Around the state

By Times wire reports

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 27, 2001

Psychiatrist's strangling in jail brings indictment

NAPLES -- A 20-year-old inmate has been indicted on a first-degree murder charge in the strangling of a Collier County jail psychiatrist.

Rodrigus Sanchez Patten is accused of attacking Dr. David Hoyer while the two were alone in an interview room.

Patten, who was being held on several felony charges, met in the room with Hoyer on Jan. 3. The inmate was not handcuffed or shackled, and there was no one else present and no surveillance camera, authorities said.

Patten called out to guards and said he believed the psychiatrist had suffered a heart attack. Hoyer was found collapsed.

Paramedics revived his heart on the way to a hospital, but he died there three days later. An autopsy revealed he was strangled.

Man indicted on charge he killed baby daughter

FORT MYERS -- The father of a baby girl found buried in a shallow grave in the woods last year has been indicted on a first-degree murder charge.

Justin Grodin, 27, remains in an Arizona jail awaiting trial for alleged abuse of an older child in that state. He was indicted by a Lee County grand jury in November, but prosecutors did not publicly charge him until Thursday.

Grodin is accused of beating his daughter Gretchen to death in May and burying her body.

Grodin and his wife, Mary, were under indictment on abuse charges involving the other child in Arizona when they fled to Fort Myers. Authorities just missed capturing them in Florida when Gretchen was found dead.

Mary Grodin, 23, pleaded guilty to abusing Gretchen and testified against her husband before the grand jury.

Police think teen runaway is in Greece with man

LAKELAND -- Police think an eighth-grader who ran away in August is in Greece with a man who took her there with help from an alleged sex offender in Ohio.

Investigators said they believe Lindsay Erin Shamrock, 15, of Willow Oak is with 35-year-old Konstantin Baehring. They met through the Internet, officials say.

Polk County Sheriff's Capt. W.J. Martin said an arrest warrant was issued for Baehring on a charge of interfering with parental custody, and Greek authorities are cooperating.

There is no indication Shamrock has been harmed, Martin said. Shamrock's family and friends from Mulberry Middle School have received e-mail they believe is from her.

Shamrock's family reported her disappearance on Aug. 28. An investigation has led to the arrests of two people, in Ohio and Florida, who are accused of helping the teen get to Greece.

Robert Arnder, 41, of Dennison, Ohio, pleaded innocent to an indictment Thursday and was ordered held without bail. Ohio police arrested him Dec. 31 on a Polk County warrant charging him with interfering with parental custody. On Dec. 29 Polk deputies arrested Martina Marie Crivaro, 24, of Lakeland. Martin said she bought Shamrock a cell phone and the airline ticket to Ohio and drove the teen to Tampa International Airport for her flight.

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