http://qui.live.mediaspanonlinen.com/rss/ Quincy Herald Whig en-us Illegal alien Manuel Cazares charged withtwo counts of second-degree murder. Click here.By RODNEY HARTHerald-Whig Staff Writer HANNIBAL, Mo. — The biological mother of a Hannibal woman found stabbed to death inside her apartment Saturday morning says her daughter was “scared to death” of the man accused of killing her.Jolene Schaubroeck, a native of Quincy, Ill., who now lives near Lincoln, Neb., says her daughter, Amanda Thomas, filed three orders of protection against Manuel Cazares. Schaubroeck said Cazares used a screwdriver to break into Thomas’ apartment on Starlight Ridge in December and beat her daughter with his fists.“He said he was going to kill her,” Schaubroeck said this morning. “When it came time to go to court, Judge (John) Jackson just looked at Amanda and sighed and shook his head. Her face was a mess.”Thomas, 27, and Carl Patrick Epley, 26, were pronounced dead at 11 a.m. Saturday in the apartment near Huckleberry Park. Cazares, the father of Thomas’ 1 1/2-year-old son, was arrested after he turned himself in to police at 9:48 Saturday morning.Thomas had two young children, but both were staying with other family members and were not home when the bodies were discovered.Cazares worked at Gran Rio restaurant next to International Eye Care, where Thomas used to work. They met at the restaurant, Schaubroeck said.“They never actually lived together,” she said. “He would stay over there, but he had his own place with a bunch of guys.”Schaubroeck said her daughter recently started taking registered nurse classes at John Wood Community College in Quincy, Ill., and was trying to get out of Hannibal. However, Thomas also had a 7-year-old daughter with another man, and his visitation rights prevented her from moving out of the area, Schaubroeck said.Cazares and Thomas never were married. He stayed away from Thomas after an order of protection was filed in December, but Schaubroeck said he violated that order when he started calling and texting her in February. Schaubroeck said she and her daughter suspected Cazares of recently breaking into her apartment.Schaubroeck works in the York County court system as a child advocate, doing foster training, workshops on domestic violence and parenting.Schaubroeck said she talked to Hannibal police and to the Marion County prosecutor’s office about her daughter’s order of protection being violated. Cazares was picked up and questioned, she said, but he was not held or charged with breaking the order of protection.She says she had her daughter when she was young and was unable to care for her, so Thomas was adopted by a Monroe City family.“We talked almost every day and were very close,” Schaubroeck said. “Amanda had some rough years between (ages) 19 and 22 ... but then she had her kids and they got older, and she started to pull her life together.“She was an amazing person. It’s ironic, because one of the reasons she gave Manuel so many second chances was because she was afraid Taybryn would hate her for keeping his daddy away from him.“Her kids only made her believe in something better.”Schaubroeck said she met Manuel several times.“He could be charming,” she said. “But I told her to be careful, because he sounded like he was really controlling and I could see some red flags.”Schaubroeck says her daughter worked for the Red Cross in Marion County as a phlebotomist during blood drives. She quit a job at International Eye Care to go back to school.“She felt trapped when she started putting her life together,” Schaubroeck said. “The system kept her here.”Schaubroeck said she did not know Epley or know what his relationship was with her daughter.— rhart@whig.com/221-3370 http://qui.live.mediaspanonline.com/new_story/Thomas-Mother-speaks