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Another figure enters mystery

Authorities are exploring a link between an Illinois man and a Seminole Heights man in a murder and missing person investigation.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published May 14, 2005

TAMPA - The lawyer for Steven Lorenzo, who is accused of drugging and raping six men, said Friday that the federal government is playing a second man against his client in hopes of learning more about a murder and a missing person case.

But the strategy wasn't revealing any clues about the December 2003 murder of Michael Wachholtz and the disappearance of Jason Galehouse, said attorney Donald Harrison.

"The feds are putting pressure on him because they want him to talk," Harrison said. "But he has no knowledge that Scott has partaken in criminal activity."

"Scott" is Scott Schweickert, a 39-year-old Illinois man whose role, if any, in the mystery still isn't clear.

The Tampa police are investigating the Galehouse and Wachholtz cases, but haven't named Schweickert a suspect or even a person of interest.

In November, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration accused Lorenzo of drugging, kidnapping and sexually assaulting six men. The federal officials won't say if Schweickert is linked to any of these cases.

Yet a November affidavit to obtain a search warrant, signed by DEA agent Justin Duralia, documents an extensive relationship between Lorenzo and Schweickert that included lurid e-mails and an account of a sexual encounter with a man who later told police he had been raped.

The affidavit says that Duralia, who is based in Tampa, started an investigation in 2002 into the Internet sales of controlled substances that, when ingested, form gamma-hyroxybutyric acid, also known as GHB. The drug is a central nervous system depressant. It's also blamed in many sexual assaults, and is included in a growing roster of "party drugs" that the DEA says is used in date rapes.

In August 2002, Duralia wrote, U.S. postal inspectors intercepted a package of one of the drug compounds that produces GHB before it was delivered to Lorenzo's house on W Powhatan Avenue. A month later, DEA agents interviewed Lorenzo about the shipment, but made no arrest.

Then in 2004 the DEA was notified by the Tampa Police Department that Lorenzo was a suspect in several sexual assaults in which the victims alleged they had been drugged.

One victim told police that in March 2003 he met Lorenzo at Club 2606 - the same bar where, seven months later, Galehouse was last seen. In June 2004, DEA agents searched Lorenzo's home and found an envelope that contained newspaper articles relating to local individuals who were missing, and printouts of chat room conversations.

One of the longer chats was to a user with the screen name of "MstrScott", which AOL identified for the DEA as belonging to Scott Schweickert, with a Chicago billing address.

Numerous chats between "MstrScott" and Lorenzo's sign-on, "Domdudeforsub", focus on drugs that make young men submit more easily to sex.

"Tell them we need to stop off at one of our places, drug them there and then that is it for them," "MstrScott" wrote in one chat.

In an April 2004 discussion that the DEA said was about the possible kidnapping and assault of a North Carolina man, Lorenzo wrote to Schweickert: "We are a good team so we learned. . . still have to run my business but you are my right hand man."

A man told police and federal agents in the summer of 2004 that Lorenzo and a friend named "Scott" sexually assaulted him on Dec. 7, 2003 - the same month that Galehouse disappeared and Wachholtz was murdered. When shown an array of photos, the man identified Schweickert's mug.

The affidavit says that a DEA agent posed as a chat room participant interested in drugging young males and began communicating with Schweickert in June 2004.

The affidavit quotes Schweickert in August 2004, writing: "Just don't want a lot of people seeingus (sic) with him before he disappears, boy."

In October 2004, Duralia reviewed a 1998 arrest where Schweickert was charged and convicted of battery. The report stated that Schweickert placed a gun at the head of a man working on his home computer. The two wrestled and the man escaped, the report said.

Days later, Duralia obtained a warrant to search Schweickert's home in Peru, Ill.

A woman answered the telephone Friday at the number listed for Schweickert, and said she didn't know where he was or how to contact him. "He's a good kid," she said, refusing to comment further.

Harrison said he's read the affidavit, but said he doesn't see how it relates to Lorenzo's situation, which he says is trumped up by the federal government because the trail has gone cold on the Wachholtz and Galehouse cases.

The e-mails between Schweickert and Lorenzo are harmless, he said.

"It's fantasy stuff," Harrison said. "People talk trash all the time. It's part of the game that's being played."

Friends and family of Galehouse still believe the Tampa man is alive, and that Schweickert may help authorities lead them to him.

"I'm hoping detectives can find out something by talking to him," said Tyler Hall, a friend of Galehouse's.

Times staff writer Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler and researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this story. Michael Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3402 or mvansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 14, 2005, 02:15:04]