Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Citrus man, fellow escapee still missing

By Times Staff
Published February 13, 2006

A Citrus County man imprisoned for murder remained on the loose Sunday after escaping with another inmate from a North Florida prison Saturday. Guards could not account for David Duquette, 25, and Michael Fitzgerald, 27, at a Saturday morning head count at Apalachee Correctional Institution in Jackson County. Duquette had been incarcerated at the prison since June 2002 following his conviction for the second-degree murder of Linda Marie Howes of Inverness in August 2001. He admitted strangling Howes, 19, and burying her body near his back yard in a forest in Citrus County. He was sentenced to 35 years after a plea bargain. Fitzgerald was serving a 15-year sentence for burglary and five years for battery on an officer. On Saturday, agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement spoke with relatives of Duquette and Howes in Citrus, and deputies from the Citrus County Sheriff's Office were issued descriptions of the two escaped convicts. The two were last seen Saturday at truck stop in North Florida.

Shopping center sold again in Inverness

INVERNESS - The Inverness Regional Shopping Center on U.S. 41 N has been sold again. In June, a Morristown, N.J., company paid Fort Lauderdale's Inverness Associates Ltd. $10.15-million for the shopping center, whose main tenants are Publix and Kmart. On Feb. 3, the owner sold the center for $12.5-million to New York-based Surrey Inverness LLC, sales records showed. The 22-year-old center covers 19.9 acres.

[Last modified February 13, 2006, 00:45:19]