A Florida man is wanted for the “gruesome” killings of his wife and 10-year-old daughter — a violent attack that left another daughter critically wounded, authorities said.
Miami Gardens police have been hunting Noel A. Chambers, 57, since investigators found the mutilated bodies of the victims on Northwest 177th Street last Saturday, the Miami Herald reported.
“It was pretty gruesome,” one law enforcement officer told the newspaper. “I’ve been doing this job a long time and I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Chambers’ wife was found on a back porch of the apartment, while his young daughter was found inside. Both were pronounced dead at the scene. Chambers’ adult daughter was also found suffering from multiple wounds outside the apartment. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to the newspaper.
Investigators have not released a possible motive for the attack, but a police spokesman told the newspaper that Chambers was believed to be living with his family prior to the slayings. Police are also looking into an address in Miramar where Chambers may have lived, the spokesman said.
Chambers has no criminal history in Florida, according to state records. He’s now facing two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, police said.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Calvalho said he found the murders “infuriating and devastating.”
“This is so wholly unnatural and inexcusable,” Calvalho said Sunday on Twitter. “I pray for this child’s soul and that peace is found after death, that this innocent child did not experience in life.”
A witness at the scene said Chambers attacked his daughter with a machete, WSVN reports.
“Why would you murder, like, slaughter your child?” the witness told the station. “The way her body was down, she didn’t see it coming.”
Frantz June, the parent of a child who attended school with Chambers’ young daughter, said he was having trouble making sense of the killings.
“I can’t even put my head around it,” June told WSVN. “How do you kill your own people? Your own kid.”
Anyone with information about Chambers’ whereabouts is asked to call Miami Gardens police at (305) 474-6473. A reward of up to $3,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest.