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José Vidal, 79 years old, was arrested last Friday and faces two counts of second-degree murder with a weapon following the discovery of his partner and her son, both stabbed to death inside his apartment in the northwest area of Miami-Dade County, authorities reported.
The crimes occurred on April 18 at the Antigua residential complex in Country Club of Miami, located at 17500 Northwest 67th Place.
The agents of the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office found both victims with stab wounds in different places in the apartment, according to local news.
What captured the researchers' attention from the very beginning was Vidal's behavior following the events.
Two days after the crimes, on April 20, the suspect rode a bicycle and traveled more than six miles from his apartment to Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines, where he arrived with a minor abdominal injury.
There, he offered contradictory versions to different people.
At one point, he stated that on April 19, he arrived at his apartment, found the door open, and was attacked by two men who left him unconscious.
According to his account, upon waking the next day, he discovered the couple and their child dead.
In another version, he described his alleged attackers as two black men.
He said he had called 911, but he added that he decided not to wait for emergency services and chose to go to the hospital by bicycle.
The doctors determined that Vidal had only a superficial cut on his abdomen and no head injury, which directly contradicted his account of having been unconscious for hours.
The physical evidence further dismantled his alibi.
The investigators found traces of shoe prints with dried blood next to the bodies and in various areas of the apartment.
Those footprints matched a pair of sandals found in the kitchen that had been cleaned, but still contained traces of blood.
The surveillance cameras at the complex showed Vidal wearing that footwear.
The security videos also captured the suspect making multiple trips to a nearby garbage container with bags full on April 18, with no one appearing who matched the description of the alleged attackers he had mentioned.
Another detail that the investigators found revealing: the cameras showed him stopping at a gas station to buy lottery tickets during his bike ride to the hospital, two days after the crimes.
According to the arrest report, the dispute that triggered the events originated because Vidal allegedly stole a large sum of money, and the son of his partner communicated to family members on the same day, April 18, his intention to expel him from the home.
The researchers concluded that everything "stemmed from a fight over money and the son's decision to throw him out of the house."
During the interrogation on Friday, Vidal admitted that he had fought with his partner's son over the theft of money and confirmed that he was being evicted from the apartment.
Vidal appeared before a judge on Saturday, who ordered him to remain in custody without the right to bail.
Local10 News identified the suspect as being born in Spain.
The case is reminiscent of other episodes of fatal domestic violence in the Hispanic community of Florida, such as the homicide that occurred in Hialeah in November 2025, when a Cuban woman was killed by her husband; or the case of a Cuban man sentenced to 50 years in prison in February for killing his partner in Florida.
In Florida, second-degree murder is a first-degree felony with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
For a 79-year-old defendant, any significant sentence is practically equivalent to a life sentence.
Miami-Dade is the county with the highest rates of domestic violence in Florida, where emergency calls for domestic disputes increased by more than 12% in 2026 compared to the previous year.
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