Free Republic

A New Smyrna Beach woman wanted the homeless man her daughter was dating killed because the daughter's children came home with lice, police said. Pamela Vanorsdale, 50, was charged with criminal solicitation to commit murder after police said she tried to hire her former son-in-law to “pop” the proposed victim, Dylan Loveless, 22, “in the head and chest,” New Smyrna Beach police said. Vanorsdale is out of jail on $25,000 bail, court records show. New Smyrna Beach police learned of the murder-for-hire plot after the ex-son-in-law, Daniel Dionne, 33, of Daytona Beach, approached a Daytona Beach police detective, reports show....

Facebook, the downfall of many a cocky criminal, may have reeled in a new one. Logan Hale of Florida's Polk County was suspected of breaking into a home on Aug. 3 and stealing a shotgun and thousands of dollars' worth of jewelry. Police explained all this in a Friday Felons Facebook post that featured Hale, noting that at age 21 he has "been in the Polk County Jail on five prior occasions. SMH." SMH, indeed: Using the Facebook Name "Logan Finallyfree Hale," Hale replied to the post, writing "HELLO here I am" and "Deputies continue to look for me but...

An evening ritual for one Fort Lauderdale resident took a remarkable turn Friday. Bill Tudhunter, 57, was sitting on the back patio of his Fort Lauderdale home drinking a beer and enjoying the view of the Intracoastal Waterway, as he does every evening after work, when he noticed something odd in the water. A group of nine manatees had come ashore behind the home in the 2100 block of Southeast 21st Street. In what could only be described as a dogpile, they rocked with the wake, apparently mating as they floated in a few feet of water. A cluster of...

Florida police say four teens hacked a 17-year-old boy half to death with a machete before ordering him into a hole and burying him while still barely alive. Then two of the alleged attackers celebrated by having sex nearby. Desiray Strickland, 18, was arrested Wednesday in the sickening murder of Jose Amaya Guardado on June 28. Kaheem Arbelo, 20, Jonathan Lucas, 18, and Christian Colon, 19, were arrested last week, and reportedly confessed to the crime. The foursome apparently plotted the gruesome killing for a couple of weeks, according to court documents obtained by the Miami Herald. They allegedly dug...

beating death of a Pomeranian named Fox may have been eclipsed by the hand-written note left behind: “We beat it 2 death lol HAHAHA!” Ronald Boisvert, Fox’s owner, said his 13-year-old family pet disappeared Friday afternoon when his girlfriend let him out at their Pembroke Pines condominium. On Saturday morning, Boisvert was awoken by a “frantic knock” from a neighbor who said Fox was lying near Boisvert’s condo with the note on top of his body. “I was devastated,” Boisvert said. “He was a very friendly dog.” Boisvert initially thought the note was a joke and believed Fox could have...

Dominique Albert, 27, armed with a steak knife, approached an unmarked car in an alley Thursday night around 9:45 p.m. After he opened the door, he realized there were two officers inside who were in the area on a stakeout for street crimes

MIRAMAR, Fla. – Police say a shooting victim was apparently taken by a friend to a South Florida Wal-Mart instead of a hospital and left outside the store. Miramar police spokeswoman Tania Rues says in an email that the victim was suffering from a gunshot wound when he was left outside the store Monday afternoon. He was later taken to a hospital for treatment and was listed in stable condition. Rues' statement didn't say who found the victim or who took him to the hospital.

Rumors of a drive-by shooting have been swirling around Spring Hill over the weekend after gun shots that were fired on Sandhill Avenue on July 17, 2015. Details have finally been released by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office and it turns out the homeowner on Sand Hill actually fired the shots after his daughter’s ex-boyfriend. Throughout the day on Friday Deontray Jackson texted threatening messages to his ex-girlfriend, who is also pregnant. Jackson’s arrest affidavit for an aggravated stalking charge lists a number of disturbing messages including “I will ruin your life and that’s on God,” “I gonna smash y’all...

It might be time to salt the earth. Researchers are claiming Giant African land snails are spreading from South Florida and are carrying way more dangerous parasites then previously thought. A recent U.S. Geological Survey published in Journal of Wildlife Diseases, says previous research on Giant African land snails grossly underestimated how many of them are carrying rat lungworm, a parasitic worm that burrows into humans and can cause meningitis. USGS biologist and lead researcher Deborah Iwanowicz discovered the parasite increase by taking multiple tissue samples from the snails—as opposed to previous studies led by lazy scientists who only took...

The media didn't talk about it but in the 2000 election contest the Democratic strategy if they couldn't get the vote count to go their way was to tie the results up in the court so that Florida wouldn't be able to field electors. This would have cut 25 electors from Bush's total and given Gore the election. The Florida state legislature was dominated by the Republican party who let it be known that they could appoint the electors and with the Supreme Court decision the Democrats effort to win the election by disenfranchising Florida was shelved. In the primary...

A police officer was hit with his own Taser while trying to take a shoplifting suspect to jail in southwest Florida. St. Petersburg police say Officer John Douglas was transporting 37-year-old Jason Lee Benedict to jail after he allegedly stole three bottles of cough syrup and drank them in the grocery store bathroom. As the officer handcuffed Benedict on Friday, authorities say he punched and kicked the officer. Police said Benedict bit the officer's hand and reached for his Taser, causing it to discharge in the officer's left hand. The suspect was initially taken to a hospital, but was in...

A video of a shark pulling a Florida fisherman from his kayak is going viral right now. Captain Ben Chancey was grouper fishing on his kayak in Florida when he got a big surprise. He was reeling in a giant Goliath grouper but he said the fish broke free from the line and left his bait floating in front of bull sharks swimming around him. An 8 1/2-foot bull shark took the bait and Chancey hung on to the reel while he was still seated in his 14-foot kayak. The shark ended up flipping Chancey’s kayak and tipping him into...

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) -- Police say a fight over gumbo spices ended with the fatal stabbing of a Florida restaurant worker and former Florida State mascot. Panama City police say 33-year-old Caleb Joshua Halley was working at Buddy's Seafood Market last Tuesday when he and a co-worker, 26-year-old Orlando Thompson, began arguing about how much spice to add to the restaurant's gumbo.

Accompanies story about Naked Nurse Attack. 590 mugshots of Orlando society.

Woman taken into custody in Palm Bay PALM BAY, Fla. - A home healthcare nurse was taken into custody for observation after she stripped off her uniform and attacked a patient under her care, Palm Bay police said. The incident happened about 2 p.m. Sunday at a home in the 800 block of Hawaii Avenue after someone at the residence called police to report that the nurse removed her clothing and was acting erratically. "It was in the patient's home. The patient was also battered," Palm Bay police Lt. Greg Latulippe told Local 6 News partner Florida Today. "The whole...

Police in Florida say an argument over pizza ended with a man throwing a hot slice at his roommate. According to the Tampa Tribune, the man's roommate called police after she says Daniel Allen Plunkett, 50, tossed a hot slice of pizza at her. She says it struck her left hand. The arrest report also states the woman had sauce on her shoulder. She was not injured. Plunkett denied throwing the pizza, telling officers it was actually his roommate who was throwing pizza. Officers did note that Plunkett was shirtless and had sauce on his chest. After further investigation, officers...

Orlando community activist Ahmad Saleem drove to a Clermont-area house intending to meet a 12-year-old girl he had been chatting with online for sex in a vehicle with a specialty "Invest in Children" license plate, authorities said Tuesday. But when the door opened, there were no children in sight. Instead, detectives quickly brought Saleem to the ground and arrested him. Saleem, founder of the Saleem Academy, an organization dedicated to empowering Muslim youths globally, was one of the 101 people arrested in an undercover cybercrime prostitution and child-sex sting by the Lake and Polk county sheriff's offices. Lake County Sheriff...

In a new study published Monday in the journal Current Biology, Stony Brook University researchers working with Florida scientists discovered seven endangered sawfish living in two rivers conceived through a process called parthenogenesis — the production of offspring without sex or male sperm, or in simpler terms, “virgin birth.” So ladies, take a bow. Apparently we can do it all. Scientists have long known that insects, crabs and other invertebrates can reproduce without partners. Female birds, reptiles and sharks in captivity have also occasionally surprised scientists with virgin births. But until now, researchers never knew whether the behavior happened in...

Police have arrested an 82-year-old Lake Wales, Florida, man for slashing a woman's tires because he claimed she was sitting in his favorite bingo seat. WTVT-TV reports Fred Smith was charged with criminal mischief last Monday when police say he took an ice pick to 88-year-old Ethel Britt's van during a weekly bingo game at the Lake Ashton Retirement Community Club House. Police say Smith stormed out of the bingo hall and punctured two of Britt's tires because she was sitting in a chair he usually sits in. Smith was caught on surveillance video in the act. Lake Wales Deputy...

It’s not every day that someone gets bitten in the head by a shark and lives to tell about it. But that’s what happened to 70-year old Rick Neuman, 200 stitches later. Neumann said he was spearfishing in about 40-feet of water off the coast of Jupiter on Friday when a bull shark came out of nowhere. “I think the shark got confused and just lashed out and hit me like a freight train,” said Neumann. “It’s not the shark’s fault, he got confused, the water was dirty, and things can happen. Neumann said he has no hard feelings against...