Crime

Search in vicinity of HE Thomas Jr. Parkway near Sanford border comes up empty

LAKE MARY -- The unmistakeable sound of a commercial airliner making its descent over Lake Mary to land at the nearby Sanford Airport is one thing, but the thunderous twirling of the blades of the Seminole County Sheriff's helicopter at 2 in the morning at a low altitude reaches new heights on the noise meter.

State Attorney's Office not willing to prosecute for domestic violence as a result

Photos for Headline Surfer® / Another chapter in George Zimmerman's life concludes with no charges filed in domestic violence case alleged by his estranged wife, Shellie, shown here in court with him during his murder trial. Later, he's shown cuffed after his wife claimed he displayed a gun (which she later recanted), punched her dad in the nose and shattered her iPad, like the one shown here. 

LAKE MARY -- George Zimmerman won't be arrested on domestic violence charges in connection with a Sept. 9 argument with his estranged wife, Shellie, and her father, David Dean at a home on Sprucewood Court they were living in, during which he she claimed he shattered her iPad, Lake Mary cops announced today.

WESH Orlando's Claire Metz had loaded semi-automatic pointed at her head

Photos for Headline Surfer® / 

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- An off-duty public safety tele-communicator with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was arrested Tuesday after she pointed a gun at WESH-TV Orlando reporter Clare Metz who had gone to her house to try to interview her for a story involving a medical call where a patient died in September after an ambulance crew was directed to the wrong location.

Headline Surfer photos® / This image from a KKK recritment flyer among more than a dozen left in front of homes in New Smyrna Beach's Westside, shows the traditional hood and dress attire.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The Rev. Lorenzo Laws, pastor of the Allen Chapel AME Church is livid. And with good reason: More than a dozen recruiting flyers for the Ku Klux Klan were left in front yards of homes across the street from his church in the predominantly African-American Westside community.

"I am absolutely and totally offended that someone at a time like this would come into this community and distribute this type of literature," Laws said Tuesday.

Headline Surfer photos by Henry Frederick / Scenes like this bar patron drinking a beer on the public sidewalk in front of the Om Bar on Flagler Avenue during the 2011 New Smyrna Ween -- Halloween Creepy Crawl on Flagler Avenue, are no longer being tolerated by Police Chief George Markert, shown here at left, who was hired as New Smyrna Beach's top cop last Spring.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- For the past five years, patrons attending the six annual alcohol-fueled street festivals sponsored by the Merchants of Flagler Avenue Hospitality Group and paid for with tax dollars have been able to drink in public without impunity from the cops. But all that changed Halloween night.

Source: Jailed husband confessed to killings, but won't say where bodies are

DELTONA -- The Deltona mother and her children missing since Wednesday are confirmed dead, the victims all murdered, Headline Surfer® has confirmed.

Volusia County Sheriff's investigators have yet to recover the bodies of 28-year-old Yessenia Suarez and her two children, 8-year-old Michael Otto and 9-year-old Thalia Otto, while the suspected killer, Luis Toledo, the woman's husband, remains jailed without bail on a domestic violence charge the before she and the kids disappeared.

DELTONA -- The Volusia County Sheriff's Office is seeking the public's help in locating a mother and her two children who are considered missing and endangered under suspicious circumstances stemming from a domestic violence situation in Lake Mary involving her husband who has since been apprehended and jailed in Daytona Beach.

Witnesses reported vehicle 'all over the road'

Headline Surfer graphic / At left is a snapshot of a portion of the arrest report charging off-duty VCSO deputy Stephanie LeClerc with DUI of alcohol or drugs. She failed a field sobriety test and twice refused to submit to a breathalyzer leading to her arrest.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- An off-duty deputy was arrested Saturday night on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs after at least one motorist called 9-1-1 to report she was "all over the road" and even driving in the oncoming traffic lane. When she was pulled over, fellow deputies saw that her 7-year-old daughter was in the front passenger seat.

DAYTONA BEACH -- The man shot outside Papi's Bottle Club early Saturday has died and the case is now being investigated as a murder, a Volusia County Sheriff's official said.