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Today marks eight months since the bodies of Pedro Rodriguez and his four children were found in their Danielle Drive townhouse. Police determined that Rodriguez killed the children then hung himself. The children's mother and Rodriguez's wife, Deysi Benitez, remains missing. Police have been searching for her since March. "There is nothing new," said Detective Sgt. Bruce DeGrange of the Frederick Police Department. "We still need to talk to her and she is still a missing person." Despite the department's best efforts, detectives have no new leads on Benitez's disappearance, he said. "There hasn't been anything going on." Six high-profile cases of domestic violence in and near Frederick County have resulted in the deaths of nine children and eight adults this year. The Rodriguez family murder/suicide was the first of these. The police department recently released nine crime scene photos taken March 26 -- the day the five bodies were discovered. The pictures show the outside entrance, the living and dining room on the first floor, the staircase, and two upstairs bedrooms. The living room pictures show the window where officers first entered the house after getting a call from a Hillcrest Elementary School liaison worker, DeGrange said. The Frederick County Public Schools employee went to the house on March 26 because the two school-aged children, Elsa, 9, and Vanessa, 4, had not been in school for several days. The television was on when police arrived, with a Dish Network logo drifting around on the screen, DeGrange said. Christmas tinsel and other holiday decorations still adorned the living room. After checking the first floor, officers went to the staircase where they found Rodriguez's body hanging from a yellow rope tied to a second-floor banister. One of the photos show a red stain at the bottom of the stairs, but DeGrange said it was not blood. Another photo shows part of the master bedroom where the bodies of Angel, 3, and Carena, 1, were found covered in blankets and tucked in the bed. Elsa, Vanessa, and Carena were suffocated, an autopsy report determined. Angel died from blunt force trauma to the head. Detectives said Rodriguez, 28, killed his children and then hanged himself. Rodriguez and Benitez, 25, are still listed as the owners of the townhouse, according to the Frederick County office of the Department of Assessments and Taxation. The townhouse will go into tax sale -- the sale of the property for unpaid taxes -- in May, according to the county treasurer's office. A lockbox has been placed on the front door of the residence, DeGrange said. He believes all of the family's possessions remain inside. To his knowledge, no next of kin has come to claim any of the belongings. Pedro Rodriguez's brothers, contacted in Los Angeles, said they have not seen or heard from Deysi Benitez. The mayor of Sensuntepeque, the couple's home town in El Salvador, also said he has heard no news regarding her whereabouts. Staff writer Nicholas Stern contributed to this story.
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