Wolfe released awaiting trial in quintuple murder

The bond for defendant Heidi Darlene Wolfe was reduced to $20,000 secured this week in an agreement with the District Attorney’s Office, said Wolfe’s attorney, Joel C. Harbinson.

Wolfe is now out of custody awaiting trial, after six years in pretrial detention on the quintuple murder and arson from 2019.

Readers may recall that on June 15, 2019, five people were killed in the Sugar Loaf area, with bodies of Angel Esteban Pacheco, 11, and America Dayana Pacheco, 12, being found in a burned mobile home after firefighters put out the blaze. The bodies of their mother, Maria De Los Angeles Calderon, 38, and her two friends, Jose Carlos Mendez-Peña and Luis Fernando Sanchez, were found, weeks later, in a burned pickup truck in a remote area of southwest Virginia.

Heidi Wolfe is charged with five counts of Felony First Degree Murder and one count of Felony First Degree Arson.

Authorities charged illegal alien Areli Aguirre-Avilez, then age 30 of Taylorsville, and his girlfriend, Heidi Darlene Wolfe, then age 16 of Wilkesboro. Areli Aguirre-Avilez is charged with five counts of Felony-First Degree Murder, Felony-Domestic Violence Protective Order Violation with Deadly Weapon, one count of Felony Statutory Rape Of Child Age 15 Or Under, and Felony-First Degree Arson.

According to information Harbinson presented in court this week, on Monday, July 14, the investigation revealed that at the time of the fire, Juan Carlos Mendez-Peña was Calderon’s boyfriend. Luis Fernando Sanchez was Peña’s co-worker and also lived at the residence.

Investigators found Calderon was married but separated from Aguirre-Avilez. Calderon had filed for, and received, a Domestic Violence Order (DVO) in January 2019, restraining Aguirre-Avilez from having contact with her. However, a witness reported that Aguirre-Avilez continued to come to Calderon’s home during the time the DVO was in effect and stayed in a relationship with her.
Defense information showed that a fourth adult, named Melvin Torres, lived at the home prior to the fire. The cell phone which belonged to Torres transmitted a cell ping to a tower off NC 16 North in Wilkes County. Torres’ phone pinged early morning on January 15, 2019, about 6:43 a.m. near Deep Ford Market in Millers Creek. During this exact time, Carlos Mendez-Peña’s phone pinged at the same location.

Sanchez’s phone was powered off around that time in downtown West Jefferson.

On June 18, 2019, investigators interviewed Melvin Torres. Torres claimed he had left the residence on June 14 around midnight, or early on June 15, and that everyone was in their respective rooms then. He said he had tried to call Mendez-Peña and Sanchez to try to locate them.

However, law enforcement investigators obtained a security video from Deep Ford Market showing Mendez-Peña’s pickup truck traveling north of NC 16. Cell tower records confirm Melvin Torres and Mendez-Peña traveled together from near the crime scene on June 15, 2019, the day all of the five victims were believed killed. This evidence directly contradicts Torres’ statement to investigators and places Torres at the scene of the crime and in the general direction where the three burned bodies were found.

Harbinson stated that on June 18, 2019, Alexander County Sheriff’s Office detectives interviewed Wolfe, age 16, without legal counsel present. “At one point in the interview, a detective threated Heidi Wolfe with the death penalty if she did not confess to the murders,” the attorney said. “Under duress and in fear of possibly being executed, Heidi Wolfe provided a haphazard and false confession reporting to the detectives that she and co-defendant Areli Aguirre-Avilez killed the children and Maria Calderon. During this confession, Heidi Wolfe never mentioned any of the other victims, Juan Carlos Mendez-Peña or Luis Fernando Sanchez.”

Wolfe fully recanted her confession a short time later that day. Details which she gave to investigators regarding disposal of Calderon’s body were not supported by evidence.

Investigators were notified on November 4, 2019, of a burned truck on a tree farm in Grayson County, VA, in a deeply wooded area near 2635 Oak Hill Road, Mouth of Wilson, VA.

At last report, Aguirre-Avilez’ bond was set last November at $2 million in November 2024. Wolfe’s bond had been set at $1 million at that time. Prior to that, both defendants were under a no bond order.