Officials say Michael Melberg, wanted for questioning in a Carrollwood double slaying, was pointing a gun when shot on I-70.
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published June 26, 2004
TAMPA - The search for Michael Melberg, wanted for questioning in connection with a double slaying in Carrollwood, came to an end Thursday evening on an Interstate highway in Missouri, when a highway patrol trooper shot him during a confrontation.
Melberg, whom Hillsborough sheriff's detectives described as a "person of interest" in this week's killings of Lorelei Fairall and her boyfriend Michael Moore, was shot on Interstate 70 after he charged at a trooper with a gun.
According to Sgt. Sid Conklin of the Missouri Highway Patrol, motorists called 911 around 6:45 p.m. to report that a man in a beige four-door Toyota Camry was waving a gun as he drove on I-70 near Kingdom City.
A trooper tried to pull over Melberg, 63, who drove 3 miles before stopping on an off ramp, Conklin said.
"When Melberg exited the vehicle, he immediately raised the firearm and rushed toward the trooper," Conklin said. "The trooper told him to drop the weapon and he failed to do so."
The trooper shot him, and he died at the scene.
"We're very thankful that this guy didn't shoot a motorist, and that our trooper wasn't injured as well," Conklin said.
It wasn't until Friday morning that highway patrol officials realized Hillsborough County sheriff's investigators wanted to talk to Melberg about the fatal shootings of Fairall, 47, and Moore, 46,q at the home they shared at 16107 Pennington Road in Carrollwood.
A sheriff's deputy found the bodies of Fairall and Moore on Wednesday, after going to the house because of reports that the two had not shown up for work. Neighbors later said they heard gunshots Tuesday night.
Thursday, sheriff's spokesman Lt. Rod Reder announced that detectives wanted to talk to Melberg, and warned that he was armed. Reder was careful not to call Melberg a suspect, but pointed to Fairall's previous complaints that Melberg harassed and frightened her.
Melberg had been living in California, but sheriff's officials said they believe he had been in Tampa lately.
Twice Fairall filed for a domestic violence injunction against Melberg, whom she dated briefly, according to court records.
She told the court in 2002 that he left almost two dozen harassing voice mail messages, kicked in the door of her home when she was away, ransacked a bedroom and wrote messages on a mirror.
She described him as "most definitely violent and unpredictable."
Reder said Friday detectives will pursue their investigation "like he never died."
"We need to, for the family's sake, 100 percent ascertain that he was the suspect," Reder said. "We'll get the gun or have them process the gun in Missouri. Hopefully that's the weapon we need. And we want to process that car, too."
Thursday night, detectives went to the Quality Inn in the 400 block of E Bearss Avenue, where they say Melberg checked in for two nights with a credit card. Reder said he paid for Wednesday and Thursday nights, but he might have left earlier than that. Detectives recovered items from the room.
Fairall and Moore were co-workers at PharMerica, in Brandon.
They had much in common, family said. Both were former military; both loved computer programming; both were devoted single parents, said Moore's sister, Penny Wiggins of Plant City, one of his three siblings.
Moore raised two daughters, 25-year-old Kelly and 12-year-old Chelsea, Wiggins said.
"He was a super person," she said.
Moore and Fairall had been dating about nine months, she said. He started moving into her house last weekend.
"They really loved each other," Wiggins said. "He finally found the right one."
Melberg had bothered Moore in the past, too. He had obtained Moore's address and phone number and called his home, harassing him and Chelsea, she said. But she thought those troubles had ended.
Until Moore moved all their things into Fairall's home, Chelsea stayed with her grandparents, Moore's parents, in Plant City. Chelsea was looking forward to having a new "brother," Fairall's teenage son, Tom.
The family thought it was odd when Moore didn't call Chelsea as planned on Tuesday night. Then they knew something was wrong when the couple's boss called Moore's parents Wednesday.
Suffering from their loss, Fairall's friends reacted with relief about the news of Melberg's death.
His death spared Fairall's two sons more pain, said friend Linda Pena, of Temple Terrace.
"The good thing with that is that the boys won't have to go through a trial," she said. "It's typical of the coward's way out. He basically committed suicide."
Fairall's oldest son, Joe, was expected to arrive in Tampa on Friday, back from serving in the Middle East with the Air Force. The younger son, Tom, who was very close to his mother, was still living in a "whirlwind" of emotions and activity.
After the funeral, Pena expects reality to kick in for Tom "when he goes to look for her and she's not there."
- Times staff writer Saundra Amrhein contributed to this report. Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com
