EXCLUSIVE: Father of Murdered Freshman Jaclyn Torrealba Talks about "Nightmare" DJ Seasunz
NEW YORK (CBS) In an exclusive Crimesider interview, the father of slain Miami college freshman Jaclyn Torrealba said that he begged his young daughter to stay away from the 30-year-old Miami record-spinner, DJ Seasunz, now accused of killing her and driving her dead body around in his car while he visited friends' homes.
PICTURES: Miami Freshman Jaclyn Torrealba Murdered
"This is basically any parent's nightmare," Jaclyn Torrealba's father, Pablo Torrealba, told Crimesider in a Tuesday phone interview. "Her mother and I were totally against it," he said, referring to the relationship between his daughter and DJ Seasunz, whose real name is Juan Carlos Portieles.
The relationship began two years ago when Jaclyn Torrealba, then 16, was in high school.
Portieles was arrested Monday for second-degree murder in Torrealba's death, after he drove her body to a Miami police station and confessed to killing her, according to an arrest warrant.
"At the point when we learned about the contact that this guy was trying to have with my daughter… and over the last two years, we talked and talked and talked to our daughter and tried to make her understand," Pablo Torrealba said, noting that he and his ex-wife, Vilma Castro, would repeatedly ask their daughter if she was seeing Portieles.
PICTURES: Miami Freshman Jaclyn Torrealba Murdered
He says his daughter claimed she only saw the disc-jockey at clubs where they would run into each other.
Pablo Torrealba said that while he acknowledges that his daughter and Portieles were spending time together, he does not regard the man as ever having been her boyfriend.
"At no point was it what you would consider a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. I never met the guy. He never came to my house. I never shook hands with the guy," he said.
Pablo Torrealba said that when he became aware of the relationship two years ago, he tried to call Portieles to tell him to stop seeing his daughter; however the record-spinner never answered the phone. "I have never spoken to or seen the guy," he said.
As far as motive goes, Pablo Torrealba said "that's the million dollar question."
"I heard that [Portieles] claims that it was self defense," Pablo Torrealba said. "My daughter was 5'4", fully clothed with a heavy coat and boots … couldn't have been more than 120 pounds," he said.
He described his daughter's alleged killer, a 5'10", 160-pound man, as "built."
Pablo Torrealba identified his daughter's body Tuesday morning at the medical examiner's office and said that he saw no evidence that Portieles fought her in self defense. "Let me tell you what I saw. No one, not even a total neophyte, would call those defensive wounds," he said.
PICTURES: Miami Freshman Jaclyn Torrealba Murdered
Pablo Torrealba also addressed a rumored motive for his daughter's murder; that she had become pregnant and aborted Portieles' child, which drove him to choke her to death.
"Right now, the medical examiner will be able to confirm that, if that is the case. I think it's a total fabrication if you ask me. She was living here with me for the last month. I didn't see any evidence of that whatsoever," he said.
In light of his daughter's tragic death, Pablo Torrealba hopes that what happened to her can be a lesson for other teenagers. He said, "Unfortunately, kids … know no fear sometimes. Kids don't think that bad things are going to happen. If parents can use this case to show to their children what may happen, if that can help prevent another tragedy like this, than at least there is some comfort."
PICTURES: Miami Freshman Jaclyn Torrealba Murdered
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