TEXAS CITY - A Texas City man and his 15-year-old daughter were shot to death by masked men in a home invasion Monday.

Police discovered the bodies of Jorge Vargas Jr., 33, and his daughter, whom police did not identify, inside their residence at 709 Amburn Road after receiving a call at 1:53 a.m., according to a Texas City police news release.

Two men wearing ski masks fled the house, police said. The motive appeared to be robbery, they said.

"They are good people, you know, and I am really in shock," said Regina Garza, 50, who said she has known the family for 30 years.

Garza was on her way to lunch and stopped when she saw police vehicles and a yellow crime-scene tape surrounding the Vargas house.

She learned about the deaths from a television reporter.

Vargas and his daughter lived at the house with his mother, brother and son, whose age Garza guessed as 11.

She said the daughter attended Dickinson High School.

Public records show that Garza's mother, Marina Vargas Reyes, 52, and his brother, Saul Vargas, 26, live at the same address. Police did not say whether they witnessed the shootings.

Next-door neighbor Julie Stone, 83, said she didn't know the family well, but they had lived in the neighborhood for several years and appeared to be friendly.

"It's a sad thing, I tell you," Stone said. "We've always had a real quiet street."

The only unusual thing she noticed was a loud boom box playing about 9 p.m. Sunday. Stone said it was unusual to hear loud music from her neighbors.

The music stopped before she went to bed, she said.

She was awakened about 2:30 a.m. by police asking if she had heard or seen anything.

Police are asking anyone with information about the shootings to call Detective Paul Edinburgh at 409-643-5838 or the Mainland Crime Stopper's hot line at 409-945-8477 .
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Texas-city-father-daughter-killed-in-home-2281320.php