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Visitors say a friend passed them a note, then shot himself in a bedroom, with his girlfriend's body nearby.
By ROBERT FARLEY
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 20, 2001
LARGO -- A Largo man told his friends who had come over to watch the Buccaneers game Saturday night that his girlfriend was in bed because she was not feeling well.
On Sunday morning, the man called his friends back to the house. When the two friends arrived Sunday afternoon, they began to feel uneasy at his behavior. He handed them an envelope, excused himself and went to a rear bedroom, sheriff's officials said.
Then the two visitors heard a single gunshot. They went into the bedroom to find the man dead of a gunshot wound to the head. The body of his dead girlfriend was at his side.
Detectives investigating the apparent murder-suicide think the woman was killed sometime Saturday evening -- probably before the two friends came to watch the game, said Sgt. Greg Tita, a spokesman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
The papers the man gave to the friends on Sunday, while not a classic suicide note, did contain a written admission that he had shot and killed his girlfriend, Tita said.
The Sheriff's Office did not release the names of the two on Sunday, saying only that they were a 58-year-old white man and 41-year-old white woman who had been together since 1985 and lived at 12595 93rd Way N. Neighbors, however, identified the couple as Peter Wejanowski and his girlfriend Karen Stacy. Also, records show that Wejanowski and Stacy lived at that address.
Officials identified the friends as Richard MacDonald of St. Petersburg and Vonda Saunders of Ocala.
Neighbors drawn to the yellow crime scene tape around the pink house and richly landscaped yard on Sunday afternoon described Wejanowski and Stacy as quiet and reserved, almost reclusive. But Kathie Williams, who lives a few doors down, said she was walking her dog about 6:30 p.m. Saturday and heard the couple arguing heatedly in their garage.
"They were both yelling at each other," she said. "She started walking down the driveway to get away from him. It really bothered me."
Neighbors said that kind of behavior was an aberration. And Tita said deputies have never been called to the house for any domestic disturbances.
Neighbor Rick McColl said he never noticed any disharmony between the two. Wejanowski was often seen in his garage restoring a 1932 Ford truck. McColl said he even saw Wejanowski tinkering with the truck Sunday morning.
McColl said Wejanowski suffered from cancer and had lost a great deal of weight. He was a New Jersey native who was disabled, apparently from a back injury, he said.
"They were a great couple," McColl said. "No one expected anything like this. It's sad."