05-13-2008, 11:17 PM
Sheriff calls crime scene 'most horrific crime scene I've ever seen'
TAMPA - Two young children and their 26-year-old mother were brutally slain in their Lutz home and Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies were mum about specifics, saying only that the scene was grisly and wrenching and that no arrests had been made.
"This is the most horrific crime scene I've ever seen," said Sheriff David Gee. "It's an extremely difficult crime scene to work."
Investigators were back at the home this morning, ducking under yellow crime scene tape as they continued to collect evidence. It was a scene that even veteran crime fighters couldn't stomach: two children, one of them a toddler, found dead inside a mobile home, a woman's body nearby.
Even the family dog was slain. It was a white German shepherd.
Whoever killed the mother and children did such a gruesome, bloody job that investigators could not make positive identifications by looking at them. Neither could family.
Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee said today investigators have identified "key players" in the grisly triple murder of a mother and her two children.
The family was found slain Monday morning at a home at 1918 Mobile Villa Drive S. Gee said the victims, including the family dog, were discovered mutilated and dismembered. One had been decapitated.
Investigators found a man hiding in a closet underneath a pile of clothes in a child's bedroom in the home. The man, whom Gee did not name at the 1:30 p.m. news conference, told authorities he had ingested an unknown substance and was taken to University Community Hospital. Gee said he remains there under guard. His condition was not immediately available. When asked if the man transported was considered a suspect or a victim, Gee said only "he's not a victim".
The ensuing investigation has proved an "extremely tough crime scene, emotionally and logistically," Gee said. He said crime scene technicians would be collecting evidence at the bloody scene "at least another day or two."
More than one weapon had been used, Gee said, declining to elaborate. He did not disclose a motive for the slayings.
Lisa Freiberg lived in the home with her boyfriend, Edward Covington, according to his father, Ronnie Covington, a Hillsborough sheriff's detention deputy at Falkenburg Road Jail.
The couple met online and dated for a while, his father said. They had no children together, and Covington had just recently moved into Freiberg's home, his father said. Covington changed his drivers license to Freiberg's address on April 28.
Gee did not name the man found hiding in the home's closet after the killings, but he said he was Freiberg's live-in boyfriend.
Records show Edward A. Covington has faced previous accusations of brutality. In January 2005, Tampa police went to Covington's home after they received a call from his father, who was concerned for his son.
Inside the home, police found Edward Covington on the floor of his living room. "I don't want to die like this," he told an officer, crying, according to a police report. Covington was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital under the provisions of the state Baker Act.
In his kitchen, police found three dead cats in a bloody scene. According to the report, "The cats appeared to be mutilated and deformed."
It appeared Covington had slammed one cat into the kitchen sink, fracturing the animal's skull, according to the report. The case was never prosecuted, according to the police report. It was unclear why. When asked about Edward Covington, state attorney's office spokeswoman Pam Bondi said the office "cannot make any comment at this time."
Covington, 35, is a former officer with the state Department of Corrections. He worked for the department from May 1996 to January 2006 in Hillsborough and Hardee counties.
He continued to work for the department after being Baker-Acted, corrections department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said. Before Covington returned to work, he was referred to the Employee Assistance Program. Then he was evaluated by a non-department professional and was deemed fit for correctional officer duty and allowed to return to work.
"The department took appropriate steps with this employee," Plessinger said.
In April Covington told his father he was moving in temporarily with Freiberg because he had no place to live. Freiberg was described by neighbors as having a big heart, always helping people or animals in need.
The family was killed in the early morning hours Sunday, Gee said. Freiberg's mother did not hear from her daughter on Mother's Day, so she went to the house Monday morning.
The doors were locked, so she forced her way inside, Gee said. Her mother ran from the mobile home and called police.
As detectives continue investigating the home today, neighbors are still trying to understand what happened to the sweet, shy woman who kept to herself while she raised her two kids. Sheriff's officials have not yet identified the victims.
"That is so horrible, a nightmare in my own neighborhood," said Kelly Baum, 40, a neighbor. Baum said arguments at 1918 Mobile Villa Drive S were routine, but that Sunday afternoon, the fighting sounded different.
Baum said she heard a woman yell "a mad yell." Baum then heard thuds like, "furniture being thrown across the room." "It was the worst thing I heard in my life," Baum said.
She said she looked at her neighbor's home but saw nothing unusual, so she did not call 911 to file a report. "I wish to God I had seen something," Baum said, crying. "I'm so scared to stay in my own house."
It's an awful thing to happen to someone so young, she said. "She's a baby. It's rough with two little babies and no husband," she said.
Baum had harsh words for the person who killed the young mother and children. "He needs his dance with the devil," she said.
Nearby, another neighbor, Dan Gannett, placed a bouquet of dark pink, purple and yellow flowers at a makeshift memorial near the family's home. He remembered the woman who died as someone who tried to bring neighbors together. When she first moved in, she had a block party, complete with a moonwalk for children, not the kind of thing normally seen in the neighborhood.
she met him online, and may not have had cause for concern about him, because after all, he'd been a corrections officer for 10 years, and his father is a Hillsborough Deputy (who didn't bother to warn the woman about his bipolar son) - maybe if SAO had not dropped the case in 2005 or if the neighbor had called 911 on Mother's Day this family would be alive today
TAMPA - Two young children and their 26-year-old mother were brutally slain in their Lutz home and Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies were mum about specifics, saying only that the scene was grisly and wrenching and that no arrests had been made.
"This is the most horrific crime scene I've ever seen," said Sheriff David Gee. "It's an extremely difficult crime scene to work."
Investigators were back at the home this morning, ducking under yellow crime scene tape as they continued to collect evidence. It was a scene that even veteran crime fighters couldn't stomach: two children, one of them a toddler, found dead inside a mobile home, a woman's body nearby.
Even the family dog was slain. It was a white German shepherd.
Whoever killed the mother and children did such a gruesome, bloody job that investigators could not make positive identifications by looking at them. Neither could family.
Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee said today investigators have identified "key players" in the grisly triple murder of a mother and her two children.
The family was found slain Monday morning at a home at 1918 Mobile Villa Drive S. Gee said the victims, including the family dog, were discovered mutilated and dismembered. One had been decapitated.
Investigators found a man hiding in a closet underneath a pile of clothes in a child's bedroom in the home. The man, whom Gee did not name at the 1:30 p.m. news conference, told authorities he had ingested an unknown substance and was taken to University Community Hospital. Gee said he remains there under guard. His condition was not immediately available. When asked if the man transported was considered a suspect or a victim, Gee said only "he's not a victim".
The ensuing investigation has proved an "extremely tough crime scene, emotionally and logistically," Gee said. He said crime scene technicians would be collecting evidence at the bloody scene "at least another day or two."
More than one weapon had been used, Gee said, declining to elaborate. He did not disclose a motive for the slayings.
Lisa Freiberg lived in the home with her boyfriend, Edward Covington, according to his father, Ronnie Covington, a Hillsborough sheriff's detention deputy at Falkenburg Road Jail.
The couple met online and dated for a while, his father said. They had no children together, and Covington had just recently moved into Freiberg's home, his father said. Covington changed his drivers license to Freiberg's address on April 28.
Gee did not name the man found hiding in the home's closet after the killings, but he said he was Freiberg's live-in boyfriend.
Records show Edward A. Covington has faced previous accusations of brutality. In January 2005, Tampa police went to Covington's home after they received a call from his father, who was concerned for his son.
Inside the home, police found Edward Covington on the floor of his living room. "I don't want to die like this," he told an officer, crying, according to a police report. Covington was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital under the provisions of the state Baker Act.
In his kitchen, police found three dead cats in a bloody scene. According to the report, "The cats appeared to be mutilated and deformed."
It appeared Covington had slammed one cat into the kitchen sink, fracturing the animal's skull, according to the report. The case was never prosecuted, according to the police report. It was unclear why. When asked about Edward Covington, state attorney's office spokeswoman Pam Bondi said the office "cannot make any comment at this time."
Covington, 35, is a former officer with the state Department of Corrections. He worked for the department from May 1996 to January 2006 in Hillsborough and Hardee counties.
He continued to work for the department after being Baker-Acted, corrections department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said. Before Covington returned to work, he was referred to the Employee Assistance Program. Then he was evaluated by a non-department professional and was deemed fit for correctional officer duty and allowed to return to work.
"The department took appropriate steps with this employee," Plessinger said.
In April Covington told his father he was moving in temporarily with Freiberg because he had no place to live. Freiberg was described by neighbors as having a big heart, always helping people or animals in need.
The family was killed in the early morning hours Sunday, Gee said. Freiberg's mother did not hear from her daughter on Mother's Day, so she went to the house Monday morning.
The doors were locked, so she forced her way inside, Gee said. Her mother ran from the mobile home and called police.
As detectives continue investigating the home today, neighbors are still trying to understand what happened to the sweet, shy woman who kept to herself while she raised her two kids. Sheriff's officials have not yet identified the victims.
"That is so horrible, a nightmare in my own neighborhood," said Kelly Baum, 40, a neighbor. Baum said arguments at 1918 Mobile Villa Drive S were routine, but that Sunday afternoon, the fighting sounded different.
Baum said she heard a woman yell "a mad yell." Baum then heard thuds like, "furniture being thrown across the room." "It was the worst thing I heard in my life," Baum said.
She said she looked at her neighbor's home but saw nothing unusual, so she did not call 911 to file a report. "I wish to God I had seen something," Baum said, crying. "I'm so scared to stay in my own house."
It's an awful thing to happen to someone so young, she said. "She's a baby. It's rough with two little babies and no husband," she said.
Baum had harsh words for the person who killed the young mother and children. "He needs his dance with the devil," she said.
Nearby, another neighbor, Dan Gannett, placed a bouquet of dark pink, purple and yellow flowers at a makeshift memorial near the family's home. He remembered the woman who died as someone who tried to bring neighbors together. When she first moved in, she had a block party, complete with a moonwalk for children, not the kind of thing normally seen in the neighborhood.
she met him online, and may not have had cause for concern about him, because after all, he'd been a corrections officer for 10 years, and his father is a Hillsborough Deputy (who didn't bother to warn the woman about his bipolar son) - maybe if SAO had not dropped the case in 2005 or if the neighbor had called 911 on Mother's Day this family would be alive today