Teen escapes as Fla. dad kills family, self (FL)

Husband kills wife and two kids, shoots at the other kid, then kills himself May 3, 2009

Wife, two boys shot dead; she had tried to leave home after a fight

LAKELAND, Fla. - His father and stepmother had fought before, and 13-year-old Nathan Bellar had no reason to believe their latest exchange would turn violent.

After an argument on Sunday, though, the teen watched his father gun down the woman as she tried to take her sons to their grandparents'. Nathan ran back through the house and heard his father shoot his younger brothers, but the gunfire wasn't over.

His father chased him through the cluttered garage and took aim, but tripped on a bicycle before he could get off another fatal shot. As Nathan ran screaming to the safety of a neighbor's house, the father killed himself in the front lawn.

The teen was staying with his grandparents Monday, a day after investigators said Troy Ryan Bellar, 34, shot and killed his wife, Wendy Bellar, 31, and their 5-month-old and 8-year-old sons. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the surviving teen was quiet and cried some after the shootings but also helped detectives piece together the deadly sequence of events.

"His entire family is gone," Judd said.

"What he witnessed, what he was engaged in, most people in this world will never witness," the sheriff later added.

Wife was trying to drive away
Wendy Bellar was carrying 5-month-old Zack James Bellar out the front door in a car seat when Nathan Bellar saw his father follow them with a 7.62 mm rifle, Judd said. She intended to take the infant and her 8-year-old son, Ryan Patrick Bellar, to her in-laws for the night but was shot down on the screen porch.

Nathan told deputies the earlier argument gave no indication that the evening would turn violent. Investigators said they had not found any suicide note, and a motive remained unclear for the killings in Lakeland, between Tampa and Orlando.

"They argued a little bit, but nothing significant," Judd said.

It wasn't the first argument for the couple who'd been married for 10 years. According to an arrest affidavit, Troy Bellar accused his wife of hitting, punching and scratching him in March. Wendy Bellar was arrested on suspicion of domestic battery, and the case was pending.

Sunday night's gunfire sent panicked neighbors to their phones to dial 911. One of them told an emergency dispatcher she saw the teen "running around in the garage with his hands up, and like screaming," according to a recording of the call.

After Nathan safely reached the home of another neighbor, that woman relayed information from him to a 911 dispatcher.

"A boy's here at my house that lives there and says that his dad shot his mom and there's a baby there," the neighbor, who was not identified, told a 911 operator.

"I know this is going to be very hard for you to ask him," the operator said. "Is his mom still alive?"

After an exchange between the neighbor and the boy, the woman told the operator: "She got shot in the head."

Wife, sons were found on porch
Deputies arrived at a horrific scene: Wendy Bellar and her two young sons dead from gunshot wounds in their screened-in porch and their father lifeless in the front yard. A preliminary investigation indicates that more than 10 rounds were fired in all.

"It left veteran detectives and crime scene technicians that do this for a living stunned last night," Judd said.

AP Wendy Bellar

Detectives praised the surviving teen for being helpful.

"He cried some, as you can imagine," Judd said. "As he should have done. And he was very quiet. And we were very delicate with him."

Investigators say Troy Bellar ran a home remodeling and handyman business, which next-door neighbor Doug Lane said seemed to do a steady business despite the economic downturn.

"He said the remodeling had dropped off, but he was doing repair work for commercial apartments and that sort of thing," Lane said. "He said that he was staying busy."

Judd couldn't say if the family was experiencing any financial difficulties.

Records show the husband had been arrested twice in the county, on suspicion of armed robbery and aggravated battery in 1994 and for driving under the influence in 1999. He was convicted of petit/retail theft in the first case and of driving under the influence in the second.

But if the couple argued before, Lane said he never heard them. He said he saw them sitting outside together Sunday evening, giving no indication that anything was wrong.

"Troy and Wendy were good, good neighbors," Lane said. "Fortunate to know them. Just an awful shock."

Original: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30555915/

Dade City woman's family feared her husband before murder-suicide (FL)

Husband kills wife then himself May 2, 2009

By Camille C. Spencer, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Tuesday, May 5, 2009

DADE CITY — The Scotts' marriage had been strained for some time, according to friends and family members. But in the month leading up to Terry Wayne Scott's decision to kill his wife and then himself, authorities say, things unraveled quickly.

In early April, Veronica Scott discovered her husband of 10 years was cheating on her.

A few weeks later, Zephyrhills police showed up at the couple's 2-acre pasture on Mount Vernon Road to investigate whether Terry Wayne Scott was stealing items from his job at Advance Auto Parts and selling the goods on eBay.

His wife cooperated with investigators, and Terry Wayne Scott, 59, was charged April 17 with grand theft — his first arrest.

Five days later, Veronica Scott, 48, filed for divorce.

Veronica Scott's relatives say years of emotional abuse and the discovery of her husband's infidelity led her to file for divorce. They say she feared her husband, who often isolated himself and avoided his wife's family gatherings.

But they say they never expected him to kill her.

"She'd been unhappy for a long, long time," said Cindy Barthle, 46, Veronica's sister. "Part of what made him crack is that he's a control freak, and she never stood up to him."

Pasco County Sheriff's deputies came to the couple's home Saturday night after co-workers were concerned that Veronica Scott missed her shift at Pasco Regional Medical Center, where she was an administrative supervisor.

They found husband and wife in the garage, both dead of gunshot wounds.

• • •

On April 17, Zephyrhills police met Veronica Scott at the couple's home. The manager at the auto parts store where Terry Wayne Scott worked had reported a "huge inventory loss" at the store.

Inside the garage of the Scotts' home, the report said, police found a blue cooler filled with new auto parts from the store, including a fuel pump, a propane tank and packs of batteries.

Terry Wayne Scott also stored items in Veronica Scott's 2008 Toyota Tacoma truck, the report said, and used her name as the sender of the items, which he sold on eBay.

A few months earlier, his son told police, he asked Terry Wayne Scott where all the auto parts came from.

"Five-finger discount," was the reply.

• • •

Veronica Scott was born in San Francisco and grew up in Dade City. She was the oldest of five children. Her family runs Roberts Vault Company in Dade City.

Terry Wayne Scott was her fourth husband.

Veronica Scott had two sons. One, a teenager, was adopted by Terry Wayne Scott, and lived with the couple.

Terry Wayne Scott had been married once before, and had an adult son and a teen daughter.

Veronica Scott's mother, Donna Roberts, said her daughter loved horses and owned four.

She said her daughter loved her job at the Dade City hospital, where she was awarded a Nurse of the Year honor in 2003. She was chosen from a pool of 90 nurses.

Donna Roberts said her daughter had grown to fear her husband.

"It's unbelievable, but knowing him, we were expecting him to do something bad," she said. "She said he wouldn't hurt her, but we thought he was violent."

Amanda Martin, assistant chief nursing officer at the hospital, had worked with Veronica Scott since 1996.

"She was a great friend and confidante that you could talk to," she said. "I can't say in words how much she'll be a loss to our facility."

Martin said she knew of her co-worker's troubles with Terry Wayne Scott.

"He put her through a lot for a long time," she said. "She would tell stories of how she wanted out. He was very verbally abusive."

Ronnie Bearden, 51, Veronica Scott's ex-husband and father of her oldest son, said his ex-wife enjoyed outdoor activities like camping and fishing.

"She liked to go to the firing range with me," said the retired sheriff's deputy, who lives in Georgia. "She could shoot a gun as good as I could."

The two split amicably in the early '80s, and Veronica Scott moved to Florida. Their son stayed with Bearden in Georgia.

Once, Bearden said, their son was hospitalized in an ICU after a bad car accident. Veronica and Terry Wayne Scott stopped by the hospital, Bearden said.

"He didn't want her to stay (at the hospital) at all," Bearden said. "She said she was scared of him. Every time they got into an argument, he said she wasn't leaving him."

Veronica Scott's brother, Steve Roberts, 41, said his sister's husband didn't want her around her family, and avoided family gatherings.

He said Terry Wayne Scott should have dealt with his problems instead of taking his life and his wife's.

"Instead of facing what he had coming to him," Steve said, "he took the cowardly way out."

• • •

Last month, Veronica Scott discovered her husband was cheating after she found love letters to other women, Steve Roberts said.

She talked to her attorney and officials at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office about filing a restraining order, said her sister, Cindy Barthle, but records show one was never filed.

On Monday, Barthle thought about an upcoming trip out-of-state that Veronica Scott planned to take with her mom and sister.

Now, says Barthle, "it just feels like a nightmare."

Times researcher Shirl Kennedy contributed to this story. Camille C. Spencer can be reached at (813) 909-4609 or cspencer@sptimes.com.

[Last modified: May 04, 2009 09:24 PM]

Original: http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article998074.ece

Deputies investigate attempted murder-suicide (FL)

Husband shoots wife (without killing her), then kills himself May 5, 2009

UPDATE: As of May 6, 2009 the wife has died from the gun shot wound. Apparently the husband left a suicide note and in it he was concerned for his wife's poor health.

BY HEATHER SCOFIELD
Staff Writer

Flagler County Sheriff's Office is investigating an attempted murder-suicide at a home in Plantation Bay this morning.

Initial reports from the scene indicate that Richard Nickel, 75, shot his wife, Gail, 72 and then turned the gun on himself inside the couple’s home on Kingsley Lane in the development.

Gail Nickel was transported to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where a hospital spokeswoman said she was in critical but stable condition. Richard Nickel was found dead.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is processing the scene and the investigation of the incident continues.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

Original: http://www.news-journalonline.com/newsjournalonline/breakingnews/deaths050509.htm