Photo by Skip Lawrence A wooden cross and four stuffed animals are part of a memorial next to the home on Danielle Drive where the bodies of Pedro Rodriguez and his four children were discovered Monday.

"She wanted to live the American dream," Delgado said. "She wanted a house of her own. She wanted residency. She wanted to do everything right."

Benitez was focused on making a better life for her family and pushed her husband, Pedro Rodriguez, to buy a house, Delgado said.

Elizabeth Galaida is the director of Advocates for Homeless Families Inc., a Frederick County agency that helped them prepare to buy a house.

"They worked very hard while they were in the program and did well," she said.

Benitez and Rodriguez entered the two-year transitional housing program at Advocates in 2002. In 2005, they bought their three-bedroom house at 1252 Danielle Drive.

The bodies of Rodriguez and the couple's four children were found in the house Monday. Benitez remained missing Wednesday night.

Those who enter the program, which helps families become economically self-sufficient, go through a 45-day intake process that includes a background check, psychological evaluations and reference check, Galaida said.

Advocates found no history of marital strife, violence or any mental health or emotional issues, she said. She described the couple as successful and motivated.

Both of them avidly met weekly with a counselor and attended seminars as required.

"I think it's quite fair to say that they really cared for their children," she said. "We had every indication that they were loving, protective parents."

The couple's case worker declined to comment Wednesday.

Delgado said she advised the couple not to buy a house in Frederick because of the high prices. She suggested looking in Hagerstown or another area.

Rodriguez wanted to stay in Frederick to be near his job at Masonite, a door manufacturing company he had worked at since 2003.

"He thought his job was the best job ever," Delgado said.

Masonite announced March 15 the Frederick plant would close in July, said Larry Repar, company spokesman.

Delgado wonders what role the layoff notice had in the deaths. He might have been worried that he wouldn't be able to provide for his family, she said.

The Monday after the announcement, Rodriguez didn't show up for work, said Fanny Barquero, the wife of one of Rodriguez's co-workers.

"He showed up Friday and everything seemed OK," she said. "When he didn't show up on Monday we thought, 'Wow, he was lucky, he found another job.'"

El Salvador

The couple met in Sensuntepeque, a city in the state of Caba–as, said Ana Margarita Chavez, consulate general for El Salvador in Washington.

Rodriguez's parents, Jose Pedro Rodriguez and Rosa de Rodriguez live there. So does Benitez's mother, Lidia Quinteros.

Rodriguez's and Benitez's oldest daughter, Elsa, was born in the city, Chavez said. The other three children -- Vanessa, Angel, also called Pedro and Carena, were born in the United States.

Rodriguez arrived in California in the 1990s and later sent for Benitez and their daughter. After Benitez arrived, the couple applied for temporary protective status. They later brought Benitez's sister, Maria Benitez.

Benitez, Rodriguez and Elsa came to the U.S. legally, said Ernestine Fobbs, public affairs officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington.

On Wednesday, Chavez spoke with Benitez's other sister, Angela Benitez, who lives in El Salvador. The Rodriguez and Benitez families knew of the deaths because Maria Benitez had called them from Maryland, Chavez said.

Officials from the Salvadoran government plan to visit the families personally, Chavez said. They are waiting for autopsies to be completed next week to find out if the families want the bodies sent to El Salvador for burial.

The bodies of Rodriguez and his children will remain at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore until a next of kin is appointed or Benitez is found, said Lt. Tom Chase of the Frederick Police Department.

Home life

Chavez said Angela Benitez told her she last spoke with her sister March 16. Her sister had been abused by Rodriguez, according to The Associated Press.

Delgado said she was surprised when other friends told her Rodriguez was violent. She doesn't believe Benitez would willingly leave her children.

Both Benitez and Rodriguez were devoted to their children, Delgado said. However, they struggled to adapt to American child-rearing customs.

Once, Benitez called Delgado to ask her how she could get representatives from Frederick County Department of Social Services to stop coming to her house. The young mother didn't understand why they would be concerned whether her children were clean or had brushed their teeth.

While Benitez wasn't good at keeping her house tidy or disciplining her children, she loved them, Delgado said.

"She didn't want them to get hurt. She protected them and she fed them," she said.

Benitez worked odd jobs such as selling Avon products to help support the family.

"She never stood still," Delgado said.

The couple also rented rooms in their home to help pay their mortgage, Delgado said.

The family had problems with some of the renters -- at one point, Benitez reported one of the men to the police after he stole items and food.

Before Monday, police had been called to the address eight times, though not always about the family, Chase said. The calls were about theft, parking complaints, noise complaints, a suspicious vehicle and two domestic disputes.

Chase would not specify who made the calls, whether it was the family or neighbors, or the nature of the domestic disputes. Being called to the address "doesn't necessarily attach it to the Rodriguez/Benitez family," he said.

Benitez was arrested twice for theft of less than $500. Rodriguez had no criminal record.

Remembering

Though the crowds who swarmed Mountain View Condominiums on Monday and Tuesday were largely gone Wednesday evening, neighbors and passersby went to the site to honor the dead children.

They placed stuffed animals, fresh and plastic flowers, candles and notes at the bottom of trees. A wooden cross bearing the children's names and "RIP" anchored one display.

A child scribbled the following note -- "Dear Jesus, take good care of Elsa's family, because she's my friend."

Shania Harris, 10, dropped off a letter to Elsa on Wednesday afternoon. She is a fifth-grader at Hillcrest Elementary School, where Elsa and Vanessa were pupils.

She said she was worried when she didn't pass her friend in the hallways over the past several days, and wondered where she was.

It wasn't until Shania came home from tutoring Monday that she learned why Elsa wasn't in school.

Though she had never been inside Elsa's house, Shania said the girls had talked about one day having a sleepover.

"We never got the chance," she said.