Photo by Skip Lawrence Items left as a memorial to members of the Rodriguez family found dead in their Danielle Drive home have been packed up and removed by the neighborhood homeowner’s association.

Rebecca Reckley, president of the neighborhood homeowner's association, said the memorial was packed up last week due to heavy winds blowing the items around and rain damaging some items.

"I didn't want it to get ugly and dirty," she said.

Even though the memorial is gone, the community is not likely to forget the tragedy, Reckley said.

"A constant reminder is not good either," she said.

Pedro Rodriguez, 28, was found hanged and his four children dead and tucked into beds in a townhouse at 1252 Danielle Drive in Frederick on March 26. The three girls -- Elsa, 9, Vanessa, 4, and Carena, 1 -- were suffocated and the boy, Angel, 3, died from blunt force trauma. The children's mother, Deysi Benitez, is missing.

The items from the memorial were placed in trash bags and left on the couple's porch and placed inside the house by Officer First Class Michael Morgan of the Frederick Police Department, Reckley said. The toys and other items were placed in the house and shed.

Shannon Summers, who lives on Danielle Drive, drove by the memorial every day. She said she had noticed that the trash bags were gone Monday and the yard had been cleaned up Tuesday.

Reckley said she did not know what was going to happen with the home.

Frederick resident Jennifer House, whose four children left four teddy bears for the Rodriguez children, said the memorial should still be up.

"It hasn't even been a month yet," she said. "There is a reason why (the memorial) was done."

One person approached Reckley during the two hours it took to dismantle the memorial asking what was going on.

"It was a homeowner's association decision," Reckley said. "Just to get back to a little bit of normal."