Bonds set for couple accused of killing 5 in Alexander County

ALEXANDER COUNTY, N.C. — Bonds were set Wednesday for two suspects accused of killing five people, including two children in a fire in Alexander County.

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The suspects have been behind bars without bond since the crimes five years ago.

Their attorneys argued that there was evidence of their innocence.

However, it’s unlikely the two will leave jail anytime soon.

Areli Aguirre-Avilez and Heidi Wolfe are accused of killing five people, including two children, in 2019 and setting fire to a home on Pine Meadows Lane.

Aguirre-Avilez has a $2 million bond and Wolfe’s bond is $1 million.

Their attorneys raised several questions about the evidence they’ve seen so far in the case.

When police arrived, they found Berenice Reyes’s younger brother and sister dead inside and her mother, Maria Calderon, and two other men missing.

“I want people to know that they were good people and they didn’t deserve this,” said Berenice Reyes, the victim’s daughter.

According to court documents, Calderon had taken out a domestic violence restraining order against Aguirre-Avilez claiming he threatened to burn her house down.

His attorneys said it was dismissed by a judge.

“He always threatened to kill her if she did something or left her,” Reyes said.

At the time of the murders, deputies said Avilez was dating Wolfe who was 16 years old.

She confessed to being at the home and running over one of the victims but then later recanted.

“She was arrested when she was 16,” said attorney Joel Harbinson. “Didn’t have counsel present and she was threatened with receiving the death penalty so agreeing with just about anything they said.”

Her attorney said much of the information she gave police wasn’t accurate including telling deputies Calderon was in the Catawba River.

Instead, Caulderon and two men were found months later in a pickup truck that had been set on fire in Virginia.

In court Wednesday, defense attorneys also spoke about cellphone tower records that showed Aguirre-Avilez and Wolfe in Catawba County at a party, not at the home where the fire started.

“Pings from cellphones don’t lie and we tend to think the evidence points to someone else,” Harbinson said.

There is a possibility the case could go to trial next spring. The judge said if it doesn’t happen by June 2 nearly 6 years after the murder, he’ll reconsider bond.

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