Arrest in girlfriend's death

A childhood friend is puzzled why a nursing student couldn't get away.

By JOSE CARDENAS and STEPHANIE GARRY, Times Staff Writers
Published August 8, 2007

Three months ago, University of Tampa student Samantha MacQuilliam sent an instant message to a childhood friend in Maryland.

MacQuilliam, 19, wrote that her boyfriend, Matthew Dieterle, was angry and she was afraid.

Believing - falsely - that she was cheating on him, Dieterle ripped up her identification cards so she could not buy a plane ticket home to Maryland, MacQuilliam told her friend.

"I'm in a house for victims," she wrote on May 14, apparently from a domestic violence shelter. "I'M SCARED FOR MY LIFE."

Pinellas sheriff's officials say Dieterle beat, strangled and stabbed MacQuilliam to death last week at a house they rented near Lake Tarpon.

Roommates found MacQuilliam in the bathtub, clad in jeans and a bra.

MacQuilliam's instant messages puzzled her friend, Lauren Friedlieb, who thought the friend she knew since middle school was happily studying pediatric nursing in Tampa, near the beach.

"I was freaking out," said Friedlieb, 19, a community college student. "She was in a shelter. Why didn't she go to her parents?"

After the slaying, Dieterle, 23, drove to Maryland, authorities said. He was arrested Saturday morning at Tampa International Airport as he returned with his parents on a flight from Baltimore.

At the airport, investigators could not ask Dieterle about MacQuilliam's death because he immediately asked for a lawyer, sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha said. He was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder. He was being held without bail Tuesday.

Several legal problems

The murder charge is the latest in a string of legal problems for Dieterle in Florida and Maryland.

Court records in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, show that in 2003, a 20-year-old woman filed for a restraining order against Dieterle.

He also was convicted on first-degree assault and gun charges in Maryland, records show. He received a four-year suspended sentence and five years of probation.

About a year ago, Dieterle and MacQuilliam moved from Gambrills, Md., to Tampa.

On May 12, MacQuilliam made a domestic violence complaint against Dieterle, said Tampa police spokeswoman Janelle McGregor.

Dieterle was not home when officers went to the couple's home in the 3300 block of Pine Street, McGregor said. But a "pick up" order was placed for Dieterle. It would have allowed officers to arrest him when they found him.

Two days later, on May 14, McQuilliam, known to friends as Samy, messaged Friedlieb from the shelter.

"What are you going to do?" Friedlieb asked. "Did you call your parents to tell them?"

"I was threatened that if I go back where I worked nannying, the baby would be killed," MacQuilliam wrote.

"You're strong. You will get through this, baby, I promise you," wrote Friedlieb. "I love you."

The two never communicated again, Friedlieb said.

Dieterle had a run-in with Pinellas deputies on June 20.

Deputies were conducting a traffic stop in a gas station near 58th Street and Roosevelt Avenue when Dieterle pulled up, Pasha said.

The deputies could not hear each other because Dieterle's radio was too loud, Pasha said. They asked him to turn it down, which he did.

But as he pulled away, he turned the volume back up, Pasha said. A deputy asked him to stop. Dieterle did, but as the deputy approached, he sped away.

Deputies pulled him over, Pasha said. They saw a gun that turned out to be a toy.

The deputies charged him with fleeing and eluding, possession of marijuana, obstruction and transportation of narcotic paraphernalia. Dieterle has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Troubled relationship

MacQuilliam and Dieterle moved to the house near Tarpon Lake about a month ago, authorities said.

The Sheriff's Office did not get any reports of domestic violence at the couple's house, Pasha said. Detectives were in Maryland on Tuesday trying to piece together's the couple's relationship there.

Though Pasha could not confirm whether investigators knew about the messages MacQuilliam sent to Friedlieb, she said other witnesses also have spoken about a troubled relationship.

Meanwhile, friends of MacQuilliam in two states are trying to come to terms with her death.

"Samantha had hundreds and hundreds of friends from up here and Tampa," said Friedlieb. "Everyone is grieving."

Information from The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, Md., was used in this story.

Fast Facts:

Instant messages

Here are some of the instant messages that Lauren Friedlieb said she and Samantha MacQuilliam exchanged on May 14:

7:20 p.m.

Samy MacQuilliam

matt went crazy bc he thought i was cheating on him with johnny lambert, which i didnt, but he flipped out and im stuck in tampa with no car keys, house keys, money, and he shredded all of my ID's so i cant fly home

7:29 p.m.

Lauren Friedlieb

WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT are you kidding me?? what are you going to do? did you call ur parents to tell them? where are you now?

7:31 p.m.

Samy MacQuilliam

im in a house for victims, I dont have a phone or anything. luckily they have the internet. im finding a way to get to my so i can get a new ID, then i can get a job and stuff. IM SCARED FOR MY LIFE.

[Last modified August 7, 2007, 23:34:38]