Camilla Jessen
House cleaner and mother of four shot dead after entering wrong address, police say.
A 32-year-old house cleaner was shot and killed Wednesday morning after she and her husband went to what they believed was a home they had been hired to clean, authorities and family members said.
Police in Whitestown, Indiana, responded to a report of a shooting about 9 a.m. and found Maria Florinda Rios Perez de Velasquez on the front porch with a gunshot wound to the head, Boone County Coroner Justin Sparks and Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department officials said.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
“She was only trying to support her family”
Her brother, Rudy Rios, told NBC News that de Velasquez, an immigrant from Guatemala and mother of four, had been trying a key in the door when she was shot.
“She accidentally went to the wrong house, but he shouldn’t have taken her life,” Rios said. “She was only trying to bring home the daily bread to support her family.”
An autopsy ruled the death a homicide caused by the gunshot wound, Sparks said. He cautioned that a medical classification of homicide does not by itself determine whether criminal charges will follow.
Officials decline to confirm shooter’s identity
Whitestown police said the couple was on the porch when the shooting occurred and that “the facts gathered do not support that a residential entry occurred,” according to a department statement.
Captain John Yurkosh told WTHR the case is “very fresh” and investigators are working to determine exactly what happened and whether charges should be filed.
The department has not publicly identified the shooter.
Authorities said officers acted quickly to secure the property and render aid, but de Velasquez was already deceased on arrival.
The Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department and the Boone County Coroner’s Office did not immediately provide further details, and PEOPLE and other outlets seeking comment were referred to ongoing investigative statements.
Anyone with information about the incident was asked to contact the Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department.
This article is made and published by Camilla Jessen, who may have used AI in the preparation
