Adults, children found dead in gruesome highway shootings
Pastor Dale Morgan
Adults, children found dead in gruesome highway shootings
*POSTED: 2051 GMT (0451 HKT), October 13, 2006
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)
Woman appeared to be protecting children
"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.
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.
Police were excavating the ground under the victims in a search for
bullets that would help them determine whether more than one gun was
used, Mascara said. 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," he said.
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 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.
No vehicle was found near the bodies, Mascara said.
Cameras posted along the turnpike were not recording at the time,
Mascara said.
A blue tent was set up over the bodies, and white material covered them
until they were released to the medical examiner.
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.
None of the victims were being identified by name, Mascara said during
an afternoon news conference. The woman, 25, was carrying a Florida ID,
he said, and the children are believed to be between 4 and 6 years old.
The man, 29, was found lying near the other victims.
Autopsies on the four will not be conducted until at least Saturday,
said Merv Waldren, spokesman for the St. Lucie County Medical Examiner.
He asked that anyone with information that might be connected to the
slayings call the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office at 772-462-3230.
CNN's Fredricka Whitfield and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.