A Florida woman is in police custody after being accused of shooting and killing her ex-husbands in two separate incidents in two counties.
Law enforcement in Manatee County said Susan Avalon had used stolen food from a Panera to get an ex-husband to open his front door on Dec. 17.
Officials said surveillance video showed Avalon walking into the restaurant and grabbing an order from a pickup shelf, then going to the man’s home.
A Manatee County sheriff’s office spokesperson said, “When this victim opens the door, suspect starts to fire immediately,” WWSB reported.
The man was hit in the abdomen, WTVT reported.
His daughter was home but didn’t see the shooting, however she told deputies that she heard the gunshots and saw a person drive off in a silver Honda Odyssey.
The man was able to tell police that the shooter was possibly his ex-wife before he died, Bay News 9 reported.
The couple had been divorced for 11 years and had been in a custody dispute and $4,000 in unpaid child support, WWSB reported. She had been ordered to pay $200 in December or lose her driver’s license.
Detectives arrived at Avalon’s home in Citrus County and said she was cleaning her minivan with bleach. They told her that they needed to speak with her about her ex-husband and the detectives said she asked, “Which one?”
“We only know of one,” Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said, according to WTVT. “She starts to make comments that he’s a child abuser. He’s a molester. Just talking about all these problems she’s had with this ex-husband. She thinks we’re there from Hillsborough County. She thinks my detectives are Hillsborough County detectives. Detectives are trying to figure out what she’s talking about.”
Eventually, they conducted a welfare check on her other ex-husband, who lived in Tampa. He was found dead inside his home with multiple gunshot wounds, police said. The rear door of the home showed forced entry, Tampa Police said, according to WWSB.
Avalon’s live-in boyfriend said that she had recently found the Manatee County husband’s address.
Wells said he believes that she went to her second ex-husband’s home in Tampa, then went to Panera, took the food, then went to her first ex-husband’s home in and shot him.
Avalon was initially charged with second-degree homicide in Manatee County. Wells said he is working with prosecutors who will convene a grand jury and possibly file first-degree homicide charges and seek the death penalty.
Tampa law enforcement is running a separate investigation and has not announced charges, Bay News 9 reported.
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