By TAMARA LUSH and LEANORA MINAI
Published November 27, 2003
Real estate agent Dottie Reynolds was trying to sell the couple's home in the pricey Tierra Verde area of St. Petersburg.
She chatted briefly with Karla Van Dusen on Tuesday evening, then drove to the house to hang an open house sign. The house was dark, so Reynolds hung the sign and went home to confirm the open house by e-mail.
"I didn't get one back this morning," Reynolds said Wednesday. "She usually answers me, but I didn't think anything of it."
On Wednesday morning, the bodies of Karla Van Dusen, 49, and her husband, Richard Van Dusen, 58, were found on a dirt driveway off Old Memorial Highway in Hillsborough County. A half hour later, their blood-stained Jeep Grand Cherokee was discovered a mile away.
By early afternoon, Hillsborough and Pinellas sheriff's investigators were dusting the front door of their Tierra Verde home at 332 Seventh Ave. N in Pinellas County for fingerprints.
Friends and neighbors described the Van Dusens as a loving pair known for their Southern charm. Married since 2000, they were selling their home to move to South Carolina so they could be closer to Mrs. Van Dusen's mother, neighbors said.
Mrs. Van Dusen was a freelance court reporter who transcribed testimony. Her husband worked for Lanier copy machines and traveled frequently.
"I can't believe this is happening," said Reynolds, a friend and real estate agent. "She's a beautiful, beautiful woman with a gorgeous personality. Warm and caring. She had that accent. And him, same thing. He'd do anything for you."
Detectives said the couple were last seen driving away from their Tierra Verde residence at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Mrs. Van Dusen was driving the Grand Cherokee and her husband was following her in a red 1971 Chevrolet pickup truck with the license tag 8GH1645. The pickup has not been located.
Investigators refused to release any other details of the circumstances surrounding the homicides. They were trying to determine if the couple were victims of a home-invasion or carjacking.
The investigation began at 8:30 a.m. when a homeowner discovered the bodies of a man and woman lying face down at 12310 Old Memorial Highway, a rural stretch of road on the edge of the Westchase subdivision.
"They died of blunt trauma," said Hillsborough sheriff's Lt. Rod Reder.
Reder said the victims had no connection to the people who live in the home on Old Memorial Highway.
A mile away, the other discovery was made about 9 a.m.
Randy Bailey peered in the passenger window of the gold Grand Cherokee parked behind Artistic Doors at 12901 W Hillsborough Ave. and was troubled by what he saw inside.
The contents of a woman's large, black purse were splayed across the seat.
Two cell phones sat in the center console. A seat belt dangled from the closed door.
Bailey looked down and saw something else: a rust-colored substance, blood, on the door.
"It just didn't look right," said Bailey, who called the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
Bailey saw a man's driver's license on the ground near the driver's door of the Jeep, but detectives would not say anything about the license.
The couple's neighbors said the Van Dusens were outgoing and friendly, known to wave to passers-by. They worked in the yard and took frequent walks around Tierra Verde.
- Tamara Lush can be reached at 226-3373 or lush@sptimes.com Researchers Kitty Bennett and Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
