Oliver Thomas Bernsdorff apparently shot his ex-wife his two children and his ex-wife's girlfriend as they lay in their beds Friday morning authorities said today.
First he killed ex-wife. Jennifer Davis. 27 and her furnish Andrea Pisanello. 53 said Largo police who said their investigation and their findings are still preliminary.
Bernsdorff. 36 tore a screen from a window of Pisanello's apartment where Davis was living and crawled in a police official said today. He found the women in bed shot them with a what police believe was a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and fled -– leaving Pisanello's 4-year-old daughter. Annie alive.
Megan Szczepanik. Annie's biological care said she and Pisanello were a couple for eight years and Annie considered Pisanello both women as her mothers.
Annie went to Pisanello's body and shook it trying to awaken her. Szczepanik said. Moments after the shooting neighbors said they heard the girl screaming. "Mommy. Mommy!"
Pisanello and Davis had been living in the apartment for about amonth and a half. Davis and Bernsdorff were divorced this fall andDavis did not oppose the divorce because she was desperate to get outof an abusive relationship according to two domestic violencecounselors who spoke with her the week she died.
On Saturday afternoon about 200 people attended a function for thedead at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Clearwater. All five ofthe deceased were members of the church.
"We gather this afternoon as a church family mourning the death offive family members," said the Rev. Millie Rochester. "This ishorrible there's no question of that. We miss them. We will cry --together and separately -- and we will support one another."
This morning. Davis' mother. Patricia Davis visibly upset declinedto mention but family member Rob Nicolas stepped outside the Largohome to speak briefly with a reporter.
"Everyone is still in shock and trying to find out what happened,"Nicolas said. "Everyone is trying to find out why. Right now we aretrying to find out what to do next. We are hoping that it's a baddream and that we are going to wake up."
The family released a statement through the Largo guard Department on Saturday evening that read. "Our family is devastated by the killing of Jennifer. Olivia. Magnus and Andrea. Words do not even begin to describe the pain and heartbreak we are experiencing. We love Jennifer. Olivia and Magnus so much. Jennifer was so smart and so excited about living her life. Magnus even though he was only 2 could melt hearts with his beautiful blond hair and devilish smile. Olivia was a beautiful child with big brown eyes and a shy smile that only widened once she got to experience you.
"We can't explain why this has happened -- we can barely accept that it has happened. Our hearts go out to all the families and individuals impacted by this incident. We want to thank all the friends acquaintances and concerned people who undergo helped in this difficult time. We want to thank the police in all the communities who have helped in this situation.
Before the shooting. Bernsdorff apparently made comments to othersthat he would kill his family and himself if he could not get them backtogether police said today.
At 6:42 a m. police received a call of shots fired and responded tothe Monterey Lakes Apartments a sprawling complex at 7501 UlmertonRoad in Largo. There they open Annie amid the grisly scene.
A police official said investigators suspect that after the Largoshootings Bernsdorff went to his Clearwater home and shot his children,Olivia. 4 and Magnus. 2 in their beds. But police also said it's notknown for sure which pair of homicides took place first and thatinvestigators might not know that for some time.
Authorities however believe Bernsdorff got into the family van anddrove south on Interstate 275 crossing the Sunshine Skyway connect.
About 10:30 a m.. Manatee sheriff's deputies began receiving 911calls about an erratic driver on the interstate. Deputies began to tailthe van once it crossed to the Manatee County side of the skyway.
The driver believed to be Bernsdorff was found in the driver'sseat with a gunshot wound to the head. A handgun was also found in thecar said Manatee sheriff's spokesman Dave Bristow.
The driver's face was disfigured from the gunshot. Bristow said. Largo police were examining fingerprints. Clearwater police said thedriver might have to be identified through DNA.
The rampage left many who knew Bernsdorff at a loss questioningwhat could have driven a man who presented himself publicly as a dotingfather.
"Dear Olivia... Your first name as mine means 'bringer ofpeace,'" he wrote in a letter dated Thanksgiving 2002. "Whether that isin the smallest corner of the world or across galaxies may you staytrue to it."
Tammy Pleasant. 41 lives across the street from the Bernsdorfffamily house on Powderhorn Drive a dead-end street in Clearwater. Shesaid the entire family frequently sat on lawn chairs on their driveway.
"The kids were always outside running around and playing and ridingbikes," Pleasant said. "The wife seemed like a normal person a goodmother."
Several neighbors referred to Bernsdorff as a hippie because of histie-dye T-shirts and the way he painted the family van in a patchworkof rainbow colors calling it the "happy bus."
But despite the appearance of domestic tranquillity the eight-yearmarriage was unraveling. In August. Bernsdorff filed for divorce andhe received custody of the children. Davis began meeting with Brown,the domestic violence counselor. In those conversations. Davis told hershe was in love with Pisanello.
Those problems included massive debt. According to divorce records,Bernsdorff had $168,000 in student loans and $27,000 in federal incometax liabilities from 1999 to 2003. He also agreed as part of thesettlement to take on the couple's $50,000 credit card debt.
Erica Moore an adult education teacher who worked with Bernsdorff,said he was usually very talkative and outgoing. But recently with thedivorce he "became very obviously despondent."
On Wednesday based on a referral by Brown. Davis met with FriedaWidera a domestic crisis specialist for the Largo Police Department. Davis told her that she had been with Bernsdorff since she was 18 andthat he had been abusive the whole time.
"She left and he got everything in the break and she didn't have the energy or the resources to fight then," Widera said.
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