Friend details how he tried to help victims before deadly Stockton trailer fire

STOCKTON — We are learning new details about the triple murder in Stockton where a family was found burned in a mobile trailer.

Friends of victim Lisbeth Josefina Gutierres, 33, said she was in a tumultuous relationship with her husband, Jose Carmona, 59. Carmona is the man Stockton police say set the trailer on fire while Gutierres and her two young children—ages 7 and 10—were sleeping inside.

Friends of the family now say they saw bruises and markings on Gutierres' body just days before the fire. They tried to get her help, but now they are scared for their own lives with the suspect still on the loose.

"The last couple of months, she started to get bruises on her arms and we were worried," Jose Antonio Alvarez said.

Alvarez was like a big brother to Gutierres.

"I wanted to do something because of the messages she was sending me. I asked her where she was, and I said, 'I'll go get you,' " he said.

He was texting Gutierres just days before her death and shared with CBS13 what he says were the messages between them.

"I'm going to go with my dad," Gutierres said.

"He threatened to kill you," Alvarez said.

"Yes, but nothing will happen," she responded.

"Don't tell me nothing will happen," he replied. "Tell me what he told you."

"He said if I leave him, he'll kill me," Gutierres said.

Now, Alvarez has been missing work, staying to protect his friends and family with Carmona still on the loose.

"We tried to get information from her about who was he, what did he do, and she didn't say anything," Alvarez said. "I feel like it's all my fault."

Enriquez is the CARE Team Specialist with Prevail in Stockton. She said bruises and certain attitudes are telltale signs of an abusive relationship.

"Domestic violence is in very different ways," she said. "It can be emotional, verbal, sexual, in many different ways."

Family and friends urged her to go to the police, but she never did.

Stockton police said they are working around the clock to find him.