Tipster Rejects Reward : $5,000 Returned to Sailor Whose Family Was Slain

Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Rolando B. Silva had put up his life savings of $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of the killer of his wife and 2-year-old daughter.

The money was returned to Silva on Tuesday after the tipster who provided police with the information that led to the arrest of a suspect refused to accept the reward.

Silva found his wife, Nelia, 33, and daughter, Kathrine, beaten to death when he returned home from his Navy job on Dec. 18. Police said that the family’s Otay Mesa home had been broken into and that some jewelry was missing.

Silva gave the $5,000 to the San Diego Chapter of Crime Stoppers International to offer as a reward for the arrest of the killer, said Linda Miller, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

The Crime Stoppers’ chapter televised a dramatization of the crime in which a police spokesman urged anyone with information to come forward, said Ted Owen vice president of the chapter.

Every week Crime Stoppers, a nonprofit organization funded by donations, dramatizes an unsolved crime.

The identities of the tipsters are never revealed, Owen said.

Last week, acting on a tip from a Crime Stoppers viewer, police arrested Richard Gonzalez Samayoa, 33, who lived across the street from the Silva home in the 1300 block of Piedra Street.

Samayoa was arraigned Tuesday in Municipal Court on two counts of murder and one count of burglary. A preliminary hearing was set for April 3 in Municipal Court. Bail was set at $2 million.

Miller said the district attorney’s office is considering seeking the death penalty.

Silva said he plans to ask the Navy for a transfer to Hawaii to “start my new life. . . . They were my life, and we only had her (his daughter) for two years.”