The Snowbird Murders

By Saundra McKee

Vacationing senior citizens are mysteriously disappearing from beautiful southern Florida. Snowbirds, newly retired teachers and part-time Sanibel residents, Jenny Crane and Janet Dobson, are determined to find out what evil and most sinister forces are at work in their winter paradise. Soon they find themselves and their beloved canines embroiled in hair raising and murderous events that take them chasing clues and suspects from Sanibel to Naples, Marco Island, Lake Okeechobee and the Florida Keys.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Saundra McKee
• Release date: Apr 18, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458161048

Saundra McKee

I am a retired educator. I taught in the public schools for 15 years and at the university level for 22 years. I love to travel the world. I enjoy politics, dogs, mysteries and water sports. I am a lay speaker in the United Methodist Church.

Book preview

The Snowbird Murders

by Saundra McKee

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Some of the locales are real but are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Published by Saundra McKee at Smashwords. Copyright 2011. Saundra McKee.

Prologue

snow-bird (snburd) noun.

There are snowbirds with feathers like the Junco that live in cold areas. Then there are human snowbirds that at a certain advanced age migrate to warmers areas, like Florida, during the cold winter months.

The above description is accurate but lacks any emotion. The native born Floridian, as well as anyone who claims citizenship of the state for at least a few years, loves to voice a disdain of the graying population that spends millions of dollars trying to soak up a few rays of winter sun. On the other hand, many of the Northerners accept the title as a badge of honor and even display it on their golf caps, t-shirts and RV license plates. The two groups mix as little as possible, only interacting in market places where the snowbirds purchase overpriced materials with more than a few grumbles.

The above definition also lacks the fascinating details that played themselves out recently in what was to become known throughout the eastern United States as the Snowbird Murders. Some say the whole thing started with an argument over a parking space, but those in the know realize the roots of the story lie much deeper.

Chapter 1 The First Victim, November 2010

Sara Farley thanked God everyday for all the blessings that had been bestowed upon her. At age 65, she had good health, a nice income and nest egg, plenty of good friends and a beautiful home on a lake in western Pennsylvania. And most recently, she had fallen deeply in love for the first time in her life.

Sara had been married to her college sweetheart for six years, but they discovered that their interests diverged in their late twenties and they divorced. Todd left teaching, moved to Florida, got into real estate development, remarried and had four children. Sara remained content as a high school English teacher, dated occasionally, devoted herself to travel, her church and looking after her elderly parents. She was virtually an only child. Despite prolonged efforts neither she nor her parents ever heard from her sister, Ellen, who dropped out of college in 1971. Ellen had been caught up in the drug culture, war protests, and flower power of the times and had said she was going to California. Sara continued to search for her sister after her parents’ deaths but met with no success. Sara retired from teaching after thirty years and used part of her inheritance to purchase a two-bedroom condo on beautiful Sanibel Island in Florida. She had fallen in love with Sanibel over the years while attending an annual literature conference on the nearby island of Captiva. Since her purchase of the cheerful condo located near the Gulf, Sara spent the months of November through March taking long walks on the beach and looking for shells with her beloved Westie Terrier, Bug, playing doubles tennis with friends from the condo and getting involved with activities at the Chapel by the Sea on Captiva.

Sara was caught completely off guard when one of the widowers in the condo complex invited her to dinner and a play at the Old Schoolhouse Theater. Rex O’Shay, was seventy, originally from Boston and retired from a career in banking. He had a grown daughter who lived in Colorado. He was passionate about golf and cooking. Rex and Sara started going out to plays, movies and dinners on a regular basis, discovering that they shared many of the same interests. Their mutual friends told them they looked like Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Rex’s Jack Russell Terrier, Blaze, even got along well with Sara’s Bug. While Sara returned to Pennsylvania for the summer, Rex spent a month visiting his daughter and then went back to Sanibel for the rest of the year. Sara was thoroughly surprised that she could find someone whose company she could enjoy and look so forward to at her age. Despite constant phone calls and emails and even a few text messages, she had never been so excited about returning to Sanibel as she had in her final November. She couldn’t wait to be with Rex. They were both excited about a cruise to the Bahamas they had planned for late January.

The drive from Pennsylvania had been treacherous. Sara left on Veteran’s Day and an early and unexpected ice storm struck the mountains of West Virginia. Her four wheel drive Chevy Trailblazer was of little value on ice, and she virtually crawled along I-79. Once she got to Charlotte, N.C., she got a room at a La Quinta (always clean and pet friendly) and slept for ten hours. Feeling refreshed, she was determined to drive all the way through to Sanibel the next day. The weather was chilly, but sunny. Traffic moved along well until Sara came upon a major pileup on 1-75 below Tampa. Since she was exhausted anyway from many hours of driving when she came upon the traffic backup, she took the opportunity to pull off at a rest stop to give Bug a walk, go to the restroom and hopefully, find some coffee. Just as she was locking the car, a uniformed person called to her.

You need to park on down there, if you plan to walk that dog. That’s where the pet walk is located.

The next day, a security guard noted that her car had been setting in the same place for some time. It was clearly packed for travel. The doors were locked. A run of the PA license plate revealed a Sara Farley, age 65, from Conneaut Lake, PA. A second address was given for Sanibel Island, Florida. Calls to her home numbers went unanswered. A review of security cameras from the previous night showed a woman and small dog being pushed into an old pickup truck by what looked to be a uniformed young man. The truck drove off. No plate numbers could be seen. The plate appeared to be from Florida but was smudged with mud. No witnesses were observed in the area.

Chapter 2 Victims 2 and 3, January 2011

Bob and Julie Pelt couldn’t wait to get to Florida. They took down their Christmas decorations on December 26th and had the car packed and ready to go by the 28th. Bob dreamed of surf fishing on the beach at Naples, Florida, while Julie anxiously awaited long lunches and bingo games with her high school girl friends who had also found their way to the beautiful city on the Gulf of Mexico.

The couple had been renting the same small apartment located close to the fishing pier in Old Naples for the past three years for the months of January, February and March. Both were retired postal workers from Rolla, Missouri. They enjoyed their seven grandchildren who lived within an hour of their home, but were glad to escape the cold Midwestern winters. Besides, one or both of the children and their families usually managed to fly down for a long weekend and spend time in their already crowded apartment. Bob and Julie were both 70 and had been married for 46 years. While in their thirties, they’d both strayed from the marriage and were separated for three years. Following the separation, they vowed to remain faithful and work harder at the marriage and had successfully done so. They had both been stunned when Julie found out she had breast cancer from a routine mammogram at age 66. Within six months, Bob was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Their love grew stronger as they supported each other through surgeries, chemotherapies and radiation.

The couple had come to appreciate every day with each other and especially their relaxing days in the Florida sunshine. As a result of their illnesses, they’d both lost considerable weight. They had joined a gym and were now more fit than they’d been for the many years they’d worked behind the postal counters. Bob was an ex-marine with a military bearing who expected everyone to support his conservative politics. Julie, the only child of Presbyterian ministers, had much more liberal leanings but usually kept her views to herself in order to keep the peace.

Bob hated to waste money on motel