Family marvels over 4-year-old's survival amid rampage
By JOSE CARDENAS, EILEEN SCHULTE and LORRI HELFAND, Times Staff Writers
Published December 16, 2007
LARGO -- On Saturday morning, a 4-year-old opened an early Christmas gift in the safety of her home in Largo.
It was a tranquil scene considering the girl, Annie Pisanello, was the only survivor of a killer's horrifying rampage 24 hours earlier.
Annie was sleeping on the living room floor of her mother's apartment on Ulmerton Road about 6:40 a.m. Friday when Oliver Thomas Bernsdorff slipped in through a window.
He passed Annie on his way to a bedroom. There, he fatally shot Annie's mother, Andrea Pisanello, 53, and her new girlfriend, Jennifer Renee Davis, 27. Bernsdorff left without harming Annie.
Raashon Mayers, 25, who lived directly above, heard Annie call "Mommy, Mommy" after the shots rang out.
"I don't really believe in divine intervention, but there was something there that protected Annie," Megan Szczepanik, Annie's biological mother and Pisanello's partner of eight years, said Saturday. "I believe that somebody had a hand in it."
Police say Bernsdorff, 36, shot Pisanello and his ex-wife Davis while they were in their bed at the Monterey Lakes Apartment complex in Largo.
He is also believed to have killed his and Davis' two children -- Magnus, 2, and Olivia, 4 -- at his Clearwater home. Bernsdorff then drove south and turned the gun on himself after crossing the Sunshine Skyway.
Dressed in a blue skirt and a green shirt, Annie behaved like a typical 4-year-old Saturday while playing at Szczepanik's Largo home. She skipped across the floor and ripped open the plastic cover of a present.
She has talked a bit about what she saw and heard with her mother and Szczepanik's mother and sister -- Connie Szczepanik and Valerie Meyer -- who arrived from St. Joseph, Mo.
"She said she heard a very loud noise and it smelled very bad," said Megan Szczepanik, 32. "She said she cried for her mommy and her mommy would not wake up. She said the police came to make sure she was okay."
Connie Szczepanik said Annie brings up Andrea Pisanello about every 20 minutes.
"Can we talk about Dre Dre now?" she quoted Annie as saying. "Dre Dre's dead."
The grandmother said she's trying to see the silver lining.
"It's a monstrous act," Connie Szczepanik said. "The only time he became human is when he stepped over Annie."
Annie appears to know her other mother is dead, Megan Szczepanik said. But the girl still expects Pisanello to walk in through the door any minute.
"At 4, they don't have the ability to grasp that," Szczepanik said.
Szczepanik and Pisanello came from Missouri to Pinellas County six years ago.
When the couple decided to have a child, they joined Unitarian Universalists of Clearwater to give her a spiritual foundation.
Szczepanik carried Annie. But both were doting mothers.
"Guess what day it is?" Pisanello would ask her daughter every morning as she woke her up. "It's another lucky day."
The couple split up on friendly terms about three months ago, Szczepanik said. She said the two considered the separation temporary.
Pisanello and Davis moved into the apartment about a quarter of a mile away. Pisanello wanted to see Annie every day.
"She was very determined to remain Annie's mom and we were determined to do that together," Szczepanik said.
She is a clinical psychologist with Hospice of Florida Suncoast and works with young people who have lost family members, including those who have been murdered.
Szczepanik said staff members of Suncoast, where Pisanello also worked, have been greatly supportive and are offering to counsel Annie. "She's asking why did the bad man kill my mommy," Szczepanik said. "But she's doing great. She's surrounded by great people."
Szczepanik said her daughter still hasn't talked in detail about all she saw. "We're trying not to push her," she said.
Jose Cardenas can be reached at jcardenas@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4224.