Mom worried about daughter before C. Islip shooting

When she laid eyes on the lifeless bodies of her teenage daughter and 2-year-old grandson Friday, Francisca Chavez reacted as any mother might. She broke down. Her legs buckled. She fell to the ground.

"She said she couldn't feel her legs," Chavez's son Oscar, 25, said Sunday. "She's been like that ever since we went to ID them."

Sunday Suffolk police sought information on the shooting deaths of Vanessa Argueta, 19, of Hempstead and her toddler son, Diego Torres, as Chavez, moving between shock and grief, retraced her daughter's last months. The bodies of Argueta and her son were found Friday in a wooded area of Central Islip.

Chavez, 39, said she'd worried about a change in Argueta's behavior in recent months. She had gone from a steady job in a major department store to a smaller retailer that offered fewer hours - meaning less pay. Her enrollment in a high school equivalency program hadn't yet borne fruit. And, most disconcerting, she would leave her home, where she and Diego lived with her mother, brother and others, and stay out for days at a time.

"I would advise her and say I would take care of the boy so you can go to work, but not for you to hang out with your friends," Chavez said in Spanish in her home Sunday. "But she didn't want to listen to anyone's advice."

Still, these problems of late did not obscure Chavez's love and concern for Argueta, who was to turn 20 Thursday.

"She was a good-hearted girl" who cared deeply for Diego and made friends easily, Chavez said.

Streams of visitors have come to Chavez's home, some traveling from as far away as Texas, to pay their respects in the days since Argueta and her son were found Friday in a wooded area in Central Islip.

One visitor, a former co-worker of Argueta's, brought over the birthday present she had intended to give her this week: a black dress with a gray stole.

Sunday, Chavez handed the dress to Argueta's childhood friend, Cindy, 19, of Hempstead, who started to cry when she ran her fingers along the furry stole.

But there was laughter, too, as Cindy reminisced about happier times - like summer days in Argueta's family's backyard, when they waded in an inflatable pool, or sleepovers at which Argueta told scary stories and their little brothers played mischief on them.

"She was friends with everyone," said Cindy, showing Chavez pictures on her cell phone of graffiti made in Argueta's honor. They said "RIP Vanessa" and "Diego."

Later, Chavez said: "Whoever is guilty of doing this has to pay."