New focus on 2012 double murder in Boston’s South End brings more pain to victims’ families

By Brian Ballou, Globe Staff

The disclosure by law enforcement officials that Aaron Hernandez is being investigated in connection with a deadly double shooting in Boston’s South End last year that claimed the lives of two Dorchester men caused a flood of emotion for their families this week.

On July 16, 2012, someone from a silver or gray SUV opened fire on a BMW sedan stopped at a traffic light at the corner of Shawmut Avenue and Herald Street, killing Daniel Abreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28, according to Boston Police . Another passenger was wounded. Two other occupants fled the car unharmed.

Maria Teixiera, Furtado’s mother, stood in her apartment Friday and clutched the top of her head, with a look of anguish on her face.

“I haven’t slept since this was brought up again and I have headaches,” she said, speaking in Capeverdian Criolu.

Two law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told the Globe Thursday that investigators believe the shooting stemmed from a fight at Cure, a club in the Theatre District, between the two men and a group that included Hernandez.

Abreu and Furtado, friends who grew up in Cape Verde, left the club with three other men in the sedan. Abreu, who was driving, stopped at a traffic light on Shawmut Avenue, about to make a left onto Herald Street, when the SUV with Rhode Island plates pulled alongside the sedan.

The attack mystified the victims’ families, who said the men had no ties to any criminal activity.

Investigators probing the 2012 homicides had heard that Hernandez was at Cure the night of the double killing, but he was not a suspect at the time, one of the officials said.

Detectives decided to look more closely at Hernandez in connection with the crime after State Police began investigating him for the shooting of Odin Lloyd on June 17 in a North Attleborough industrial park, the official said.

“I just want it all to go away, this has been so painful for my whole family and we just want it to end,” Teixiera said, shaking her head.

Teixiera said she hasn’t heard from police since the disclosure that Hernandez is being investigated in connection with her son’s murder.

“Everything I hear, it’s from the news and people telling me,” she said.

Isidora Centeio, 31, Furtado’s cousin, said that while the renewed focus on the double homicide has “opened old wounds,” the slain man’s family is hopeful that justice will be served.

“It hasn’t been fully a year yet. We’ve tried to move on with our lives, so to have it all come back like this, there’s a lot of emotions,” she said, as she stood on the steps outside Teixiera’s home.

“There is a feeling of hope that justice will be served. For a long time now, we don’t know what happened and things just didn’t make sense. Hopefully we’ll have some closure.”

At a home not far from Furtado’s, a woman whose sister is the longtime girlfriend of a man who was inside the BMW when it was riddled with bullets, but who survived, said he is still plagued with sleepless nights.