Johnny_Blaze_47
10-13-2006, 08:41 PM
Blaze's Take: If anybody needs to die slowly, it's whoever murdered this family.
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Adults, children found dead in gruesome highway shootings
PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (CNN) -- Four people, a man and a woman who was clutching two children, were found shot to death Friday on an isolated stretch of Florida's Turnpike, police said.
No vehicle was seen near their bodies when a passing motorist found them lying on the ground near one of the state's busiest interchanges.
"This is definitely not a murder-suicide," said St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken J. Mascara. "This is a murder that we're pulling out all stops to find out who committed this crime."
Mascara said the four victims appeared to be Hispanic and were shot multiple times while kneeling or lying on the ground. It's unknown if they were a family, he said. (Watch police work the scene around the bodies -- 3:00)
"The woman in a defensive posture, had both of the children surrounded, underneath her arms, in an effort that we can assume was to protect them from the gunfire," Mascara said.
Authorities wrapped the bodies in white cloth under a blue tent erected near the spot where the four were found. Investigators marked off a crime-scene grid and used soil-sifting equipment to search for ballistic evidence in the intense Florida heat.
Woman appeared to be protecting children
Police said officials assume the four were in a vehicle that pulled off the highway and that someone inside the vehicle shot all four victims multiple times before driving away, according to The Associated Press.
Mascara said there were no tire tracks found at the crime scene that investigators could cast for impressions; however, "this morning at 8 o'clock there was a dew and you could see plainly that there was a car that drove up to that scene and left." Despite those tracks in the dew, Mascara said police had no "idea what kind of car was involved."
Investigators working the case were emotionally affected by the slayings, he said. (Watch sheriff talk about how the bodies were found -- 2:43)
"Everybody that went and viewed the bodies described it as one of the most gruesome scenes that they had been to," the sheriff said.
Police were withholding the identities of the victims, Mascara said, and were searching for their next of kin. The woman, 25, was carrying a Florida ID and the children are believed to be between 4 and 6 years old, he said. The man, 29, was found lying near the other victims.
Residents awoke to 'pop-pop' sound
Residents living at a golf club near the scene of the shooting reported hearing gunshots between 1 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., Mascara said.
Janis Rich, a 67-year-old retired bookkeeper, told AP that she and her husband were asleep in their golf club home, a quarter-mile from the scene, when they awoke to a loud "pop-pop-pop-pop" sound from the direction of the turnpike just before 2:30 a.m. Rich said the couple saw no traffic or anything else in the darkness. "We were trying to hear anyone speaking, anyone crying, but it was total quiet," she told AP.
Highway Patrol troopers got a call shortly before 8 a.m. after someone spotted the bodies of the man, woman, boy and girl off the southbound shoulder of the highway in Port St. Lucie, the sheriff's office told AP.
Mascara said cameras posted along the turnpike were not recording at the time the bodies were found.
Police asked that anyone with information that might be connected to the slayings call the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office at 772-462-3230.
Busy interchange
The bodies were found near the Florida Turnpike's Fort Pierce exit, around mile marker 149, and near its intersection with I-95, a very busy thoroughfare, he said.
Florida's Turnpike is the main toll road connecting the Miami area with cities along the Atlantic Coast to Fort Pierce and then inland to Orlando and Interstate 75.
Autopsies on the four will not be conducted until at least Saturday, said Merv Waldren, spokesman for the St. Lucie County Medical Examiner.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/13/florida.bodies/index.html
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Adults, children found dead in gruesome highway shootings
PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (CNN) -- Four people, a man and a woman who was clutching two children, were found shot to death Friday on an isolated stretch of Florida's Turnpike, police said.
No vehicle was seen near their bodies when a passing motorist found them lying on the ground near one of the state's busiest interchanges.
"This is definitely not a murder-suicide," said St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken J. Mascara. "This is a murder that we're pulling out all stops to find out who committed this crime."
Mascara said the four victims appeared to be Hispanic and were shot multiple times while kneeling or lying on the ground. It's unknown if they were a family, he said. (Watch police work the scene around the bodies -- 3:00)
"The woman in a defensive posture, had both of the children surrounded, underneath her arms, in an effort that we can assume was to protect them from the gunfire," Mascara said.
Authorities wrapped the bodies in white cloth under a blue tent erected near the spot where the four were found. Investigators marked off a crime-scene grid and used soil-sifting equipment to search for ballistic evidence in the intense Florida heat.
Woman appeared to be protecting children
Police said officials assume the four were in a vehicle that pulled off the highway and that someone inside the vehicle shot all four victims multiple times before driving away, according to The Associated Press.
Mascara said there were no tire tracks found at the crime scene that investigators could cast for impressions; however, "this morning at 8 o'clock there was a dew and you could see plainly that there was a car that drove up to that scene and left." Despite those tracks in the dew, Mascara said police had no "idea what kind of car was involved."
Investigators working the case were emotionally affected by the slayings, he said. (Watch sheriff talk about how the bodies were found -- 2:43)
"Everybody that went and viewed the bodies described it as one of the most gruesome scenes that they had been to," the sheriff said.
Police were withholding the identities of the victims, Mascara said, and were searching for their next of kin. The woman, 25, was carrying a Florida ID and the children are believed to be between 4 and 6 years old, he said. The man, 29, was found lying near the other victims.
Residents awoke to 'pop-pop' sound
Residents living at a golf club near the scene of the shooting reported hearing gunshots between 1 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., Mascara said.
Janis Rich, a 67-year-old retired bookkeeper, told AP that she and her husband were asleep in their golf club home, a quarter-mile from the scene, when they awoke to a loud "pop-pop-pop-pop" sound from the direction of the turnpike just before 2:30 a.m. Rich said the couple saw no traffic or anything else in the darkness. "We were trying to hear anyone speaking, anyone crying, but it was total quiet," she told AP.
Highway Patrol troopers got a call shortly before 8 a.m. after someone spotted the bodies of the man, woman, boy and girl off the southbound shoulder of the highway in Port St. Lucie, the sheriff's office told AP.
Mascara said cameras posted along the turnpike were not recording at the time the bodies were found.
Police asked that anyone with information that might be connected to the slayings call the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office at 772-462-3230.
Busy interchange
The bodies were found near the Florida Turnpike's Fort Pierce exit, around mile marker 149, and near its intersection with I-95, a very busy thoroughfare, he said.
Florida's Turnpike is the main toll road connecting the Miami area with cities along the Atlantic Coast to Fort Pierce and then inland to Orlando and Interstate 75.
Autopsies on the four will not be conducted until at least Saturday, said Merv Waldren, spokesman for the St. Lucie County Medical Examiner.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/13/florida.bodies/index.html