killer or killers and had the names of suspects they were keen to interview.
Detective Cantu said they hoped to be “bringing in some people fairly soon to speak with”.
He said police had not yet found a weapon related to the killing. But he said police were confident they knew what kind of weapon had been used, but would not disclose that information at this time.
“We are 100 per cent confident that we will identify and capture the suspects in this matter,” he said.
“The persons we are looking for are probably from the Katy area (about 50km from Houston).
“I think we will be bringing in some people fairly soon to speak with. But these types of investigations take time because we have to look at phone records and this is not something that is available from one day to the next either.”
When asked if police had a motive theory for the killing, he replied: “Not 100 per cent. I have some ideas, yes.
“This is still a very fresh and ongoing investigation so I don’t want to put anything out there right now.”
The case is baffling for police.
Mr Estorffe and his family live in a modest home in the suburbs of outer Houston and were not known to have any significant amounts of money in the house.
Whoever killed him ripped palings off the back fence in the dead of night and then crossed the back yard and smashed a rear glass door to enter the house.
In a dramatic 911 call, his wife says Brenton confronted the intruders and was shot in the chest. It seems the killer or killers then fled the scene and left in a car which was pictured in CCTV footage.
Police are not sure whether a third person was waiting outside to drive the car away.
Nothing seems to have been taken from the house, a modest suburban dwelling. Brenton was a manager at a car rental company. They had lived in the house for six months.
Police have received six tips following the posting of a $US25,000 reward for information.
“We have developed a couple of cars of interest, we are definitely following up on cars of interest.”
He said police had interviewed people at Enterprise Car Rentals, where Mr Estorffe worked.
But he said there were other stronger leads than his workplace.
“We have spoken to some people at Enterprise who knew Brenton, they have offered us some information we want to look into.
“But we have got some other things that I think ...come up a little bit more as a priority right now, some other leads.”
He did not want to comment on whether police believed the intruders entered the home with the intention of killing Mr Estorffe or whether it was simply a break-in gone wrong.
“What is odd is the fact that Brenton, you know, he was just a working dad. He didn’t have large sums of money in the home, he wasn’t a drug dealer and typically when you have people break into a home in the middle of the onion hit when people are there ... it was pretty certain there were people home that night, that is very unusual.”
Police returned to the scene to interview more neighbours.
911 CALL REVEALS WIFE’S PANIC
Audio of the emergency call Angelenna Estorffe placed after assailants broke into her Houston home and shot her husband has revealed the extent of her shock and panic after the incident.
As the mother of two placed the 911 call just three minutes after midnight on Wednesday, her 29-year-old husband was dying of the gunshot wounds he had received.
“Help me please … ohh … someone just broke into my house and shot my husband,” Ms Estorffe can be heard telling the operator in the released audio.
Asked whether the intruders broke in or shot through a window, she can be heard saying she didn’t know.
“I just heard glass shattering and then my husband jumped up and took off after them … and they just … they started shooting,” she can be heard saying through tears.
Asked if her husband was still breathing, Ms Estorffe said: “I don’t know I’m so scared to walk over there, they shot him … oh my God, I think he’s really hurt.”
She can also be heard calling out to one of her two children, asking if they were okay.
“One of them is around with me and the other one is in their bedroom,” she can be heard telling the operator.
“I’m just freaking out really bad right now … and I’m trying to get the number for my neighbour.”
That neighbour, a nurse, was unable to save Mr Estorffe’s life.
The release of the 911 call came after Mr Estorffe’s father arrived in Houston faced with the heartbreaking task of making funeral arrangements for his son.
Michael Estorffe was met by Angeleanna’s sister and Australian Consul General to Houston, Peter McGauran.
Mr Estorffe said: “It still hasn’t sunk in that it is real.”
Michael Estorffe said he wanted to go to his son’s home in Katy.
“I want to go back to the house and have a look,” he said.
“We lived here in Houston for two years, it was a great place. We really enjoyed it here. This is a real tragedy to us.”
Asked how his son’s children, three-year-old Asher and one-year-old Eliana, were doing he replied, “they will miss their father but hopefully we can help them get on with everything.”
“We will just rest at home today and … have some reflective time with Ange and the grandchildren,” he said. “Obviously we have to start the (funeral) arrangements.”
Mr Estorffe had faced difficulty obtaining an ‘Electronic System for Travel Authorisation’ (ESTA) needed for him to enter the US because he had worked for an oil company in Kurdistan.
“I would like to thank all the government officials as of late because they have really helped me get to this stage of the process,” he said.
“I didn’t want to go to the media to do that but I had no other option to start moving things forward.
“I really appreciate all my friends and everyone that helped me,” Mr Estorffe said before breaking down in tears and walking away.
Police released footage of a light coloured four-door sedan with a sunroof that was seen in the area shortly after Mr Estorffe was killed.
One suspect is described as a male, approximately 5’11” (180cm) dark skinned and wearing a dark coloured hoodie.
The second suspect is also a male, approximately 6 feet tall (183cm) with dark skin, a slender build and a shaved head.
Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls said police had not ruled out the possibility of a third suspect, potentially driving the getaway car.
“These individuals are going to pay for this. They came into the wrong county. We will stop at nothing to bring them to justice,” he said.
A GoFundMe set up for Estorffe’s widow and his children has raised more than $US31,000.
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NEIGHBOURS SHOCKED
Residents in the pretty, tree-lined suburb, on the outskirts of Houston, expressed shock and sadness that such a crime could happen in their neighbourhood and described Estorffe as a friendly family man who would “always wave hello”.
Karin Brunton, who lives across the street from the Estorffes, said she was woken by a noise around midnight on Wednesday morning.
“When I finally went outside I saw all the lights, the fire truck and ambulance. The family was out the front near the garage hugging each other,” she said.
“We are all baffled by this. It is a quiet neighbourhood. The strange part is that they were home when the intruders tried to break in. It makes you think these are not particularly smart criminals.”
Estorffe’s next door neighbours, who said they were very close to the family and declined to speak on the record, helped remove some Halloween decorations outside the family’s home and installed a plank of wood to block the gap in the side fence where the intruders broke in.
Haskell and Kim Ray, whose house is behind the Estorffes’ four-bedroom home, said while they didn’t wake up to the gunshots, they did hear a car “screeching away” from the scene.
They said the crime appeared unusual because the family was home and nothing was taken.
“It does make you wonder whether or not they were targeted. I just wish he had a gun so he could have defended himself,” Mr Ray said.
“We would sometimes see the kids on the trampoline out the back. They just seemed like a nice, normal family.”
It is the third shooting death of an Australian in North America in as many years.
On July 15, 2017, Justine Ruszczyk Damond, 40, was shot and killed by police officer Mohamed Noor in Minneapolis after she called 911 about a potential rape happening outside her home.
Noor was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison in April and the city of Minneapolis paid $US20m ($AU29m) to Damond’s family in one of the largest settlements involving a police shooting.
On July 15 this year, Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend, Chynna Deese, were murdered by teenagers Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky, north of British Columbia. Their killers were found three weeks later, having taken their own lives.
Originally published as Brenton Estorffe murder: Cops have identified clear suspects