A Venezuelan actress and her ex-husband were shot to death and their 5-year-old daughter was wounded when armed robbers ambushed their broken-down car during an idyllic vacation, police said Tuesday.
Monica Spear's family said they had tried and failed to convince the former beauty queen, who starred in several telenovelas, to leave crime-ridden Venezuela and join them in the United States after she was robbed six times.
'She loved her country too much,' said her brother, Ricardo Spear Mootz, who lives in Florida. 'It was her home.'
Spear, 29, was on a road trip with ex-husband Henry Thomas Berry, 39, and daughter Maya, when they got into a small accident on the Valencia-Puerto Cabello highway.

While they were waiting for a tow truck for their stranded gray Toyota Corolla, gunmen approached the car, police said. The couple locked themselves inside, but the bandits opened fire.
No arrests have been made, but the double slaying focused fresh attention on crime in Venezuela, where 70 people have been murdered in the first week of the year.
Diego Sanchez, who has known the victims for about six years, said the shooting made him think about leaving Venezuela.
'To think there are people who can shoot a mother and father in front of their daughter is very sad and unbelievable,' he said. 'And it’s shocking when it happens to someone you know.'
Family and friends said that al.