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Woman, 79, found dead in her home

Her body had multiple signs of trauma, a sheriff's spokesman said. The house had signs of forced entry.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published September 13, 2005

PORT RICHEY - As a boy, Bob Swain spent his summers traveling the Tampa-to-New York carnival circuit with his aunt. He tagged alongside Beverly B. Bobrick as she ran the short-range shooting gallery, a pitch till you win and the game where people try to break balloons with darts.

The experience taught him a lesson about people.

"There are two kinds of people. There are good people and there are bad," he said. "You try to stay as far away from the bad ones as you can."

Sometime over the weekend, one of the bad ones apparently came after his aunt.

Sunday night, Pasco County sheriff's deputies found 79-year-old Bobrick dead in her Port Richey bedroom, her body bearing multiple signs of trauma, spokesman Doug Tobin said. The agency is investigating her death as a homicide.

Bobrick's dachshund, Peppy, also was killed, said Swain, the woman's only surviving relative. Tobin would not confirm whether a dog was inside the home at 7811 Red Run Drive.

The incident marked the second time in less than a month that Bobrick's white stucco Regency Parks home was burglarized, sheriff's records show. Aug. 26, someone entered her house, rummaged through her medicine cabinet and took a white glass bowl filled with change from her dining room table.

Peppy's barking woke Bobrick at about 1:45 a.m., the report said, but the intruder left unseen through a side garage door.

Neighbor Bill Meade said Monday that the burglar last month also took $80 from Bobrick's wallet, the remaining contents of which were strewn on her front vestibule. After the incident, Meade checked the garage door's locks to make sure they worked.

Neighbors for 20 years, Meade and his wife, Vi, knew Bobrick's schedule pretty well. Friday through Sunday, she sold leather purses at Fleamarket USA in Port Richey. But Sunday evening, the Meades noticed their neighbor hadn't picked up her newspaper that day. And they hadn't seen her walking her dog.

Bill Meade called the Sheriff's Office.

Wondering if Bobrick might be in a diabetic coma, Meade went across the street to peek in her windows. He saw an overturned kitchen stool. Her car was in the garage. A back window screen was pushed in.

"It just dawned on me, Hey, something is seriously wrong," he said.

When deputies arrived at Bobrick's single-story home at 7:20 p.m., they also found signs of a forced entry and an open door.

Tobin wouldn't elaborate on the woman's injuries, but said they included head trauma. An autopsy was conducted Monday.

Bill Meade said that another neighbor remembered seeing all the lights on in Bobrick's house about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, "unheard of for her" because she had to get up early the next day to work at the flea market.

Bobrick was last seen alive on Saturday, Tobin said.

Detectives haven't determined whether Bobrick's death is linked to two recent burglaries in the area, including the one at her home, Tobin said. In the other incident, a resident on Vienna Lane was hit over the head with an unknown object by a man he caught standing inside his screened-in patio. The suspect in that case also got away.

Friends and family said Bobrick lived alone - her husband and only son died many years ago- and spent most of her time volunteering.

Monday mornings, she operated the kitchen during bingo at St. James the Apostle Catholic Church in Port Richey. Monday afternoons, it was cards at her house with Vi Meade. Bobrick served last year as president of the church's ladies group, the Dames of St. James. She delivered food for Meals on Wheels. She played bridge.

"She was always willing to do anything you asked her to do and never complained about it," said Tony Feldman, the church's facility manager. "She was a lot of fun. She always had a joke or two to say."

Swain hadn't seen his aunt in more than a decade, but he talked to her on the phone once a month. Her humor and sharp mind were still intact, he said Monday from his Manteca, Calif., home.

"Beverly and my grandmother pretty much raised me in my early years," he said. "They were more like moms than my real mom."

Wednesday, Swain and his wife will fly to Florida to schedule his aunt's funeral. Always the organizer, Bobrick already had the details planned.

--Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 727 869-6236 or cjenkins@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 13, 2005, 01:46:17]