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Two years later, a vigil

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On Paper

Prostitute's killing among 6
Everyone who loved Regan Kendall worried she'd be dead before long. There were good reasons for this.

Orlando's Deadliest Year
Orlando breaks its all-time murder record in August 2006.

Indentured in America
A National Headliner Award-winning story about Micronesian workers in Orlando and elsewhere, working under conditins that amount to indentured servitude.

Firestorm
The city of Palm Bay is on fire, and residents struggle to put out blazes.

T-shirts recall lives of victims
Something about the sight of her son's face on a t-shirt makes this grieving mother smile.

Stolen-ID nightmare finally ends
All it took was a fax to realize he was the wrong man.

Shrines to the slain
At a time of record killings, the sight of shrines becomes common.

Trail of Death
For six grim miles, murder follows Orange Blossom Trail.

Why is my son's killer free?
He killed her son while fleeing police in a car, drunk. Why wasn't he arrested?

Death in the Fog
A massive crash on Central Florida's most important thoroughfare leads to panic and tragedy.

On Paper

Summaries

Headlines

To read, click story under "Headline" menu to the right

Prostitute's killing among 6

Date: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 Section: A SECTION
Edition: FINAL Page: A1
Source: Willoughby Mariano, Sentinel Staff Writer

PROSTITUTE'S KILLING AMONG 6 UNSOLVED


Everyone who loved Regan Kendall worried she'd turn up dead before long.
There were good reasons for this. Kendall, 48, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The mother of three was addicted to crack cocaine. She was a convicted thief and a prostitute.

On July 5, her dismembered body was found in three plastic garbage bags among the weeds in a field north of Kissimmee. There have been no arrests.

Her death is one of a half-dozen unsolved killings of Orlando-area prostitutes in the past year -- an unusual number of active cases, according to police. Police think three slayings in Daytona Beach are related. Kendall's death may not be connected to the others, but it stands out because it was so gruesome.

"I always thought it would be an overdose," her adult daughter Brandy Kendall-Mahns said. "I never expected the horror. I never expected this."

It had been two years since the mother and daughter last spoke, and seven days before Kendall-Mahns' scheduled wedding to a Navy seaman who recently returned from Iraq when she heard the news.

Soon afterward, Kendall-Mahns, 32, left her home near Camp Lejeune, N.C., for St. Augustine, where she married July 13. Then she and her new husband drove to Kissimmee to pay their final respects.

Suffered in life, death
Kendall had told her girls -- Kendall-Mahns, Dawn Kendall, 30, and Crystal Kendall, 24 -- that she was sorry she wasn't a better mother. But it was hard to believe much of what she had said, they recalled after her recent memorial service.

She swore she would sober up but never could.
She said she loved them but never surfaced long enough to raise them.
The girls loved her. But, in time, they lost faith.
While Kendall was in prison in 1999, Crystal sent a photograph of herself. Kendall told her that she framed it and kept it by her bedside. Crystal suspected she was lying.

Dawn worried that Kendall was too far gone to be there for her 2-year-old granddaughter Kaitlyn. Kendall-Mahns never expected to see her at the wedding, although she hoped that one day her mother would meet her husband, Tim Mahns.

But the closest he would ever get to his mother-in-law is the Osceola County field where her body was dumped.
A father and son discovered the remains along a litter-strewn, dirt path near Osceola Parkway and Boggy Creek Road.
Whoever did this thought her mother was garbage, Kendall-Mahns thought.
"She was more than that," the daughter said. "Why did her life have to be so hard?"
"She had to suffer so much in life," Dawn said. "She had to suffer in death, too?"
The hardship came early. Kendall was pregnant with her eldest daughter, Kendall-Mahns, by 15.
At first, Kendall was happy, singing lullabies to her growing belly, relatives said. By 20, she was overwhelmed. She was married, had two children and lived in a mobile home.

It must have been tough, Kendall-Mahns said. "Everybody has hopes and dreams."
In the 1980s, Kendall was hospitalized for mental illness and became addicted to crack cocaine. By the time she gave birth to her youngest child, Crystal, she was convinced she was unfit to care for her children. She sent Crystal and Dawn to be raised by their father. Kendall-Mahns lived with an aunt out of state.

Things got only worse. Kendall would disappear for weeks at a time, and when she appeared at the home of her brother, Craig Bulger, in Kissimmee, she was anxious and terrified.

"She was always worried, like someone was going to get her," Bulger said.
Doctors diagnosed Kendall with paranoid schizophrenia, Bulger said, and Kendall took to sleeping in the cold, beneath highway overpasses. She refused to go indoors.

"There were more ways to escape," he said. The prostitution arrests began in the 1990s. From 1997 to 2001, Kendall served prison time for grand theft, drug and escape convictions.

When she got out, she vowed to change. But the drug abuse began again and the number of her arrests climbed to more than 50.

And when news broke this month that the remains of an unidentified woman were found dumped in Osceola County, Bulger's heart sank.

`Hard to love'
Thunder crackled as two dozen people gathered July 19 at Faith Harvest Worship Center for Kendall's memorial service. Relatives took turns at a microphone.

Bulger: "She was a hard-to-love kind of person because she wouldn't let you close to her."
Kendall-Mahns: "I really wish I could have spent more time with her. I don't fault her for that."
Dawn rose from her chair and took the microphone in her shaking hands. She didn't know her mom well but knew she tried to do the right thing. Kendall stayed away from her girls because she was too ashamed of herself.

"She didn't want us to know her that way," Dawn cried out.
Bulger called to her.
"She loved you, Dawn," he said.
Dawn sobbed and nodded.
The regrets continued well into the evening, as mourners crowded into Bulger's house in Kissimmee afterwards.
Kendall went down the wrong path after her father left her mother, Bulger offered.
"She never could fill that hole in her life."
"It was the loneliness," Kendall's sister Dana Cain said.
"She was so scared," Bulger continued. "The drugs took away that feeling."
Nearby, the daughters crowded a leather couch to pore through their mother's belongings. All she possessed fit in a handful of plastic grocery bags and a canvas sack.

There were dozens of photographs. Some were of Kendall. They showed a tow-headed toddler in a checkered dress. A slender girl in a school portrait. A beaming teen.

There was one of Crystal, too. It was the photograph she thought meant nothing to her mother, the one she sent in 1999.

"She kept it," Crystal gasped.
She clutched the plastic frame and began to cry.



Illustration: PHOTO: REGAN KENDALL: The woman's dismembered body was found in 3 garbage bags near Kissimmee.
Keywords: MURDER CF OSC PROBE REGAN KENDALL BIOG FAMILY EMOTION REACTION
Memo: Willoughby Mariano can be reached at wmariano@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5171.
A related story ran on page A11.

Prostitute's killing among 6 unsolved

Date: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 Section: A SECTION
Edition: FINAL Page: A1
Source: Willoughby Mariano, Sentinel Staff Writer


Everyone who loved Regan Kendall worried she'd turn up dead before long.
There were good reasons for this. Kendall, 48, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The mother of three was addicted to crack cocaine. She was a convicted thief and a prostitute.

On July 5, her dismembered body was found in three plastic garbage bags among the weeds in a field north of Kissimmee. There have been no arrests.

Her death is one of a half-dozen unsolved killings of Orlando-area prostitutes in the past year -- an unusual number of active cases, according to police. Police think three slayings in Daytona Beach are related. Kendall's death may not be connected to the others, but it stands out because it was so gruesome.

"I always thought it would be an overdose," her adult daughter Brandy Kendall-Mahns said. "I never expected the horror. I never expected this."

It had been two years since the mother and daughter last spoke, and seven days before Kendall-Mahns' scheduled wedding to a Navy seaman who recently returned from Iraq when she heard the news.

Soon afterward, Kendall-Mahns, 32, left her home near Camp Lejeune, N.C., for St. Augustine, where she married July 13. Then she and her new husband drove to Kissimmee to pay their final respects.

Suffered in life, death
Kendall had told her girls -- Kendall-Mahns, Dawn Kendall, 30, and Crystal Kendall, 24 -- that she was sorry she wasn't a better mother. But it was hard to believe much of what she had said, they recalled after her recent memorial service.

She swore she would sober up but never could.
She said she loved them but never surfaced long enough to raise them.
The girls loved her. But, in time, they lost faith.
While Kendall was in prison in 1999, Crystal sent a photograph of herself. Kendall told her that she framed it and kept it by her bedside. Crystal suspected she was lying.

Dawn worried that Kendall was too far gone to be there for her 2-year-old granddaughter Kaitlyn. Kendall-Mahns never expected to see her at the wedding, although she hoped that one day her mother would meet her husband, Tim Mahns.

But the closest he would ever get to his mother-in-law is the Osceola County field where her body was dumped.
A father and son discovered the remains along a litter-strewn, dirt path near Osceola Parkway and Boggy Creek Road.
Whoever did this thought her mother was garbage, Kendall-Mahns thought.
"She was more than that," the daughter said. "Why did her life have to be so hard?"
"She had to suffer so much in life," Dawn said. "She had to suffer in death, too?"
The hardship came early. Kendall was pregnant with her eldest daughter, Kendall-Mahns, by 15.
At first, Kendall was happy, singing lullabies to her growing belly, relatives said. By 20, she was overwhelmed. She was married, had two children and lived in a mobile home.

It must have been tough, Kendall-Mahns said. "Everybody has hopes and dreams."
In the 1980s, Kendall was hospitalized for mental illness and became addicted to crack cocaine. By the time she gave birth to her youngest child, Crystal, she was convinced she was unfit to care for her children. She sent Crystal and Dawn to be raised by their father. Kendall-Mahns lived with an aunt out of state.

Things got only worse. Kendall would disappear for weeks at a time, and when she appeared at the home of her brother, Craig Bulger, in Kissimmee, she was anxious and terrified.

"She was always worried, like someone was going to get her," Bulger said.
Doctors diagnosed Kendall with paranoid schizophrenia, Bulger said, and Kendall took to sleeping in the cold, beneath highway overpasses. She refused to go indoors.

"There were more ways to escape," he said. The prostitution arrests began in the 1990s. From 1997 to 2001, Kendall served prison time for grand theft, drug and escape convictions.

When she got out, she vowed to change. But the drug abuse began again and the number of her arrests climbed to more than 50.

And when news broke this month that the remains of an unidentified woman were found dumped in Osceola County, Bulger's heart sank.

`Hard to love'
Thunder crackled as two dozen people gathered July 19 at Faith Harvest Worship Center for Kendall's memorial service. Relatives took turns at a microphone.

Bulger: "She was a hard-to-love kind of person because she wouldn't let you close to her."
Kendall-Mahns: "I really wish I could have spent more time with her. I don't fault her for that."
Dawn rose from her chair and took the microphone in her shaking hands. She didn't know her mom well but knew she tried to do the right thing. Kendall stayed away from her girls because she was too ashamed of herself.

"She didn't want us to know her that way," Dawn cried out.
Bulger called to her.
"She loved you, Dawn," he said.
Dawn sobbed and nodded.
The regrets continued well into the evening, as mourners crowded into Bulger's house in Kissimmee afterwards.
Kendall went down the wrong path after her father left her mother, Bulger offered.
"She never could fill that hole in her life."
"It was the loneliness," Kendall's sister Dana Cain said.
"She was so scared," Bulger continued. "The drugs took away that feeling."
Nearby, the daughters crowded a leather couch to pore through their mother's belongings. All she possessed fit in a handful of plastic grocery bags and a canvas sack.

There were dozens of photographs. Some were of Kendall. They showed a tow-headed toddler in a checkered dress. A slender girl in a school portrait. A beaming teen.

There was one of Crystal, too. It was the photograph she thought meant nothing to her mother, the one she sent in 1999.

"She kept it," Crystal gasped.
She clutched the plastic frame and began to cry.



Illustration: PHOTO: REGAN KENDALL: The woman's dismembered body was found in 3 garbage bags near Kissimmee.
Keywords: MURDER CF OSC PROBE REGAN KENDALL BIOG FAMILY EMOTION REACTION
Memo: Willoughby Mariano can be reached at wmariano@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5171.
A related story ran on page A11.

Headlines

Orlando's Deadliest Year

Date: Wednesday, August 9, 2006 Section: A SECTION
Edition: FINAL Page: A1
Source: Willoughby Mariano, Sentinel Staff Writer
Column: SENTINEL SPECIAL REPORT

ORLANDO'S DEADLIEST YEAR
Little more than 7 months into the year, there already are 37 murders, the most ever recorded in the city
Police Chief Mike McCoy downplays the problem but poses a 3-point plan.


As cruel as it was, the murder was typical. The shooting of a 50-year-old man took place Tuesday on the west side of town, where many do, was likely drug-related, and left few witnesses willing to talk.

Such crimes often take place with little public notice.

But Christopher Charles' death has the dubious distinction of being Orlando's 37th murder this year, making 2006 the bloodiest year in the city's history.

In a few cases, the murders were random -- such as the woman who was shot to death during a robbery after stepping off a city bus, or the elderly woman who was stabbed to death in her Delaney Park home by an intruder. But many more were shootings involving drugs or personal disputes.

Killings in Orlando are already up 68 percent from last year's total. The previous record of 36 murders dates to 1982.
City officials say it's unclear what's causing the record-breaking number of murders. On Tuesday, Orlando police Chief Mike McCoy blamed violence among juveniles, even though the median age of victims this year is older than 30.

The bloodshed needs to stop, McCoy said. At this pace, Orlando could have more than 60 murders this year, and could join Newark, N.J., and Detroit as one of the 15 major U.S. cities with the highest murder rates. In 2004, the last year for which data are available, Orlando ranked 97th.

"Everyone is concerned. Everyone wants the same thing," McCoy said. "We just need to agree on how we're going to get there."

McCoy and others have downplayed the problem, saying that visitors to this tourism-dependent town are safe.
On Tuesday, Mayor Buddy Dyer tried to reassure some residents who confronted him at a community meeting in Dover Shores about newly proposed public venues. The murder rate will make people too afraid to come to town to use them, they said.

"We are attacking it with everything that we have," Dyer said.
Police chief's 3-point plan
Still, the deaths have mounted at an unprecedented pace. Charles was found shot to death in his car in a warehouse district west of downtown just one day after 56-year-old Lecene Germain was killed in his home near Rosemont.

Until recently, McCoy acknowledged that he had no firm strategy to combat the problem. On Tuesday, he talked about a three-point plan: boosting law enforcement, increasing community involvement and educating the public.

"It's there, and it's working," he said, but he offered few specifics on the plan, or how it might be working.
McCoy said that he hopes to replicate a news conference hosted last week by state Rep. Bruce Antone, D-Orlando, at The Palms apartments that called for community members to brainstorm for ideas to halt crime and join in prayer. About a half-dozen residents attended.

Other cities have taken swifter action in the face of rising death tolls. The police chief in Washington announced a "crime emergency" in July, which helps boost police manpower. In Jacksonville -- which had the state's second-highest murder rate behind Miami -- the Sheriff's Office created a coalition of law enforcement, residents, prosecutors and experts to fight their problem.

There is little consensus on what causes murder rates to skyrocket, but many experts think that cities such as Boston and Chicago have successfully lowered them.

Their programs vary, but the approaches are similar: analyze why the killings take place and coordinate with local, state and federal agencies to address the causes, said David M. Kennedy, director of a crime-prevention program at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. These efforts cost little.

"It's essentially very simple," Kennedy said.
In Orlando, McCoy has consistently stressed that tourists are safe as long as they stay away from areas known for the drug trade.

"The biggest problems are drugs and drug locations," he said.
Striking similarities
But at least half of the victims were killed in incidents unrelated to drugs, police and court records show. Motives for the killings range from domestic strife to robbery. One man was shot and killed over an unpaid basketball bet.

There are striking similarities among the dead: They're overwhelmingly black, male and killed by guns. Blacks make up slightly less than one-half of murder victims across the country. In Orlando, they make up about two-thirds of this year's dead, even though they represent 26.7 percent of the population

Patterns among the killings were striking as well:
More than three-fourths of this year's victims were killed on the city's west side. Eleven were killed in three neighborhoods: Carver Shores, Parramore and West Colonial, a stretch of commercial land.

Among those arrested on suspicion of murder, almost all have criminal records. Almost all live in Central Florida.
The killings have done little to darken the outlook in the city's most popular neighborhoods. None has taken place on International Drive -- the hub of the tourism district -- and visitors still crowd the area. Locals pack downtown's bars and clubs at night.

Those who live in neighborhoods with the highest death tolls are angry.
In the Callahan neighborhood west of downtown, Mervin Nieves, a visitor from Bronx, N.Y., was shot July 7 in front of his wife and 3-year-old boy while they were driving. No motive has been disclosed.

Linda Brown, 48, watched investigators pore through the wreckage of Nieves' car from the stoop of her house. Crime is a constant problem, she said. Brown and her boyfriend, Andrew Powell, 46, said the whole neighborhood needs to be cleaned up, and they can't do that on their own.

City Commissioner Daisy Lynum said she wants to do more. Poverty and other problems lead to crime in her district -- where 20 of this year's murders took place.

"Our environment is not a healthy one. Period," she said.
Henry Betts lost his son Henry Steven Betts II known to his friends as Steve, in March. He and his friend Christopher Yarber were shot at Steve Betts' home in Parramore. Police said they were killed by a childhood friend.

"I am disgusted by how many people -- including police and religious leaders -- haven't said anything about this," Henry Betts said.

More police on beat
Orlando officials have launched some efforts to halt crime but insist they are not in response to the body count.
Dyer plans to beef up the Police Department by 75 officers, two detectives and two new substations during the next three years. Those additional jobs are a response to the city's growth, he said.

The Police Department's Operation Restore, in which officers entered neighborhoods to target crime, yielded 127 arrests during 12 days in May and June. They also sponsored "Kicks for Guns,'' at which 116 guns were turned in -- no questions asked -- in exchange for a free pair of tennis shoes.

By contrast, Washington's "crime emergency" gave city officials the power to require that officers work overtime.
Jacksonville has had one of the state's most dramatic spikes in murders -- the city has tallied 78 so far this year, according to The Florida Times-Union. So the Sheriff's Office there launched Operation Safe Streets -- which uses data and advice from top crime experts to map out a plan.

To take illegal guns off the streets, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office is offering a $1,000 bounty for anyone who tips off deputies.

Businesses -- especially those in the black community, which has been hardest hit by murders -- are mobilizing to fund and organize initiatives.

Plus, the Florida Highway Patrol will send 30 troopers this month to help. And Gov. Jeb Bush, at the request of Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, paid $32,000 to fund Operation Road Block North, which brings troopers to the city.

Many of these strategies aren't new, Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford said. They have worked in cities such as Boston and Chicago.

"I steal stuff from everywhere I can find it," he said, "so long as it helps Jacksonville."
From the corner where Mervin Nieves was shot to death, an end to the violence seems like a pipe dream, resident Andrew Powell said. There has been too much killing.

Nieves was gunned down five blocks from where a woman was found murdered in her motel room.
Betts and Yarber were murdered 10 blocks south. Another man was shot and killed nearby on New Year's Day.
"This is going to be forgot about," Powell said, pointing to the crumpled car Nieves crashed after he was shot. "He's going to be a number."



Illustration: PHOTO: The body of 56-year-old Lecene Germain is removed from his Kitty Hawk Avenue home near Orlando's Rosemont neighborhood Monday after he was found fatally wounded, marking the city's 36th murder. Police would not release any details of the crime.
TOM BURTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL
PHOTO: Orlando police Chief Mike McCoy answers questions recently near The Palms apartments, where state Rep. Bruce Antone had a news conference. The Orlando Democrat called for community members to brainstorm for ideas on how to halt crime and to join in prayer. About a half-dozen residents attended.
PHOTO: Dan Huckabee and his wife, Cindy, work Tuesday at Kover Krete, a decorative-concrete firm on Dollins Avenue. A man was shot to death in front of their business Tuesday. `Does it make you more cautious? Absolutely,' Dan Huckabee said.
PHOTOS BY TOM BURTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL
.
CHART: MURDERS REPORTED TO FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT
AGENCY 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006*
ORLANDO POLICE DEPARTMENT 15 15 21 17 22 37
ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE 27 38 38 38 49 34
SEMINOLE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE 3 2 7 8 0 8
LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE 3 3 1 4 8 4
VOLUSIA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE 7 6 8 10 13 2
OSCEOLA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE 2 6 1 1 8 2
POLK COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE 12 20 16 10 6 8
* through Aug. 8
SOURCE: Florida Department of Law Enforcement; Sentinel research
NOTE: Includes willful killings that can result in criminal charges. Does not include manslaughter; justifiable, accidental or excusable homicides.

.
MAP: Murders in Orlando 2006
On Tuesday, Orlando marked its 37th murder of 2006, making this year the deadliest in the city's history. The previous record os 36 murders was set in 1982. Map shows the site of each murder, with some details about the vicitm.

SOURCE: Sentinel research
SHINIKO R. FLOYD/ORLANDO SENTINEL
.
CHART: KILLINGS ON THE RISE
Orlando on Tuesday recorded its 37th murder of 2006, eclipsing the record for the all-time high number of murders, set in 1982.

Orlando murders
2006: 37
.
Age of victims
0 - 20: 5
41-50: 5
Older than 50: 6
21-30: 14
31-40: 7
Race/ethnicity
Hispanic: 2
White: 11
Black: 24
Gender
Female: 7
Male: 30
.
HOW THEY WERE KILLED
Gun 30
Beating 3
Knife 2
Car 2
SOURCES: Sentinel research, Orlando Police Department
ORLANDO SENTINEL

Orlando's Deadliest Year

Headlines

Indentured in America

National Headliner Award-winning clip coming soon.

Indentured in America (Part I)

Headlines

Firestorm

FIRESTORM
BLAZES CONSUME DOZENS OF HOMES
'BY THE TIME WE FINISH ONE, THERE'S ANOTHER ONE ON FIRE'


Wind-whipped fires charred thousands of acres across Brevard and Volusia counties Monday, leaping from rooftop to rooftop in some neighborhoods, destroying at least 51 homes and injuring at least four firefighters.

The worst of the flames burned in Palm Bay, where desperate residents fought to save their homes with water from garden hoses and swimming pools. Confused students screamed as firefighters evacuated them from a high school. At least 18 blazes forced hundreds of residents from their homes.

Authorities think an arsonist or group of arsonists set as many as nine fires in that city. Embers sparked the rest.
"It's bad; it's just bad," said Yvonne Martinez, Palm Bay Police Department spokeswoman, as dense smoke surrounded the Bayside High School area on the city's southwest side.

"The wind is causing the fire to jump a half a mile at a time," she said.
Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency as of 4 p.m.
Major fires also burned in North and South Florida, as dry conditions put the entire state on alert.
Weather conditions may give firefighters some relief today. Winds on the coast were expected to slow to 10 to 15 mph, while sea breezes should bring cooler, moist air to the coast, according to a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Still, chances of rainfall are scant for the remainder of the week, leaving the pines and palmettos parched and ready to burn.

On Monday, early-morning humidity and mild temperatures calmed Central Florida's fires. Two in Cocoa Beach were almost completely contained by midday.

But as the day wore on, conditions worsened. Winds gusted to 30 mph and humidity sank. Palm Bay's Bayside High and Westside Elementary schools were evacuated. Nineteen school campuses that serve the city, including Bayside and Palm Bay High, were slated to be closed today.

The fires in Palm Bay erupted within 18 hours Sunday, appearing to form a ring around the city. Most were set close to roadsides.

"Somebody was very busy," said Palm Bay Fire Marshal Mike Couture.
A suspicious vehicle was seen in the area before Sunday's fires, but authorities did not describe it. There is a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of the arsonist.

One Palm Bay firefighter was shocked by an electrical line and taken to a hospital, city officials said. Two other firefighters also were injured, but no details were available Monday night.

As Palm Bay struggled with the flames, more fires burned in nearby Malabar, growing from 2,000 acres to 3,000 Monday, Couture said.

Officers go door to door
The most destructive fires were on the south side of Palm Bay. Officers went door to door asking residents to grab what they could and leave immediately.

If they refused, they were asked to provide names of their next of kin, Martinez said.
As the blazes multiplied, residents equipped themselves to fight the flames on their own.
In southeast Palm Bay, a blizzard of fat embers fell through the sky, lighting fires in the woods between homes.
Orlando Dominguez, spokesman for Brevard County Fire Rescue, said it was one of the places where the fire was moving most aggressively.

"This fire is moving so fast and has such a wide area . . . you would literally have to put a firetruck at every home," Dominguez said.

There weren't enough trucks to go around, so Jennifer Beckert and her husband Jeremy made do by putting a cooler and buckets filled with water into the back of their pickup.

"Here we go again," Jennifer Beckert said.
Monday was the area's second day of flames, and friends and relatives joined with residents to form fire brigades.
Louis Moran, whose son-in-law Chris Warner lives on Whiting Street, said he came to the neighborhood to fight the flames late Monday. They managed to get the family's three children and three dogs to safety.

"What we're trying to do is save as much as we can," Moran said, adding that he has lived in Florida for many years and is used to the brush fires, "but nothing like this."

As the evening approached, flames spread and smoke thickened.

'We lost it!'
Near the intersection of Whiting and Babcock streets, seven men, each wearing T-shirts or bandannas over their mouths and noses, raced through the smoke, trying to save a home.

They failed.
"We lost it! Back off, Junior; it's gone," one of the men shouted. "We lost it."
Despite the difficult conditions, firefighters made progress in Daytona Beach, where fires also erupted Sunday. About 200 firefighters from 13 agencies and public-works personnel battled the Bayberry blaze, which threatened the LPGA and Bayberry Lakes subdivisions on the west side of town. The fire was 55 percent contained as of Monday evening.

The Daytona Beach Fire Department lifted the evacuation order at 8 p.m. for the LPGA subdivision in Daytona Beach, but only residents with identification will be permitted to access LPGA Boulevard in that area. About 590 homes were included in the evacuation order.

A Daytona Beach firefighter was treated at the scene for minor injuries.
Although many fires were subdued, residents remained anxious. Near rural Friday Road in Cocoa, neighbors were weary from spending a sleepless night keeping watch over the flames.

Joan Good, 58, a hospice nurse, had perched at her front window of her home for the past 24 hours, keeping an eye on the smoldering woods across the street. Important papers, pajamas, a toothbrush and a bag of dog food for her two canines, Juanita and Meaka, sat in her car, just in case.

"There's nothing you can do," she said. "Water my house down? I've got thousands of trees around. It won't make any difference."



Illustration:
PHOTO: Fires threaten homes in the Palm Bay and Malabar areas Monday. The fires in Palm Bay had erupted within 18 hours Sunday, ringing the city.
HILDA PEREZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL.
PHOTO: Neighbors use shovels and garden hoses Monday to battle a blaze approaching a home near DeGroodt Road and Florence Street in Palm Bay.
JACOB LANGSTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL.
.
MAP: MAJOR HOT SPOTS
1 BAYBERRY FIRE
Size: 797 acres
Status: 55% contained as of 8pm Monday.
2 COCOA
Size: About 240 acres.
Status: Largely under control, with some flare-ups Monday.
3 PALM BAY AREA
Size: About 6,000 acres in 3 areas as of 9pm Monday.
Status: Burning. More than 50 homes were destroyed. Two schools, Bayside High and Westside Elementary, were evacuated. All schools in Palm Bay , plus Palm Bay High, will be closed today.About 5500 residents were without power in the southeast portion of the city.
Keywords: CF VC FIRE DISASTER DAMAGE DESCRIPTION
Memo: Denise-Marie Balona, Susan Jacobson, Ludmilla Lelis, Sarah Lundy, Bianca Prieto and Gary Taylor of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Willoughby Mariano can be reached at 407-420-5171 or wmariano@orlandosentinel.com.

Firestorm

Headlines

T-shirts recall lives of victims

Date: Thursday, April 10, 2008 Section: LOCAL & STATE
Edition: FINAL Page: B1
Source: Willoughby Mariano, Sentinel Staff Writer


T-SHIRTS RECALL LIVES OF VICTIMS
When tragedies steal away their loved ones, some people wear their pictures over their hearts.


Something about the sight of her slain son on a T-shirt makes Annice "Neda" Pierresaint beam.
There is Marlo D'Juan Jackson's photograph on the front of a navy T-shirt, surrounded by angels' wings printed in purple ink. And there's his picture on a white shirt, digitally edited so it looks as though he's standing in heaven.

Jackson was gunned down in a drug-related shooting at age 25 in November 2006. Pierresaint wears the memorial T-shirts each day to her job as a cashier at Costco.

Shoppers tell her the shirts are beautiful, she said while showing them off at her Pine Hills apartment. She looks just like her son, they say.

"It's not just a shirt," she said, smiling.
These memorial T-shirts are a celebration of life, an expression of grief, or a warning to killers, depending on what's on the shirt and who's wearing it, makers and buyers said.

This year, 29 people have been murdered in Orange County. As the Orlando area's streak of record violence enters its third year, the custom-designed memorial T-shirts are a typical sight at wakes, funerals and candlelight vigils honoring the slain -- sometimes those in the illegal drug trade.

The appeal of the memorial clothing, known as "RIP shirts" to some, lies in the harsh realities of street life, said the Rev. Charles Jackson of Hurst Chapel AME Church in Parramore, a neighborhood that has borne the brunt of much of the city's violence. These shirts are some victims' best chance at fame, he said.

"Sometimes you're not recognized until you die," Jackson said.
Yet their popularity extends far beyond the culture of violence. Shirts honor innocent victims of carjackings or robberies and those killed in car crashes or by heart attacks. Churchgoing mothers and grandmothers wear them.

Between the murders and natural deaths, there's enough demand to support a handful of businesses at Orlando-area flea markets and homes.

Expressions of loss
The shirts take minutes to make. BJ's T-Shirt Shop at the Magic Mall flea market in west Orlando can give you your custom shirt within an hour, depending on the time it takes to design it. They can cost as little as $10, but often run $20 or more.

Outside the shop, shirts for Ryan Realford and Demetrick Smith, both 17, and others who died in gun violence covered the wall as samples. Ryan was fatally wounded by a Sanford homeowner during a break-in. Demetrick died in a Parramore robbery.

Inside, manager Virginia McGill and owner Bijan Hosn pressed shirts for murder victim Keith Eric Richardson, 25, who was gunned down in Holden Heights on March 12. Police did not disclose a motive.

The shop makes T-shirts for all occasions, but about 90 percent of those they sell honor murder victims, McGill estimates. Most of their clients find their business by word of mouth, or are repeat customers.

Hosn scans photographs of the dead man into a computer, adds lettering and prints onto transfer paper. McGill uses a press to affix the image on a black T-shirt.

"Murders, murders," McGill said. "It's terrible. It's senseless to me."
The shirts puzzle some of their makers. McGill wouldn't want her relatives to make a T-shirt honoring her if she died. A customized mouse pad would suit her better because she likes computers.

Shirley Young, owner of The Airbrush Shop on the opposite side of the flea market, wouldn't wear one. But as her clients order them in growing numbers, she sees the shirts as an upbeat way of coping with mortality.

"They seem to celebrate their life, more than to celebrate death," Young said.
The shirts are a tradition, said Paulette Daniels of Orlando. She orders them whenever family or friends are murdered or die suddenly. Xavier Stinson, 26, was gunned down in the parking lot of an Orlando gas station in January 2006, leaving behind two children. Daniels is the grandmother of Xavia, his daughter. She ordered a customized jumpsuit with his picture.

Kizzy Daniels, Xavia's mother, bought a shirt for the girl that bears a family photograph: "Loved by us, hated by you," it reads.

She ordered a customized hooded sweat shirt for herself: "Thou Shall Not Kill."
These are dangerous words, Kizzy Daniels acknowledged. Stinson's killer has never been captured, and she said her family still receives threats from people who say they did it. The shirt warns them that she still wants them behind bars.

"I'm not afraid," Kizzy Daniels said.

Personal images
Shirts for orphaned kids usually bear family pictures, and shirts for bereaved girlfriends often depict the couple in love. Friends sometimes wear shirts that show the dead man flashing a gang sign, drinking premium liquor or sitting in an expensive car he never owned.

Designing a shirt is a delicate process, said Gloria Simon, who makes the shirts out of her Parramore home. Each shirt should fit the personality of the wearer and the victim, she said. She asks if the wearer is a churchgoer, or likes to go to clubs, and if victim had a favorite saying or sport.

For a T-shirt of Demetrick Smith, who was robbed and fatally shot Jan. 13, she superimposed three of his photographs onto a background of clouds. It looks as if he's reaching down from heaven.

Jason "J-Slap" Blake was found dead in his Pine Hills home, shot by a childhood friend, according to investigators. He was killed before his daughter was born, so Simon digitally pasted his picture into a photograph of the newborn so it appears he's holding her.

"I like to create a different memory," Simon said.
That's exactly what Neda Pierresaint wanted.
Pierresaint gave Simon a recent photograph of herself in a white, knee-length dress, sitting on a plush red chair. There's just enough room on the seat to fit a toddler, so Simon nestled a childhood portrait of Jackson there.

In that two-decade-old photo, the boy wore a white vest, white shorts, white socks and shoes, as if Pierresaint dressed him to match her outfit. The mother's arm appears wrapped around him.

"I held his hand for a while, but I'll hold his heart 4 ever," the shirt reads.



Illustration: PHOTO: Annice 'Neda' Pierresaint, in her residence Saturday, shows T-shirts she had made to honor her son Marlo D'Juan Jackson, who was murdered.
SARA A. FAJARDO/ORLANDO SENTINEL
PHOTO: Gloria Simon displays T-shirts she made in memory of the dead. Simon uses imagery such as the loved one in clouds to bring comfort.
SARA A. FAJARDO/ORLANDO SENTINEL
Keywords: OC CF FASHION ART MURDER STAT
Memo: Willoughby Mariano can be reached at wmariano@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5171.
MMHead: T-shirts memorialize victims of violence
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Tag: 0804100002

T-shirts recall lives of victims

Headlines

Stolen-ID nightmre finally ends

STOLEN-ID NIGHTMARE FINALLY ENDS
A MAN SPENT ALMOST 8 WEEKS IN AN OSCEOLA JAIL. A PHOTO COULD HAVE FREED HIM SOONER.


KISSIMMEE -- After nearly eight weeks in jail, Hector Omy Collazo pleaded with deputies one last time: Let me go. You have the wrong man. A criminal stole my identity.

The Kissimmee man had made the demand dozens of times since Dec. 4, when police arrested Collazo outside his grandmother's house on a Texas warrant for felony forgery. He has never been to Texas, he insisted. Collazo has proof he was in Orlando on the date of the crime.

No one checked out his story until Thursday at Orlando International Airport, just as a Harris County, Texas, sheriff's official was about to escort him onto a flight to Houston. Collazo said that didn't happen until the Orlando Sentinel began making inquiries. After faxing Collazo's photograph to Harris County authorities, the cop handed over $45 for cab fare and told him he was free to go.

Now Collazo, 23, and his family are asking why authorities allowed him to spend 54 days in jail when deputies, jailers and other authorities in Texas and Florida had access to a photograph and other identifying information that clearly show they were holding the wrong man.

"All I was asking for over and over again was for them [authorities] to fax my picture over to Texas," Collazo said. "All it takes is five minutes."

The Osceola County Sheriff's Office is looking into the matter to see whether authorities here followed proper procedures.

"I've extradited people all over the United States. I've never heard anything like this," said Lt. Mark Thompson, who took over as head of the sheriff's extradition office Jan. 4.

The local agency that arrests a fugitive is responsible for verifying his identity, said Scott Haywood, a spokesman for the Texas Governor's Office, which asked Florida officials to extradite Collazo. Texas' Office of the Governor sends information such as fingerprints or mug shots to verify the identity of a suspected fugitive as part of its extradition request. A photograph was sent to Osceola, but it is unclear if prints arrived. If the request meets state requirements, Florida's Governor's Office allows the extradition.

USED BIRTH DATE
The man who remains at large called himself Hector Omy Collazo of Houston and listed his birth date as Nov. 10, 1981 -- Collazo's birthday, said Gabriel Vasquez, an investigator for the Harris County District Attorney's Office. He is a 5-foot-6-inch black man who weighs 120 pounds, according to Vasquez.

Prosecutors think he is an undocumented immigrant who forged someone else's name on a federal immigration document Aug. 8, 2003, so he could keep his job, Vasquez said. His real name is not known. Collazo said he lost his Social Security card in 1998 in Puerto Rico; that's how he thinks someone was able to steal his identity.

Collazo of Kissimmee is a 5-foot-5-inch, 185-pound, light-skinned Hispanic. On the date of the crime, he was at Hogar Crea, a drug-treatment program in Orlando.

"The residential program is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There's no way possible he was in Texas," said Joseph Hammerl, assistant to the program's executive director.

Soon after Collazo arrived from Carolina, Puerto Rico, in 2003 to join his mother and grandmother, he entered the rehab center to kick a drug habit. After Collazo left treatment in late fall 2003, he found work at Walt Disney World in housekeeping. He moved in with his grandmother, Carmen Jimenez, 60, who has cancer, to care for her and help pay her bills.

Collazo's life was improving. Then, late on the night of Dec. 4, he was walking outside his grandmother's house smoking a cigarette. A Kissimmee police car approached.

"Are you Louis?" Collazo recalls an officer hollering.
"No, I'm Hector," he replied and showed his drivers license. He was taken into custody when a computer check showed a person with his name was wanted in Texas.

Collazo thought he would straighten everything out at the jail and that he would be back at his Disney housekeeping job the next morning.

"I said `Man, this can't be true,' " Collazo said during a jailhouse interview Thursday.
Instead, he entered a complex extradition system involving multiple agencies in Texas and Florida.
An arresting officer must verify the identity of a suspected fugitive, Thompson said. Harris County officials sent a description of the fugitive to the Osceola Sheriff's Office, which handles extradition issues in the county. A judge can assign the suspect a public defender to help straighten out a mistaken-identity issue.

In January, the Osceola County Jail obtained a copy of the fugitive's mug shot, which clearly does not match that of Collazo, according to jail documents. Jail officials said they play no part in verifying the identity of their inmates.

"I don't know if it's for us to determine the identity. We go by the paperwork we have," said the Osceola County Jail's interim director, Joyce Peach.

FAMILY IN DISARRAY
After Collazo went to jail, his family fell into disarray.
Collazo's family retained an attorney in Texas who was unable to sort out the mess.
"We're a good family. We're a close family," Sandra Rivera, 40, Collazo's mother, said Friday. "What happens to one, happens to all."

Rivera took days off from work at an assisted-living facility in Hunter's Creek to fight for her son's release.
There was no one to care for Collazo's grandmother, Jimenez, so his cousin, Jacob De La Cruz, 17, had to help out. But he couldn't pay the bills as Collazo had done. Jimenez filed for bankruptcy in early January, Collazo said.

Collazo also missed a trip to Jamaica with his brother, a soldier serving in Iraq who was on leave during the holidays.

Now Collazo and his family must put their lives back together. This morning, he plans to ask for his old job back.
"All it took is a fax," Collazo said of the mistaken-identity case. "They've spent all this money to jail an innocent person rather than send a fax."



Illustration: PHOTO 2: Hector Omy Collazo (left) and the man Collazo says stole his identity (right).
PHOTO: Hector Omy Collazo holds a photo of the man Texas officials seek.
ED SACKETT/ORLANDO SENTINEL
Keywords: IDENTIFICATION FRAUD PRISON OSC
Memo: Willoughby Mariano can be reached at wmariano@orlandosentinel.com 407-931-5944.

Stolen-ID nightmare finally ends

Headlines

Shrines to the slain

Date: Monday, March 3, 2008 Section: A SECTION
Edition: FINAL Page: A1
Source: Willoughby Mariano, Sentinel Staff Writer

Shrines to the slain: a tribute and protest
Family, friends post items honoring the fallen.


When Jacqueline Hernandez misses her son, she drives around the corner from her mother's house to a patch of ground she considers sacred.

Richard Villegas, 19, was fatally shot Jan. 27 on a ragged lawn just south of Orlando's Lake Underhill. Hernandez and other family members marked the spot with a handmade wooden cross, teddy bears and favorite photographs they had enlarged at a drugstore.

Hernandez will never forget her son, and no one else should either, she said last week, one month after his death. She says the makeshift shrine should remain as an everlasting reminder.

"I just want it to be forever," said Hernandez, 38.
With Orlando-area slayings at near-record highs, homemade shrines have become frequent sights in some neighborhoods, marking as hallowed the weedy lots, street corners and sidewalks where the dead have fallen.

In 2006, Orlando police and the Orange County Sheriff's Office recorded 113 slayings in their jurisdictions, the most in the area's history. Last year there were 98, the second highest.

Only a few victims end up with shrines, and the total number is unclear. Some are cleared away quickly as public nuisances. Others are abandoned by their caretakers over time and are carted off as trash.

But those still standing show that the dead were precious to someone. Relatives leave rosaries, flowers, T-shirts and photographs. In an empty lot in Holden Heights, loved ones left a Winnie the Pooh doll, a reference to a victim's nickname of "Pooh-Bear," at a site that recalls three men who died in separate incidents.

Deputy sheriffs estimate that site is 3 to 4 years old. Neighbors said relatives come back for birthdays and holidays to clean the area and light candles.

Such displays can become more elaborate than grave sites, where cemetery rules often restrict everything from the length of time that holiday decorations remain to the types of flower vases allowed.

They also can be more chaotic, growing with little control. Hernandez left balloons at her son's shrine to celebrate his birthday, while other relatives brought artificial roses and foot-tall stuffed bears.

Friends left a bottle of Grey Goose Vodka when she wasn't there. Hernandez doesn't approve, but she can do little about it.

"We throw it away, and another appears," she said.

'That's their baby'
Such shrines do more than honor the victims. They also are a form of protest, said Melvin Delgado, a professor of social work at Boston University in Massachusetts who has studied murder-victim memorials. They warn passers-by of violence and become places to pray for the killing to end.

"It is part of a broader context of a community attempting to both grieve the death of someone and rally the community together," Delgado said.

The family of Marcus Mason, 23, gunned down Dec. 1, 2006, by two teens who wanted his customized car, gathered for a candlelight vigil at his shrine near the Florida Citrus Bowl to mark the one-year anniversary of his death, said cousin Bruce Herring, 37.

"There was a time in Orlando when a murder was a big thing," Herring recalled. "Now, you see them [the shrines] everywhere."

Mason, an electrician, was shot leaving Herring's car-customization business. A 4-foot-high wooden frame made to hold Mason's photograph sits at the site. It's empty because the photo is worn, and the family is getting a laminated version to replace it.

His brother painted Mason's name on the sidewalk where he fell so people would remember it. Three teddy bears tell strangers that the young man was somebody's son.

"For the mothers, that's their baby," Herring explained. "It's the first thing you give them when they come to Earth. It's the last thing they give when they leave."

For some survivors, the place where a loved one died becomes a source of comfort.
Joseph Duprey, 22, a former Evans High School football player, was found dead Jan. 2, 2007, inside a car parked along a Pine Hills street. Parents Jerry Duprey, 55, and Lilianette Duprey, 57, said they traveled from their Howey-in-the-Hills home one month later to lay roses on the lawn near where he was found and to pray.

"That's where my son ascended to the heavens," the father explained.
When they came back the next month, they found the people who owned the well-manicured property were tending the memorial, too. They had put up a decorative metal border and planted flowers.

Lilianette Duprey is grateful. She thinks her son looks down from heaven and knows when she visits the shrine.
"I don't want him to think that I forgot him," she said.

Putting up a cross
The city and county have no set rules on the shrines, but like signs advertising political candidates or real-estate investments, the memorials violate city code if they're in a public right of way, said Mike Rhodes, Orlando's code-enforcement manager.

Some items left at shrines, such as full liquor bottles, are considered a nuisance and can be cleared away if they're on private property, Rhodes said. Workers try to find the owners before they toss them out.

Relatives of Villegas know how it can work.
His memorial rose within hours of his death in January. Many of his aunts, grandparents and cousins live in the neighborhood where he died.

One of Hernandez's brothers-in-law built a cross. Her nieces arrived with enlarged photographs. That January evening was cold, so family members piled into cars and told the grieving mother to come along.

"They just said, 'Follow me,' and I followed them," Hernandez said.
They put up the cross. Villegas' friends spray-painted "RIP Rich" on the nearby sidewalk. A sign with Villegas' name in glitter was hung on the cross.

For about two weeks, the site grew crowded with carnations, roses, Kashi snack bars, Mylar balloons, a Sprite bottle and a blue teddy bear hugging a candleholder bearing the image of Jesus.

They didn't last. On Feb. 20, a worker from Orlando's code office hauled away the items after a resident complained. The worker said the owners of the items couldn't be found, so they were thrown out, according to city authorities.

"All the pictures," Hernandez said. "I can't believe they threw them away."
Undeterred, Hernandez returned with relatives that evening and placed a new cross in the ground, with a photograph of Villegas wearing his favorite T-shirt. A few days later, a small bottle of Hennessy cognac appeared near the cross.

Last week, one month after Villegas' death, Hernandez arrived with relatives and added a tiny statue of a hand holding the baby Jesus.

Relatives tucked the liquor bottle behind Villegas' picture before she could spot it.



Illustration: PHOTO 4: MARKING THE SPOT
After Orange, Orlando set slaying records, more shrines such as this one to Richard Villegas sprouted.
RICARDO RAMREZ BUXEDA/ORLANDO SENTINEL
RICHARD VILLEGAS: Was shot dead Jan. 27 just south of Orlando's Lake Underhill. His memorial rose within hours -- grandparents, aunts and cousins live in the neighborhood.
The Orlando memorial for Richard Villegas includes this roadside cross.
WILLOUGHBY MARIANO/ORLANDO SENTINEL
This shrine recalls Kevin Felix, who was shot dead by cops near Carver Shores.
WILLOUGHBY MARIANO/ORLANDO SENTINEL
PHOTO: Richard Villegas' family gathers at his shrine to mark 1 month since his slaying. 'I just want [the shrine] to be forever,' says his mom. Days earlier, city code officials hauled away items after a complaint.
RICARDO RAMREZ BUXEDA/ORLANDO SENTINEL

Shrines to the slain: a tribute and protest

Headlines

Trail of Death

Date: Tuesday, November 6, 2007 Section: A SECTION
Edition: FINAL Page: A1
Source: Willoughby Mariano, Sentinel Staff Writer
Column: SENTINEL SPECIAL REPORT
MURDERS ON THE RISE

TRAIL OF DEATH
Drugs and poverty converge on Orange Blossom Trail to create our area's most dangerous environment for killings.


For six grim miles, murder follows Orange Blossom Trail.
Twenty of the Orlando area's 91 murder victims so far this year were slain along a stretch of road that starts in the hidden neighborhoods near the Florida Mall and ends amid ragged bungalows in sight of downtown's high-rise condos.

Those deaths make the Trail the Orlando area's most dangerous corridor during a time of unprecedented bloodshed. From 2004 to 2006, the numbers of slayings in unincorporated Orange County and the city of Orlando more than doubled, from 55 to 113.

The pace of death has slowed in Orlando this year, but unincorporated Orange remains on track to break last year's record.

Along the Trail, the numbers of killings rise as you travel south to north, ending in neighborhoods where men on bicycles sell drugs openly, and prostitutes walk the road at all hours. Shrines to murder victims dot lawns and empty lots.

Opinions may vary on the reasons for the killings, but few disagree with this: Whatever you think lies behind the surge in murders these past two years, you'll find it along South Orange Blossom Trail.

For decades, Orlando residents looking for trouble found it on the Trail. Although many topless joints have closed and revitalization efforts have razed crack houses and fixed sidewalks, the prostitution and drug trades that accompanied them remain.

When Orange sheriff's Sgt. Paul "Spike" Hopkins started working the Trail in 1988, the crack epidemic was in full swing. Addicts desperate for money resorted to everything from theft to sex to murder.

Today, dealers sell marijuana as frequently as cocaine because it's so profitable. Many trade from motel rooms rather than street corners because of repeated crackdowns by the Sheriff's Office.

Violence has grown worse, according to the Sheriff's Office, which patrols most of the stretch of the Trail where murders are taking place. Robberies jumped more than 87 percent from 2003 to 2006 in the surrounding patrol zones and continue to rise. Murder in those zones nearly doubled during that time.

On a recent evening, Hopkins drew his gun twice in an hour: the first time to stop three suspected gunmen; the second to take down a man accused of fatally stabbing neighbor Israyl Yahab at Maxwell Gardens apartments.

When Hopkins took the suspect into custody, he was bleeding. Investigators think the stabbing was in self-defense.
The dead man's girlfriend, Tamisha Octavia Kimble, sat on a curb holding a cigarette with trembling hands.
"Just another Tuesday night on the Trail," Hopkins said.

Most are shot
This year, the Trail's dead are much like those in the area's other high-crime areas, such as west Orlando's Washington and Carver Shores neighborhoods or Pine Hills in Orange County.

On Lee Avenue in Parramore, Juan Felix and Simon Lawrence were slain in what police consider a drug case. College student Thessalonis Clark, 20, was shot a few blocks to the north of Lee in a robbery. Levares Key, 8, was fatally beaten at a Texas Avenue apartment by his 13-year-old brother, now charged with killing the boy for eating a forbidden dessert.

More than half of the victims are black. Most were shot.
Two victims this year, Jose Merced-Navarro, 26, and Felix Paguada-Lopez, 40, may have been targeted because robbers know that illegal Mexican laborers often carry large amounts of cash and fear calling police.

Others died in disputes between people with lengthy criminal records.
"A lot of times a drug dealer kills another drug dealer," said Ron Stucker, the sheriff's chief of criminal investigations.

Underground commerce makes for a dangerous place. Buyers and sellers settle the score among themselves.
"These transactions take place absent any regulation," said Richard Rosenfeld, a criminal-justice professor at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. "You can't go to the police department and say a prostitute charged me too much."

Trying to help
Some of Orange County's poorest residents live along the Trail. While better-off households in Sky Lake, just north of the mall, earn more than $41,500 a year, the median family income near downtown's Parramore neighborhood dips below $13,000 a year, Census Bureau numbers show.

Each Wednesday at Iglesia El Calvario on Oak Ridge Road, Olga Gonzalez gives boxes of free food through her Church and Community Assistance Program, a nonprofit. By the time she opens her doors at 9 a.m., dozens are waiting.

From Gonzalez's vantage point, poverty is at the root of the violence. One of her clients was kicked out of a drug-rehabilitation program, stole a power drill and tried to pawn it to buy heroin. Another has cancer and has $60,000 in medical bills. She is so poor she can't afford toothpaste or deodorant, Gonzalez said.

"There's no justice anywhere," Gonzalez said. "People get so angry."
Gonzalez brought up the killing of Levares Key.
"Maybe if there was more dessert, that boy wouldn't have died," Gonzalez said.
Even more fortunate Trail residents struggle to escape neighborhood problems.
Lizy Zepeda, 26, recently moved out of Tymberskan on the Lake, a condominium complex just west of the Trail. She rarely left her rented apartment -- afraid someone would break in while she was gone or that she would get mugged in the parking lot.

One of her neighbors sold beer and "blunts," or hollowed-out cigars for marijuana, out of one apartment.
"They were doing it right there, around kids," Zepeda said. "They'd be smoking weed and riding bikes."
Zepeda left for Tampa, where her 4-year-old son can play at the park without fear.

Hard to make progress
When violent crime began to skyrocket in late 2005, the Sheriff's Office and Orlando police introduced initiatives to stop crime along the Trail and other hot spots.

A $109 million Orlando crime initiative to address city growth brought 10 new bike-patrol officers to Parramore on Oct. 1. Orlando police started Operation All Hands on Deck, which placed additional police ranging from school-resource officers to Chief Mike McCoy in high-crime areas.

In Orange County, deputies have made more than 5,600 arrests in neighborhoods along the Trail and in the Pine Hills area. Deputies spend off-duty time patrolling Holden Heights and are committed to driving crime out of the neighborhood, Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary said.

It's a big effort, but progress is hard to maintain, the sheriff said. Criminals bail out of jail and return to the streets. The state juvenile-justice system is broken. Prevention programs have meager funding.

"I tell you this, though. The hard-working people of Holden Heights, the people who've retired there, they all deserve a good quality of life," Beary said. "We're going to keep working for them."

Meanwhile, killings go on.
On that recent Tuesday, the girlfriend of the Maxwell Gardens victim said she was fine. Yes, she had just seen her boyfriend stabbed in the chest, but she has seen such stuff before.

Many of her friends have died from everything from violence to drug use, she said. One was shot in front of her a few months ago, she said.

"I'm OK," she said.
A half-hour later, a deputy told her that her boyfriend was dead. Her face crumpled and she wailed in the dark.



Illustration:
PHOTO:Orange County sheriff's Sgt. Paul 'Spike' Hopkins (foreground) works a crime scene on OBT.
RICARDO RAMREZ BUXEDA/ORLANDO SENTINEL
PHOTO: Deputies arrest a suspect in a fatal stabbing recently at Maxwell Gardens apartments in the crime-infested Orange Blossom Trail area.
PHOTOS BY RICARDO RAMREZ BUXEDA/ORLANDO SENTINEL
PHOTO: Orange County sheriff's Sgt. Paul 'Spike' Hopkins fills out paperwork in his patrol car recently. Hopkins is used to seeing the drugs, prostitution and deadly violence that Orange Blossom Trail is known for.
.
20 AND COUNTING ...
One-fifth of the murders in Orlando and unincorporated Orange County take place in the neighborhoods along a 6-mile stretch of Orange Blossom Trail from Orlando's Parramore neighborhood to Orange County's Sky Lake community. Most were shootings.
Victim Age Date
1.Thessalonis Clark 20 Jan. 1
2.Berol Castor 44 Jan. 2
3.Felix Paguada-Lopez 40 Jan. 10
4.Anthony Andrews 34 Jan. 20
5.Lisa Howard 47 March 5
6.Mark Burton 45 March 5
7.Davius Thelusma 49 March 7
8.Jose Merced-Navarro26 March25
9.Jermaine Anderson 25 April 3
10.Sylvia Scott 44 April27
11.Jhymy Gustin 16 June 13
12.Andrea Walker 36 June 14
13.Angel Santiago 37 June 15
14.Kelly Lanthorne 37 July 14
15.James Sullivan 55 July 19
16.Danny Pollard 47 Aug. 2
17.Simon Lawrence na Aug. 18
18.Juan Felix na Aug. 18
19.Kamau Simmons 27 Aug. 28
20.Levares Key 8 Sept.29
SOURCES:Orange County Sheriff's Office, Orlando Police Department
.
BOX:
How safe are we from violence?
This is an excerpt from a posting by staff writer Willoughby Mariano on Orlando Homicide Report at OrlandoSentinel.com/

homicide, with comments by readers.
So, is it dangerous to live in Orlando?
Posted on Oct. 26, 2007, 5:30:00 A.M.
For those of you who've read about the steep increase in killings and asked how likely it is that you will be slain, the answer is: Well, it depends. Orlando covers geographic areas with unique social characteristics and very different crime dynamics.

It means that asking "How dangerous is my neighborhood?" is a better question than asking "How dangerous is Orlando?" The people who live in Parramore are at far more risk at being murdered than those in Baldwin Park.

How much? Well, the answer to that question could make for a powerful look into life in Orlando.
Comments :
* Orlando is dangerous -- like most other cities where you have tourists/visitors. At the same time -- I think we should make sure we stop the crime now before it gets out of control. We can't eliminate crime, but we can send a message that says "not here."

* Recently a friend of mine returned from her trip to Israel. When she was there she met a sweet Israeli lady who asked where she was from. When my friend said Orlando she replied "Oh, it is really dangerous there." This coming from a woman living in Israel. Go figure.

Keywords: CF OC CRIME STAT DEATH INCREASE
Memo: Willoughby Mariano can be reached at wmariano@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5171.
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Tag: 0711050175

Trail of Death

Headlines

Why is my son's killer free?

Date: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 Section: A SECTION
Edition: FINAL Page: A1
Source: Willoughby Mariano, Sentinel Staff Writer


Grieving mom: Why is my son's killer free?
A year after the 20- year-old died in a fiery crash, the suspect has yet to be arrested.

At first, Carmen Pineiro did not have the strength to ask questions. What little she knew was already too painful.
Her eldest son, Edwin Alvarado, died one year ago in a fiery crash that was engulfed in controversy. Kenyon Crowe of Orange County, who police said was drunk and high on cocaine, slammed a speeding pickup into the car Alvarado was driving.

Angry witnesses accused officers of causing the crash, claiming unmarked police cars were chasing the pickup at high speeds. An internal investigation later cleared the officers involved.

Yet Crowe was never arrested -- not for causing the accident that killed Alvarado, having a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit or driving without a valid license. Months passed before a warrant for his arrest was issued. Crowe is wanted on charges of vehicular homicide, DUI manslaughter and others but remains on the run.

Now, as Pineiro emerges from her grief, one question haunts her: Why haven't Orlando police put the man responsible for her son's death behind bars?

"I feel a little bit stronger, and I'm ready to find answers," Pineiro, 41, said last week.
But she's not getting any. Orlando police officials would not comment about the case because litigation is pending, said Sgt. Barbara Jones. Pineiro has filed suit against Crowe, and is in the process of filing a lawsuit against the city.

Before Alvarado's death, Pineiro always asked questions -- so much so that her son nicknamed her "Detective." Although Alvarado was 20, she constantly called his cell phone, asking him where he was and why.

So on Jan. 20, 2006, when Alvarado left the northwest Orange County home they shared at 6:30 p.m., she knew he was going to spend Friday evening with co-workers.

"Don't wait up," Alvarado told her. She did anyway, finally falling asleep at 2 a.m. By then, her son had been dead for hours.

Just before 7 p.m., Crowe, then 26, was spotted in a Ford pickup by uniformed narcotics officers at a gas station where a murder had recently taken place, an internal report states. As police approached, Crowe took off.

The pickup slammed into Alvarado's car at 7:02 p.m. at Ivey Lane and Piedmont Street. Alvarado was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Thirteen hours later, an officer showed up at Pineiro's door to break the news. Pineiro's life became a blur. She barely remembers her son's funeral.

Within minutes of the deadly crash, officers thought they had "probable cause" to think Crowe was driving drunk, according to records from an Orlando police internal-affairs review. Crowe broke his ankle in the crash, so he was taken by ambulance to ORMC.

Police ordered Crowe's blood drawn for a blood-alcohol test, which later showed his level was estimated at 0.184 percent to 0.237 percent, well above the legal limit of 0.08 percent. Traces of cocaine and marijuana also were found in his system, according to documents from the investigation.

Crowe, who has a lengthy arrest record, had other potential legal problems. He was driving 80 mph in a 25 mph zone when the crash took place, and his license was suspended, according to reports. In addition, an officer reported seeing Crowe toss what appeared to be a bag of crack cocaine out of the pickup window minutes before the crash.

That's what makes Pineiro most angry. If officers had arrested Crowe on any charge the night her son was killed, he probably wouldn't be running loose now, she said.

"If this were a policeman's son, it would have been a whole different thing," Pineiro said. "Or someone important, I guess, because we're not."

It's not clear why police didn't arrest Crowe immediately. But some experts say there could be a good reason: Sometimes officers wait for blood-test results or other evidence.

Marcia Cunningham, director of the National Traffic Law Center with the National District Attorneys Association said at the very least, authorities owe Pineiro an explanation about their decisions.

"It does seem absolutely necessary to sit down and tell her what happened," Cunningham said.
Police announced they had issued a warrant for Crowe's arrest during the summer, a couple of months after the officers were cleared in the internal investigation.

So far, Crowe has eluded arrest.
Florida Highway Patrol spokeswoman Trooper Kim Miller would not talk specifically about Alvarado's case but said investigators often immediately arrest drivers in deadly crashes, whether it is for the incident or for unrelated illegal behavior, such as drug possession or an open warrant.

Sometimes, they wait -- especially when it is unclear whether the driver is intoxicated, Miller said. They use the extra time to gather evidence, such as results from a blood test, to make sure they can win their case.

"It's a judgment call for the investigator," Miller said.
It took six months for Pineiro to find the strength to read newspaper articles about her son's death and take action.
During the past few weeks, Pineiro has begun to make calls to city officials asking why an arrest hasn't been made in her son's case. She has gotten no reply, she said.

Answers are the least her son deserves, she said.
"All I want to know is why they haven't found this guy," she said.



Illustration:
PHOTO: Carmen Pineiro keeps an urn containing the ashes of her son, Edwin Alvarado, in her bedroom. Alvarado died Jan. 20, 2006, when a pickup driven by Kenyon Crowe of Orange County slammed into his car.
JULIE FLETCHER/ORLANDO SENTINEL
Keywords: AUTO ACCIDENT DEATH CONTROVERSY ANNIVERSARY
Memo: Willoughby Mariano can be reached at wmariano@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5171.
Lines: 105
Tag: 0701230239

Grieving mom: Why is my son's killer free?

Headlines

Death In the Fog

Date: Thursday, January 10, 2008 Section: A SECTION
Edition: FINAL Page: A1
Source: Willoughby Mariano, Amy L. Edwards and Daphne Sashin, Sentinel Staff Writers
Column: 70-VEHICLE CRASH ON I-4


DEATH IN THE FOG
4 dead, 38 injured in string of pileups


On a rural stretch of Interstate 4 in Polk County, a man cried out, seeking help for his injured wife. Another begged to be pulled from his car. One shouted that he was on fire.

Other stunned survivors emerged from the wreckage into dense fog, flames and darkness, surrounded by the screams of people they could not see.

"Is this really happening? Is this really going on, or is it a bad dream?" wondered Eduardo Donoso, 55, of St. Petersburg.

Morning commuters, truckers and others were all caught Wednesday in a nightmare: a series of pileups that involved 70 vehicles and spanned two miles of highway between Orlando and Lakeland. Four were killed and 38 injured, five critically.

Many questions remain in the wake of the tragedy, including precisely what caused it and whether anything could have been done to prevent it.

FHP Maj. Ernie Duarte, the agency's chief spokesman in Tallahassee, contended the pileups were simply the result of bad weather and unsafe driving.

"We can't control the weather, but we can control our accelerator," he said. "These people didn't slow down."
But weather officials had predicted that fog would descend on the area early Wednesday, and state Division of Forestry officials had warned Tuesday night that smoke from a prescribed burn that got out of control might impair visibility. First reports of the crashes began coming in about 4:30 a.m. For the next couple of hours, one crash after the next -- 10 in all -- was called in to authorities.

The trail of twisted metal, burnt-out tractor-trailers and injured included one crash involving 43 vehicles. Two vehicles that crashed were U.S. Postal Service trucks carrying mail.

As the pileups continued, confused drivers and passengers exited their cars and walked onto I-4 -- where they were even more vulnerable to injury.

One victim was Disney worker
Darren Scott Snyder was on his way to work at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom when he got caught in a pileup and died, said his father-in-law, Don Ussery.

Snyder, a 35-year-old newlywed, worked with engineering services on the maintenance team, Disney officials confirmed late Wednesday. Family members said he was supposed to report to work at 6 a.m.

It took the family hours to get answers. Mary Ussery, Snyder's mother-in-law, said she and her daughter thought they saw Snyder's mangled red Ford Mustang under a truck in a TV newscast.

As darkness fell, Snyder's brother drove to the scene, where troopers told him that Snyder likely died in the crash.
"His body was burned beyond recognition, and [FHP] never gave him [Snyder's brother] definite word, but we knew it was him," Mary Ussery said through tears. "No one has to tell you those things."

As of Wednesday night, authorities had not officially identified Snyder or any of the other fatalities.
Those who survived said that within moments, light fog on I-4 turned into impenetrable haze.
"All of a sudden it was like a wall of smoke and fog," said electronic technician Robert Barnes, 58, of Lakeland, who was commuting to Longwood. He didn't see a small truck in front of him until he hit it. Something else hit him from the side.

"I heard what sounded like explosions in front of me. I could not see lights. I could not see flames," Barnes said. He grabbed his briefcase, cell phone and jacket and fled the road.

Donoso, the St. Petersburg man, awoke just as the Ford Taurus he was in began to crash.
"I heard another boom and another one and another one. I looked back -- there was this trailer that was practically bent halfway," Donoso said. "And that was what kept us from being hit from behind."

The smell of diesel fuel and smoke filled the air. The fog was so thick that lights from rescue vehicles were invisible, said Max Sons, 64, of Polk City, who lives less than a mile from the crash site and rushed to a highway overpass when he heard explosions. Sons didn't hear the typical sounds of a car crash.

"You didn't hear tires screeching. It was just crunch, crunch, crunch," Sons said.
Deputy Sheriff Jack "Carlton" Turner III, 26, was first on the scene, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. Turner's car was struck as he responded but, injured, Turner worked to pull victims from the wreckage and tried to clear the scene.

"He said, 'I could still hear metal grinding as cars went into each other,' " Judd said at an afternoon news conference, adding that Turner said, " 'I did all that I could, but I watched a man burn to death today.' "

Smashed vehicles numbered
As emergency responders descended on the scene, they faced more than a traffic disaster.
Their already difficult jobs were made more untenable by the thick fog mingled with smoke -- not just from the brush fire, but from the many vehicle fires that were raging.

There were so many vehicles involved that law enforcement and rescue workers had to number them with orange spray paint, much as they marked houses in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Barnes said his 1999 Subaru station wagon was No. 27 in the largest of the 10 pileups. His first thought was to get out of his car to avoid getting hit again. He couldn't see in front of him but used a flashlight on his key chain to find a way out.

As the sun rose, officials and other got the first look at the tangle of crushed tractor-trailers and crash victims. It was hours after the initial crash that the fog lifted enough to allow helicopters in the air to survey the area.

It took so long to work the crash scene that deputies loaned cell phones to stranded victims so they could call loved ones.

One Polk deputy handed his cell phone to a severely injured man trapped in his car under a truck. The man was able to call his wife as crews worked to free him, Judd said. A Sheriff's Office chaplain and victim advocate arrived to work with family members and victims.

Uninjured motorists were taken to a sheriff's district station and given food and drinks while being interviewed.
The last victim, who did not survive, was found about 4 p.m.
Multiple hospitals opened their emergency rooms to casualties Wednesday morning as the 38 injured were transported to various facilities from Tampa to Orlando.

Three were airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center, but their identities and conditions were not available Wednesday night.

Eight patients, most with "fairly serious" injuries -- two in critical condition -- were brought to Lakeland Regional Medical Center's trauma unit, which serves Polk, Hardee and Highlands counties. Fourteen less-seriously hurt patients were taken to nearby Winter Haven Hospital, and four to Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center in Davenport. Two seriously injured people were airlifted to Tampa General Hospital.

Polk County Emergency Medical Services Director Harvey Craven said that in 35 years, he had never seen an accident of that magnitude.

"To tell you the truth, it was absolutely horrific."



Illustration: PHOTO: Fog and smoke hang over the scene Wednesday of multiple crashes involving 70 vehicles that closed part of I-4 in Polk County. First reports of the crashes came in about 4:30 a.m.
RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL
PHOTO: Traffic backs up Wednesday east of Clermont on S.R. 50, an alternate route after part of I-4 was closed.
GEORGE SKENE/ORLANDO SENTINEL
.
PHOTO: Emergency vehicles, law enforcement and others work at the scene Wednesday of a 70-vehicle chain-reaction collision that forced the closure of about 14 miles of Interstate 4 in Polk County.

RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL
PHOTO: Wreckage smolders Wednesday at the scene of a pileup where 70 vehicles collided near an I-4 rest stop close to Polk City.
GEORGE SKENE/ORLANDO SENTINEL
.
MAP: WHERE THE CRASHES HAPPENED
(map of I-4 in Polk County)
ORLANDO SENTINEL
.
MAP: (alternate routes to I-4 in crash area)
SOURCE: POLK COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
SHINIKO R. FLOYD/ORLANDO SENTINEL
.
MAP: DEADLY PILEUPS IN FLORIDA
(STATE OF FLORIDA MAP, WITH 5 SPECIFIC AREAS HIGHLIGHTED WHERE DEADLY CRASHES TOOK PLACE)
SHINIKO R. FLOYD/ORLANDO SENTINEL
.
BOX: ALTERNATE ROUTES IN FOUR CORNERS AREA
As the crash investigation continues and road repairs begin, the commute on or around Interstate 4 in Polk County could turn into a tangled mess. Authorities were unsure when the affected stretch of I-4 would reopen.
Motorists who need to head that way should be aware that there will bee a lot of confused drivers out there today. Give yourself plenty of time to get through the crowded alternate routes, and remember: Any ligering smoke or fog will only make things worse.
-Two ways to avoid the affected portion of I-4 include taking U.S. Highway 27 or State Road 33 to head north or south.
-If driving from the southern part of Orlando, ou can try U.S. 17-92, which will take you to Lakeland, where you get to I-4.
In addition, the Polk County Sheriff's Office and Florida Highway Patrol offer the following suggestions as alternatives: -If coming from northern Orange County and heading west, use S.R. 50.
-If driving in central Polk, use U.S. 17-92 and be aware that the road will be packed.
-If driving in the southern part of Polk, use S.R. 60.
.
BOX: "You could hear the metal. And unlike in other crashes, you didn't hear tires screeching. It was just crunch, crunch, crunch."
MAX SONS OF POLK CITY, AWAKENED BY THE SOUNDS OF THE MASSIVE PILEUPS.
'I heard things starting to explode over there. Somebody said they were on fire, and I tried to get as far off the road as I could."
Robert Barnes of Lakeland, who was going to workin Longwood at 5:30a.m.. hit dense fog and ended up in the I-4 pileups.
"He discovered that there was a great amount of fire. And he witnessed that. And it was difficult on him. But he did what he was trained to do. And we're really proud of him."
-Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd referring to Deputy Carlton Turner, the first law-enforcement officer on the scene, whose car was demolished by the crash.
"Who gave permission to burn a fire when they knew it was going to be foggy? That's what you need to be asking...Don't blame it on God; blame it on man."
-Gayle Brazzell of Auburndale, standing outside Lakeland Regional Medical Center, where eight crash victims were taken.
"We're not at liberty to say exactly that smoke caused this accident. I'm real reluctant...to say it was smoke-related."
-Gary Zipperer, a district manager at the Division of Forestry which OK'd the initial 10-acre burn.
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BOX: DEADLY PILEUPS IN FLORIDA
Here are some other recent deadly crashes in Florida blamed on smoke and fog:
1. March 13, 2007: 5 killed, 3 injured during 11-vehicle pileup on Florida's Turnpike in Osceola County near Kenansville.
2. May 7, 2006: 2 killed and 2 injured during 5-vehicle crash on I-95 in Brevard County near Port St. John.
3. May 28, 2001: 1 killed, 14 injured in 20-vehicle pileup on I-4 in Polk County near Haines City.
4. June 2, 2000: 1 killed, 12 injured druing 14-vehicle pileup on I-95 in Brevard County near S.R. 520.
5. March 8, 2000: 3 killed, 21 injured during 22-vehicle pileup on I-10 near Lake City.
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BOX: HOW FOG FORMS
Radiation fog forms from the cooling of land after sunset by thermal radiation in calm conditions with clear sky; cool ground produces condensation in the air by heat conduction.
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BOX: WHAT TO DO IF YOU ENCOUNTER SMKOE, FOG
The fire that began as a prescribed burn in Polk near the crash scene is still burning, though nearly contained. The National Weather Service issued an advisory late Wednesday warning that the same conditions -- dense fog and smoke -- that were in the area before the crash are expected to return this morning.
The weather service reported that calm winds and a strong inversion layer will not allow the smoke to disperse as it does during daylight. Smoke is also ideal condensation nuclei for dense fog to form.
Visibility near the crash site is expected to be near zero at 3 a.m. today and is not expected to improve until temperatures climb and the incersion breaks about 10 a.m., allowing fog to life and smoke to disperse.
If driving is necessary in smoke or fog, please use the following tips.
- Slow down before you enter smoke. Be sure that you can stop within the distance that you can see. Smoke creates a visual illusion of slow motion when you may actually be speeding.
- Watch out for slow-moving and parked vehicles. Listen for traffic you cannot see.
- Be patient. Avoid passing and changing lanes.
-Reduce distractions. Turn off the radio and cell phone.
- Use the road's right edge or painted road markers as a guide.
- Use wipers and defrosters liberally for maximum visibility. Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether poor visibility is because of smoke or moisture on the windshield, especially in the morning hours.
- Signal turns well in advance, and brake early as you approach a stop.
- Drive with lights on low beam. High beams will reflect back off the smoke and impair visibility more.
- Roll up your windows. Use your air conditioner on the recirculation mode to avoid outside air.
- Do not stop on a freeway or heavily traveled road. You could become the first link in a chain-reaction collision. If you must pull off the road, signal and then carefully pull off as far as possible.
- After pulling off the road, turn on your hazard flashers. Never drive with your flashers on.
--SOURCE: Florida Highway Patrol
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CHART: HOUR-BY-HOUR VISIBILITY IN NORTHEAST POLK COUNTY
Visibility, in miles, as reported at Gilbert Airport:
1 a.m.
9
2 a.m.
8
3 a.m.
2.5
4 a.m.
1/4
5 a.m.
1/2
6 a.m.
1/4
7 a.m.
1/2
8 a.m.
1/4
9 a.m.
10
10 a.m.
8
SOURCES: National Weather Service, Sentinel Research, McClatchy Tribune

Keywords: PC CF NEWSEVENT AUTO ACCIDENT MULTIPLE DEATH INJURY DATE ROAD CLOSING
Memo: George Skene, Kumari Kelly, Bianca Prieto, Sarah Lundy, Walter Pacheco, April Hunt and Jim Leusner of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Willoughby Mariano can be reached at 407-420-5171 or wmariano@orlandosentinel.com.Amy L. Edwards can be reached or 407-931-5944.

Daphne Sashin can be reached at 407-931-5944 or dsashin@orlandosentinel.com.
Fog, smoke likely again this morning. A12
How smoke can create and worsen fog. A12
Ways you can bypass I-4 road closures. A13
For complete illustrations, including maps and charts, see printed copy.
Lines: 304
Tag: 0801100003

Death in the Fog

Headlines

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National Headliner Award, Investigative Reporting, First Place, 2003

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Outstanding Investigative Reporting, Finalist, 2003

Society of Professional Journalists, Green Eyeshade Award, Second Place, Investigative Print (Daily), 2003

Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association, Investigative Reporting, First Place, 2003

Chesapeake Associated Press, Mark Twain Award, Outstanding Investigative Reporting, 2003

Orlando Sentinel, nomination for Pulitzer Prize, 2003

Also received multiple monthly newsroom awards for breaking news, enterprise, storytelling, watchdog reporting and investigative work

Investigative Reporters and Editors, conference speaker, 2001, 2003

Yale University, Elmore Willits Prize for Fiction, 1997

Association of Philippine Physicians in
America award, 1996

Orlando Sentinel, Fla.

• Criminal Justice Reporter, April 2005 - present

Enterprise: Responsible for coverage of Orlando and Orange County’s record number of murders. This involves keeping databases, covering local leaders’ response to the problem, and writing about the lives of those touched by violence.

Online: Author of the Orlando Homicide Report weblog and the Sentinel's interactive murder map, which have both gained Tribune-wide recognition as important innovations. I take many of my own photographs for the Homicide Report.

Breaking News: Regularly performs re-write for stories that make national news, inluding major wildfires, record pileups other major tragedies. I typically write multiple versions for the Web, then file a more complete story for the next day's paper.

Multimedia: Filing stories, video and images to online daily.

• Osceola County Police and Courts Reporter, May 2001 - April 2005
Enterprise: Worked on a one-year investigation with a Baltimore Sun reporter on recruiters bringing laborers from Micronesia and the Marshall Islands for jobs at area theme parks, restaurants and nursing homes. The series won several awards and led to revisions in an international treaty.

Also wrote stories that led to the overhaul of a corrupt county fire system, changes in school district policy and state law on child abuse reporting, and the release of an inmate jailed in a case of mistaken identity.


METPRO (Minority Editorial Training Program) Los Angeles Times, Calif. / Greenwich Time, Conn.

• Trainee, September 1999 - May 2001
Covered courts, social services and education. Stories chronicled racial imbalances in Greenwich schools and the undercounting of occupants of residential motels during Census 2000. The Census article was cited in Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickled and Dimed.

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Experience

Education:

Yale University, New Haven, Conn.: Bachelor of Arts, English 1999

Affiliations:

Member, Asian American Journalists Association

Member, Yale Alumni Schools Committee

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wmariano@ajc.com

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