Dale Lezon, Dane Schiller, and Mike Glenn report for the Houston Chronicle:
The discovery of three bodies Monday in a bloody west Houston apartment answered the immediate question of why an Episcopal priest and his wife and son had not shown up for church on Sunday.
But the mystery of how and when they died — and of course why — lingered as stunned parishioners at Church of the Redeemer tried to cope with the sudden loss of a beloved family.
There were no signs of forced entry into the neatly kept apartment near Memorial City Mall. Houston police offered no immediate explanation of who killed the three or any theory behind it. Even the names of the dead were not released until the Episcopal Diocese of Texas confirmed they were the Rev. Israel Ahimbisibwe, his wife Dorcus and their son Junior, who went by Jay.
“It boggles my mind what could have happened,” said Dick Bird, who is the small East End congregation’s treasurer and has been a member for more than 40 years. “Why would you kill a small child?”
The Diocese of Texas released this statement on Monday. The diocese’s Church of the Redeemer meets at the site of Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. The original Redeemer, once a bustling site of the charismatic renewal, was demolished in 2011 amid safety concerns.
