Neighborhood mourns loss of 'spunky lady'

By LEON M. TUCKER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 5, 2001

DUNEDIN -- John Wolf and his 9-year-old son David stood hugging in his driveway, remembering the "spunky lady" down the street.

The two remembered how Elizabeth Robie would sit on her second-floor balcony and scope out the neighborhood for strange characters.

They also recalled how the 69-year-old would get into shouting matches with her snowbird neighbor across the street and how she would tease the other men in the neighborhood.

"She used to call me Lover Boy," said Wolf, who also owns a home maintenance business. "But it was all in fun -- she was a riot."

Now Wolf says he can't even look at the burned out shell of a house at 427 New York Ave -- where the lady he called Betty lived alone a week earlier.

Sometime before 9:30 p.m. Friday, Robie was killed and two fires were set within her home to cover up the slaying, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said. Her 1986 Ford Taurus, parked in the back yard, also was set ablaze.

Homicide detectives and arson investigators spent the day Saturday sifting through the white house with sky blue trim. A crime scene cleanup crew was there Tuesday.

"We don't have a thing that is new," said Cal Dennie, a spokesman with the Pinellas Sheriff's Office. "We're still taking down some things and we don't really have a suspect."

Earlier in the day, Jenouch "E.J." Pasco sat on his porch next door to the charred home and remembered his neighbor.

Pasco was the one who went inside burning house, found Robie's body on the floor and tried to drag it out but couldn't.

"Betty was the neighborhood watch," said Pasco. "She knew everything about this place."

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