Remember this sad story...Osceola Killers Leave Bloody Trail Of Terror In 92............. The Slaying Of Bonnie Goodson At A Truck Store Could End Up Being Kissimmees First Unsolved Homicide. December 26, 1992|By Henry Pierson Curtis Of The Sentinel Staff KISSIMMEE — Detective John Meyers knows almost everything about the day Bonnie Goodson died, except for the final minutes before she was killed. Filling in those missing minutes, no more than 20, could help Meyers continue Kissimmee law enforcements perfect 109-year record of solving murders.Now, the record is threatened by two cases in Osceola Countys worst year for homicides since the Florida Department of Law Enforcement started keeping records in 1971. So far, 10 people have died in violent crimes this year. The worst previous years were 1991 and 1987, when seven died each year. Goodson, who died Nov. 29, was the 10th. For now, Meyers is stumped. A lot of them we have solved have been with the help of the community, he said. Sometimes its been with something someone thought was unimportant, but theres nothing unimportant in a homicide investigation. The tips Meyers is looking for include anything about Goodson on the afternoon of Nov. 30 at the Truck Accessory Superstore at 205 S. Bermuda Ave. It shouldnt be a hard day to remember. Murder was the countys main topic of discussion that day; two local men were killed the previous day in a carjacking outside Kissimmee. Goodson, a 34-year-old mother of two daughters, went to work as usual that morning, riding her red, single-speed bicycle. She waited on a couple of customers until noon, when a co-worker brought her a cup of soup for lunch from Fat Boys Bar-B-Q restaurant on Vine Street. The last known customers were a husband and wife who stopped in at 2:30 p.m. and bought a latch for their pickup truck cover. Twenty minutes later, Goodson was found bleeding profusely from wounds on her head. She died after being flown to Orlando Regional Medical Center. Less than $500 was missing from the cash register. What kind of person does something like this? Is it anger or is it robbery? Meyers said. Brutal is the word for it. Ive investigated several homicides as a police officer and this is the worst Ive seen. The killings that set a record in 1992 began only three blocks from Goodsons store on the night of Feb. 26, when Dr. Ruth Haut, a Kissimmee chiropractor, was abducted from her Bermuda Avenue office. The next morning, a child riding a school bus saw a womans body in an orange grove 10 miles east of St. Cloud. It turned out to be Haut, 34, who had worked as an armed security guard and a driver for Dominos Pizza.Police already were searching for Haut. Her roommate had called police the night before when Haut did not return from an evening appointment. Haut had been stabbed and slashed repeatedly. However, confusing clues were found when police learned that within hours of the slaying, the killer or an accomplice used Hauts bank card at an automatic teller machine in Vero Beach. Photographs taken by the ATM machines security camera show the person wore a hooded sweatshirt to disguise his or her identity. The case is unsolved, but Kissimmee police are still investigating. Hauts death was only the start: - Steven Sly, a decorated Vietnam veteran, became the years second homicide victim when he went camping June 13 with his 10-year-old son and 13-year-old nephew. Hearing noises about 2:30 a.m., Sly left a tent pitched in his parents side yard on Kissimmees west side and was confronted by a single man prowling outside. A fight broke out and Sly died from a knife wound. His body was found about 7:30 a.m. when the boys left the tent. Six weeks after the killing, Osceola County deputies charged David Mercado, an Orlando construction worker, with Slys murder. Mercado lived with one of Slys nieces, and deputies theorize that Mercado was carrying out a vendetta of vandalism against his girlfriends family when Sly confronted him. Mercado pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. - About a month after Slys death, Devon Sugar Monteith was shot twice in the stomach during a July 17 argument over money he owed a co-worker for a motel room. Darren Miller, a 31-year-old dump truck driver, was arrested a week later in Orlando and charged with second-degree murder. A jury acquitted Miller Dec. 17 after hearing testimony that Monteith threatened to stab Miller during the argument. Both men worked on the Southern Connector highway project and had roomed together after coming to Central Florida to find jobs. - The fourth killing happened Aug. 22 during a fight between a father and his stepson. Scott Gregory, 17, was charged with murder shortly after St. Cloud police found Donald Schultz dying outside his Indiana Avenue home from a stab wound to the chest. The teen-agers mother, Clarissa Schlutz, told police that her husband started the argument when Gregory returned home about 11 p.m. for curfew. Schultz, 35, became combative when he drank, and he had been drinking beer that night, she said. Judge Judith Gloeckner released Gregory from jail within days of the killing and allowed him to attend his stepfathers funeral in Texas. Gregory remains free on bail.The fifth killing happened Oct. 4. That night, a man identifying himself as Raymond A. Frankenreiter called 911 to say he had just shot two men. The man asked a dispatcher to have deputies shoot him. Deputies rushed to Richards RV Court on South Orange Blossom Trail where they found Robert Woody, 19, dead from a gunshot wound to the head and Brian McNutt, 18, shot in the arm and abdomen. The three men had been drinking with Tammy Gendusa, 27, when Frankenreiter, 47, took offense to attention she was paying to Woody, investigators said.Frankenreiter drew a pistol and shot Woody, saying, This is for you, Tammy, sheriffs reports said. He then shot McNutt, who survived, and turned the pistol on Gendusa only to stop and say, No, I dont want to do this. Ive already done enough damage, the reports said. Frankenreiter surrendered and was charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty and remains in the Osceola County Jail awaiting trial. - The countys sixth killing happened Oct. 6, two days after the mobile home park shootings. Ronald Johan Fedderman was charged with murder after fighting with Kenneth Dean Smith, who died of a heart attack. The Sheriffs Office has not released details about the fight that broke out in Smiths home at Images Apartments west of Kissimmee. But reports indicate that Smith, 56, threw Fedderman, 37, out of his home only to have Fedderman break back in and attack him. Smith, who had a history of heart problems, collapsed in his bedroom after ejecting Fedderman a second time, reports say. Fedderman was released on bail and is awaiting trial. - The seventh killing happened Nov. 21 when a discount ticket salesman was beaten to death on West U.S. Highway 192. Tourists stopping for directions found Antonio Zuco, 50, in the bathroom of his ticket shop and tourist information center. An undisclosed amount of cash and number of tickets to area attractions were taken, along with Zucos wallet. Deputies think the murder weapon might be a hammer. The Osceola Sheriffs Office is still investigating. - The eighth and ninth killings propelled Osceola County into national news when carjackers shot three local men in a pasture south of Kissimmee. Anthony Clifton, 20, and Anthony Faiella, 17, died from gunshot wounds to the back of the head. Their friend, Michael Rentas, 20, survived by playing dead after he was shot in the hand. Tammy George, another friend, was released unharmed. The methodical killings - the three men were forced to strip, cover their heads with their underwear and lie on the ground before being shot - drew nationwide attention. Within days, four young Polk County men from the Winter Haven area were arrested and charged. So far, only one of the four, Alf Catholic, 21, has been charged with murder.The other three - Gerard Booker, 22, Jermaine Foster, 19, and Leondre Henderson, 17 - are being held in Polk County on charges connected to an earlier carjacking. All but Booker have given statements admitting the killings, Osceola County Sheriff Jon Lane said. Foster admitted being the one who shot the three men, investigators said. A federal grand jury indicted the four Dec. 17 under a new federal law that makes fatal carjackings punishable by life without parole in federal prison. State charges of first-degree murder are still pending. Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar has said he will seek the death penalty if the evidence warrants it. - Goodson, the 10th victim, was killed a day after Clifton and Faiella.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 23:38:59 +0000
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