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Mystery shrouds 2 slayings

The young men found shot to death on a country road have been identified as teenagers from Pasco suburbs.

By THOMAS LAKE
Published July 30, 2006

WESLEY CHAPEL - Raymond Veluz lived on a street where the lawns follow orders and the cars wear fresh wax. Derek Pieper went to church, played lacrosse, drew friends like a magnet.

Veluz was 18 and Pieper was 17. Both were middle-class teens with pages on MySpace.

So how did they wind up on a country road in Trilby on Friday at dawn, face down in the sand dead, apparently from gunshot wounds?

Neighbors said they heard shots about 5 that morning. Someone in a passing car called 911 after seeing them lying on Harris Hill Road. By late Saturday, authorities had released almost no details on the teens' deaths. Nothing about the weapon or weapons, suspect or suspects, or anything resembling a motive.

Their deaths are part of a violent and mystifying crime wave here in Pasco County, which has had more homicides in less than seven months than it had all of last year.

The survivors were left to wonder and remember.

"Everybody loved Peeper," Amanda Pray, 19, said of her friend Pieper as she stood outside the family's home on Avocet Drive in Wesley Chapel. "He was such an innocent person."

His mother, Susan Wood, said Pieper was a senior at Wesley Chapel High School and volunteered at his church. Yale was looking at him for its lacrosse team, she said.

By Saturday, friends had posted more than 30 comments on MySpace.com.

"derek Im sorry I couldnt help you," wrote a user who identified himself as Kyle from Wesley Chapel. "I tryed but I failed I hope u are in a better place now."

Others talked about things such as bowling, racing bikes in Wal-Mart and the time Pieper was said to have sniffed a powdered candy called Pixy Stix.

"I will never forget your crazyness (sic) and how funny you were," wrote Heather Dillingham, 18. "You always could put a smile on my face."

Fewer details about Veluz's life were available on Saturday.

Unconfirmed records from online databases suggest his family moved here from Queens, N.Y., about 18 months ago. Their white stucco house in the Northwood subdivision just north of the Hillsborough County line is valued at about $181,000, according to property appraiser records.

A woman who answered the door at the house Saturday afternoon closed it without saying a word. A subsequent phone call also drew no response.

"I'm sorry," said a woman who answered. "No comment."

A sheriff's spokesman briefly discussed the case during the daily media briefing at the Land O'Lakes Jail. Most of the talk concerned newer violence.

Two men were shot early Saturday morning at a Wesley Chapel house. It appears they will survive.

About 1 a.m. in Hudson, a few miles northwest, one man grabbed a wooden pole and another took out a pocketknife.

It appears the men were fighting over a woman, according to the knife-wielding man's arrest report. They fell to the ground, tussling and, by the time it was over, the man with the knife had stabbed the other man in the chest.

The victim's name was not released on Saturday. Early that morning, he was listed in critical condition.

Times staff writer Shadi Rahimi contributed to this report.

[Last modified July 31, 2006, 05:35:45]