A man stabbed his fiancée to death near their crying infant in a murder-suicide after learning that she had allegedly been unfaithful.
Carlos Diaz, 25, from Florida, USA got enraged on May 26 when he murdered Amanda Hicks, 26, then turned a gun on himself in their Port St. Lucie apartment as their 11-month-old daughter Alani cried in her crib, the teacher’s friend told the New York Post.
“She said they were working through it,” Hicks’ friend said. “But I think that was an issue, among others, and he just went into a rage. A blind rage.”
The couple had been together for about three years after meeting at a Port St. Lucie school where they both previously worked.
But their relationship had deteriorated, after Hicks had recently had an abortion and Diaz’s family became suspicious he wasn’t the father, sources told the publication.
Diaz learned Hicks had cheated on him several months ago, but the lady dismissed her infidelity as a slight transgression.
As Diaz was angry over her cheating, Hicks deleted her social media pages. After she became pregnant, she insisted the child belonged to Diaz. But his family members, with whom they were living with at the time in Stuart, Florida, had doubts, and she aborted the child.
“We knew he had a history of being aggressive,” a source said. “So, we were worried. But she told us they were working through it, that they would be OK.”
Living with his family in a crowded apartment had also affected thier relationship, and her excessive drinking had become a point of contention between the couple, friends told The Post.
Three weeks before the murder-suicide, the couple moved into the Port St. Lucie apartment with their little girl to try to repair their bad relationship.
“They were in love,” a source said. “Amanda had been in some bad relationships with really controlling boyfriends. But she was so happy with Carlos.”
But a friend of Diaz said he was no longer committed to salvaging their relationship.
“He wanted full custody of the baby and was trying to sort out how to do that,” the source said. “She didn’t know, but he was going to separate from her.”
Diaz’s plans drastically changed on the morning of May 26. He repeatedly called a family member, who didn’t pick up. A short time later, a neighbour reported hearing piercing screams.
A Ring camera captured the sound of a single gunshot at 12:47 a.m., which is when police believe Diaz shot himself. Alani was in her crib near her parents’ lifeless bodies for 11 hours before police arrived after a relative requested a welfare check.
They heard the child crying and kicked in the door. Baby Alani has since been placed with Diaz’s parents.
Before the couple began dating, they both had minor flashes with law enforcement. Diaz had a 2020 assault case from an altercation at a bar, while Hicks was twice charged with driving under the influence in 2019 and 2021, records show.
Hicks’ mother died of cancer several years ago, and she’d never known her father. In 2019, she began teaching sixth- and seventh-grade reading at the Dr. David L. Anderson Middle School in Stuart.
