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Mystery grows as bodies found

The disappearance of two men turns into a murder-suicide case, authorities say.

By GINA PACE
Published November 4, 2006

The mysterious disappearance of two longtime co-workers was solved Friday morning when authorities found the bodies of Robert Dean Peterson and Gailen Eugene Thurnau in a Safety Harbor home. Now officials are trying to piece together the motive behind the apparent murder-suicide.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office said Peterson, 48, shot Thurnau, 47, and then killed himself. Here's how authorities said it unfolded:

The two men were at Thurnau's home in Lutz on Wednesday evening. Sometime after 7:30 p.m., while Thurnau's wife and daughter were out shopping, Peterson shot Thurnau, then dragged his body out of the house and into his Pontiac G6 convertible.

Thurnau's wife, Juanita, returned with her daughter about 8:30 p.m. to find an empty house and a trail of blood across the driveway.

Peterson drove to the Safety Harbor home he was renting at 104 Forest Circle. He dragged Thurnau's body into the bedroom and left it on the floor. At some point - authorities weren't sure when - Peterson shot himself.

Peterson's brother in Miami told deputies that his brother Robert had been renting the home in Safety Harbor. Peterson was living there while repairs were being made to his primary residence in Ellenton, said Pasco sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin.

The home in Ellenton provides another link between the two men.

Manatee County property records show that in August 2003, Thurnau paid $237,500 for a three-bedroom home in the Covered Bridge Estates development in Ellenton. He sold it to Peterson two years later for $395,000 - a markup of nearly 70 percent. This year, the house's assessed value for tax purposes is $253,000.

The Thurnaus and Peterson were co-workers at Flight Service Station in St. Petersburg and assisted private pilots with flight planning, said Joe Wagovich, a spokesman with Lockheed Martin, the company that manages the station. Peterson and Gailen Thurnau had worked together since at least 1985, Wagovich said.

Peterson's brother David, who lives in Council Bluffs, Iowa, told the Times that his brother had gone to dinner a few times at the Thurnau residence, but he did not know if they were close friends.

Peterson's neighbors knew little about him. Fay Poag, who lives two doors down from the home that Peterson rented in Safety Harbor, said he stuck out as a recluse on the close-knit cul-de-sac.

"He would come home from work and go straight inside. He never turned his lights on and never opened the blinds," Poag said. "We'd all get together in the evening and chitchat about what's going on, and he never participated."

A woman who answered the phone Friday at the Thurnau household said she was not ready to speak about what had happened.

Citing an active investigation, Tobin said he could not comment on a possible motive.

"We're now investigating the motive of someone who knew these individuals for a period of time and would go to the lengths that he did to kill Gailen Thurnau," Tobin said, "then the length that he did to take the body from one house - literally dragging it from one house to another.

"Why would an individual go to such lengths?"

Times staff writer Thomas Lake and researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Gina Pace can be reached at 352 521-6518 or gpace@sptimes.com.

[Last modified November 3, 2006, 22:51:05]