2011 Top Stories

Ida Wright, shown  at far left,  wins the primary for the open dist. 2 seat on the Volusia County School Board,  before going on to win a Jan. 15 runoff with second place finisher Kathy Williams, shown in the inset. Her husband, Al Williams, was chairman of the school board before his passing in October.

DAYTONA BEACH -- With a mere 6 percent of the 66,166 registered voters taking part in the electoral process, a special primary in mid-December for the dist. 2 school board seat had one of the worst turnouts locally in modern times with only 3,390 bothering to vote.

Still, every vote cast matters and that's what put Daytona Beach resident and Bethune-Cookman University educator Ida Duncan Wright on top with 1,538 of those votes or 38.84 percent. Kathy Williams finished second with 1,023 votes or 25.83 percent to force a runoff election because Wright didn't quite reach the 50 percent-plus 1 threshold to win it outright.

Deputy Cody Cochran, shown here at left with Sheriff Ben Johnson, during a medal presentation Aug. 7 in Daytona Beach, is being lauded for heroism in reviving a baby boy.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Back in May, just halfway through his rookie year, Volusia County Sheriff's Deputy Cody Cochran responded to a 9-1-1 call radioed from dispatch for an unconscious baby boy that had fallen into a family pool in Deltona.

The child had been removed from the pool, but was limp and unresponsive and had no pulse, when the 22-year-old deputy arrived on scene. The 1-year-old toddler's life was now in Cochran's hands. 

"Without a moment to spare, Cochran quickly took charged of the chaotic scene and began administering CPR to the child as he had been taught in his first aid instruction," Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said.

SAMSULA -- A 55-acre fire that raged in the woods of Pioneer Trail left the unmistakable stench of smoke for days in March. That fire was extinguished but with dry conditions and a lack of rain, county officials continued an outdoor burn ban for the small communities of Oak Hill, Pierson, Lake Helen and all areas in unincorporated Volusia County until mid-June when four days of rain brought needed relief.

A killing in Osteen may be connected to drug growing operating on Trotting Trail as shown in this locator map.

OSTEEN -- A body found in a wooded area of Osteen in April was later identified as 34-year-old Lester Bermudez-Garcia, who was murdered, the Volusia County Sheriff's office confirmed May 2.

The slaying comes in at No. 65 in Headline Surfer's countdown of the top 100 local stories of 2012.

A ruling by Circuit Judge William Parsons, chief judge of the 7th judicial circuit, denied condemned death row murderer Jerone Hunter, shown here, a chance in January at having his death sentences set aside for his role in the 2004 Deltona Xbox murders of six people in a Telford Lane home, the largest mass murder case in Volusia County's history.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Mass murderer Jerone Hunter is not getting off Florida's death row anytime soon, if ever, after a circuit judge's Jan. 25 ruling that he failed to prove ineffective assistance of counsel at his capital murder trial six years ago.

The judge's ruling comes in at No. 66 in the countdown of Headline Surfer's top 100 local stories of 2012.

PORT ORANGE -- The "why" is not always defined when it comes to a murderous rampage. Such is the case of a Port Orange man who shot and killed a Canadian tourist at an RV Park in Deerfield Beach on Feb. 9, then stabbed his own autistic son to death, tried to do the same to his wife and younger son before killing himself with a knife.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Alleged serial arsonist James Bates admitted to setting fires as far back as the 1970s, but said he managed to suppress the urge for some time, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office in announcing his arrest in March.

That all ended back in December 2011, when Sheriff's investigators said Bates returned to old habits. In a span of less than seven weeks starting in early December, five fires were intentionally set in the New Smyrna Beach area. Bates' arrest comes in at No. 68 in Headline Surfer's countdown of the top 100 local stories of 2012. 

Resignation shows on the face of 45-year-old Fredrick Bardell of New Smyrna Beach, in his June 20 booking mug before beginning a lengthy prison sentence for downloading and hoarding more than 20,000 photos and movies of small children engaged in lewd sex acts. 

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Fredrick Bardell, who served in the U.S. Coast Guard, is now serving time in prison for downloading and hoarding 16,500 photos and more than 400 movies involving pre-adolescent children, the US Attorney's Office said.

The 45-year-old New Smyrna Beach man had been collecting the kiddie porn for two decades and even shared the content with others online.

Judge Roy Dalton, Jr. sentenced Bardell in June to a dozen years in prison, followed by 20 years of sexual offender probation. Bardell's sentencing comes in at No. 69 in Headline Surfer's countdown of the top 100 local stories of 2012.

New Smyrna Speedway is a lot closer to where Ed Bennett was reared compared to the world famous Daytona International Speedway, home to the Great American Race, the Daytona 500. Despite the aded weight of the big responsibilities he has to carry on his shoulders as a rising star in NASCAR's corporate offices in Daytona, Bennett has his priorities straight with his emerging family, as shown in the inset. As a side note, his wife, Mindy France Bennett, was 'Miss NSB HS 1997.'  

DAYTONA BEACH -- NASCAR executive Ed Bennett has a saying from Mark Twain that he tries to live his life by: Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of the your life.