Baby leads to discovery of dead man in Worcester

WORCESTER, Mass. (WHDH) -- Police are investigating after a man was found stabbed to death in a Worcester apartment where two women were also stabbed and critically injured.

A passing driver on Lovell Street called Worcester police Saturday night to report a baby in a car in the middle of the road, this led to the discovery of two women and a man tied up in the Worcester home.

“It’s just shocking to me. Very shocking,” said Javier Hernandez, the victim’s friend.

At this point in the investigation, police do not know why the 3-month-old baby was in the road, but the boy was unharmed. After finding the child, officials searched for the mother.

“They did go over to that apartment and knocked on the doors. There was no answer, but officers could hear signs of persons in distress in the apartment. So based on what was going on with the child and what was going on in the apartment they made a forced entry into the apartment by kicking in the front door,” said Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst of the Worcester police department.

Police found a man and two women tied up and stabbed. The man, 32-year-old Javier Maldonado, was pronounced dead. The two women, ages 36 and 18, were taken to the hospital and were listed in critical condition on Monday morning. The women were Maldonado’s girlfriend and her daughter, according to officials.

"He was a good guy, good guy, treated me and my son well,” Hernandez said. “We would come and have beers and so forth so he was pretty good. Nice guy so I don't know, it's just shocking to me like I said, very shocking."

Officials said the baby is the son of the teenage woman, but officers do not know who left the child in the street.

“That’s something we really want to get to the bottom of,” said Hazelhurst. “We don’t know why that child was left here -- if it was for someone to discover it and take care of it or what, we don’t know.”

Officers said this incident was not random. They discovered drug activity in the home, but there are no suspects in the case.

"We've been here since 1997 and this is just out of the ordinary because you usually don't see this kind of thing," neighbor Gail Hunte said.

Police are calling the two women key witnesses in the case, but because of their condition they have not been interviewed.

The child is in the care of the Department of Children and Families.