Investigators looking for answers in murder-suicide case

By KATHRYN WEXLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 19, 2000

TAMPA -- Officials Tuesday identified the man who fatally shot his wife and then himself Monday in a busy supermarket parking lot as 49-year-old Michael Simon.

Simon pulled out a small handgun outside the Winn-Dixie at Wood Lake Plaza on Sheldon Road about 4 p.m. and shot Bernarda Simon, 47, in the head as she left the store after her shift in the deli.

She was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital where she died three hours later. Simon shot himself in the eye right after firing at his wife and died instantly.

A day after the shootings, Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives were trying to understand what caused Simon to snap.

The couple lived in a well-tended house on nearby Winging Way Drive. They had no history of domestic violence or criminal records in Hillsborough County.

"The investigation continues," said Sgt. Rod Reder, Sheriff's Office spokesman. "We have some more work to do on it."

Bernarda, known to Winn-Dixie co-workers as "Nardi," worked in the store's deli about two years. She was headed to her black Mitsubishi Mirage with a cart of groceries when her husband approached and leveled the gun at her head.

Rhonda Stanley, a former Winn-Dixie employee, said Nardi gave no clue there were problems at home. Stanley said Mrs. Simon came to work early last year wearing new gold earrings and told co-workers they were a gift from her husband.

"She never had a bad word to say about her husband," Stanley said. "She just praised him."

The Simons were raising two school-age granddaughters at their home, Stanley said. Husband and wife organized vacations around each other's schedule, she said. Mrs. Simon always seemed upbeat. She smiled easily, Stanley said.

"The world has lost somebody very special."

Neighbors said the couple moved in about three years ago and made improvements to the house. The bushes in the middle of their flourishing yard were well-trimmed and neatly mulched Tuesday. A sign stuck in the lawn announced the house was wired with an alarm.

- Kathryn Wexler can be reached at (813) 226-3386 or wexler@sptimes.com.

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