The authorities believed that suggestive remarks from his father, who knew all about his son's crimes, had led him to commit violence. During the investigation, his father was arrested three times but released because close relatives could not be forced to testify against other family members. After Ion's last crime, when he robbed a cashier, his mother visited him and found the money under his pillow. His father made him go to the crime scene and showed him what he had done. He then took the money and placed it in his Caracal home, intending to use it to buy a new house. His father was first brought in to the police station during one of Ion's silent phases; the son merely gave his father an ugly look, prompting the latter to say "How should I know what you did? How?" But he had reason to suspect it, as he had been washing his son's bloody clothes after the attacks. After Ion robbed the cashier, Florea confiscated the ax and knife and it was with these that he was secretly returning when he was arrested.