A father is in jail for allegedly strangling his 14-year-old daughter for text-messaging a boy, raising questions about why the man was allowed visitation.

Police say Miguel Matias, 34, snapped when he caught his daughter, Anna, sending text messages to a boy on her cell phone. Matias allegedly strangled the teen, stripped her clothes off and dumped her body in the furnace of his Walton Avenue building.

Matias' daughter was visiting from Pennsylvania, where she lived with her mother. Police say Matias, who spent time in a mental institution, had locked his children in a car before, doused it with gasoline and tried to set it ablaze.

The suspect's neighbors say they are shocked that Matias, their building superintendent, is a potential killer. "He was always cleaning the building," says Sobeyda Flete. "Every time you asked him to do something, he always did it. Always quiet."

Police aren't sure whether the girl was dead before she was stuffed into the boiler. The medical examiner's office is trying to determine the cause of death.