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Mother, daughter found slain

Pasco County officials say the New Port Richey women died by violence. A relative is being sought for questioning about the women's deaths.

NEW PORT RICHEY - Pasco County sheriff's deputies found a mother and daughter slain in their home Saturday morning.

Dorothy Mae Thompson, 68, and her daughter Debra J. Thompson, 46, died as a result of "homicidal violence," said sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll. He would not comment on when or how the women had been killed or where in the house their bodies were found.

Deputies went to the home at 6755 Runnel Drive to check on the occupants after the Sheriff's Office got a call from out of state at 9:52 a.m., Doll said.

They found the bodies inside.

Authorities quickly began searching for a brown conversion van that had been regularly parked at the home. Doll said that the van was found outside the Tampa Bay area about 2 p.m., but he released no details.

By late Saturday evening, the van's occupants, thought to be a couple who lived at the home, had not been located by authorities, Doll said. Investigators wanted to question them and also to check on their welfare, he said.

Kenneth Green, of Columbus, N.C., said Saturday that his 29-year-old daughter, Kelly Engel, had been living at the home with her husband, Joshua Engel, 27. Joshua Engel is the grandson and nephew of the slain women, Green said.

Green said his family had notified the Pasco County Sheriff's Office that something was wrong after his ex-wife, Shirlene Green, 53, got a call from Joshua Engel.

Green said Joshua Engel was planning to take Kelly, who is blind, to Shirlene Green's home near Hendersonville, N.C., and drop her off.

"He was going to bring her there and drop her off so that her mother could take care of her," Green said.

"I guess they were tired or whatever and they stopped and got a motel," Green said. "The latest word I got was that they had located them at a motel in Georgia." Neighbors said they knew little about who was living in the one-story home on a small lake.

"It was just hello or good morning and that was it," said Julius Polak, who lives across the street. "I didn't know names. You never heard them arguing or anything.

The owner of the home on Runnel Drive said Saturday that he has rented the home to Dorothy Thompson for about two years.

"She seemed like such a sweet lady," said William Mazzarese. "Quiet as can be."

Dorothy Thompson was a retired nurse, he said. He knew nothing about who she was living there with, he said.

"She's been such a good tenant I've never had to worry about it," he said. "I'm just shocked."