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Shooting deaths raise many questions

The two victims first met three weeks ago at a Hudson Beach watering hole. There were no arrests in the deaths as of late Tuesday.

By THOMAS LAKE
Published July 12, 2006

	[Times photo: Janel Schroeder-Norton]
	Investigators dust for prints on a Ford Bronco and measure out distances between bullet casings where two men were fatally shot Monday evening on Dolphin Drive. Deputies were called to the scene at 6:38 p.m. Monday after a passing driver saw the men lying on eitgher side of the SUV parked on the side of the road, engine running.

HUDSON - The north end of Dolphin Drive has thick foliage along one shoulder and a high wooden fence on the other. One stretch has no houses. For a dense coastal settlement, it is an unusually good place to do business in secret.

Friday night, a neighbor drove by and saw a couple parked there in an old gray American-made sedan. The woman was counting money, the neighbor told the Times, and the man gave him a menacing look.

George Martin Jr. and Theodore Skarupski were shot to death in the same spot three nights later, and a witness saw an old gray American-made sedan speeding away.

Late Tuesday, authorities had not reported an arrest in the case. But the victims' backstories raise questions.

Martin was a clean-cut 25-year-old with no apparent criminal history other than driving with a suspended license. Skarupski was 10 years older, with at least seven drug-related arrests on his record.

So what made Martin go with Skarupski to that secluded part of Dolphin Drive - a place neighbors say is rife with crack cocaine?

The men, both Hudson residents, first met about three weeks ago while sipping beer and watching the sunset at Sam's, a bar on Hudson Beach, Martin's father, George Martin Sr., said in a brief interview. Martin painted houses and Skarupski laid tile, so they talked about hard work.

Martin had moved here from Washington state at the end of May. He loved to snowboard and played fullback on his high-school football team near Seattle. On June 24, he and his father sailed the Pure Joy to first place among 15 boats in a 5-mile race from Hudson to the Hooters in Port Richey.

Skarupski grew up in Erie, Pa., where he showed talent as a sketch artist and rooted for the Buffalo Bills, said his brother-in-law, Rick Seaberg. He never married or had children. He moved to Florida soon after leaving high school to work with his father, and his first recorded Florida arrest came on Dec. 22, 1993, on a charge of DUI.

Eighteen more arrests followed, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, most of them linked in one way or another to alcohol or drugs.

"They tried helping him on numerous occasions," Seaberg said of Skarupski's family. "But until a person admits they have a problem, you can't help them."

Just after 6:30 p.m. Monday, gunshots sounded on Dolphin Drive. A passing driver spotted a black Ford Bronco parked on the shoulder with the engine running. Skarupski was outside the driver's-side door, and Martin lay on the passenger side. Blood flowed in the street.

Skarupski died at the scene. Martin had a faint pulse when deputies arrived, but he died at a local hospital.

"The wrong people," Martin's father said. "He just got in the line of fire."

Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan and staff writer Mallory Simon contributed to this report. Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or 727 992-8665.

[Last modified July 12, 2006, 00:01:29]