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Police: Suspect led way to body
By CARY DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times, NEW PORT RICHEY -- Florida Highway Patrol Trooper S.D. Wheeler was walking through a hospital emergency room in February on his way to interview an accident victim when a woman motioned to him. "She told me she could tell me . . . where I could find a dead body," Wheeler said in a recent deposition. The dead man's name was David Broshar, the woman told Wheeler. You can find him in unit 606 of the San Miguel Apartments in Port Richey. That conversation not only led Pasco Sheriff's Office detectives to Broshar's body, it also got the woman, Samantha Jane Beach, charged with murder. The details of how detectives learned of Broshar's killing, then quickly linked the Feb. 20 slaying to Beach and co-defendant Joseph Morales, are included in court depositions filed last week. Sheriff's detectives now say that Beach and Morales, her boyfriend, went to Broshar's apartment late at night and attacked him when he opened the door. Morales punched and kicked the 39-year-old Broshar, who grabbed a baseball bat and a machete to defend himself, according to reports. Morales tackled Broshar and asked Beach to grab a pillow, authorities say. Beach smothered Broshar's face with the pillow while Morales strangled him, according to a detective's affidavit. Beach had once dated Broshar. Before the deadly attack, she told Morales that Broshar wanted to fight him, authorities say. A Pasco grand jury indicted Beach, 26, and Morales, 28, in March on a charge of first-degree murder. Prosecutors have announced they intend to seek the death penalty against both defendants. But before Beach signaled to Trooper Wheeler at Community Hospital New Port Richey, authorities didn't even know there had been a killing two days before. "Are you sure you are telling me the truth, so help you God?" the incredulous trooper asked Beach. "Yes, I'm sure," Beach replied, according to Wheeler's deposition. Wheeler immediately called the Sheriff's Office and gave them Broshar's address. Then he returned to talk to Beach, who began to expand her story. "She said she didn't see the murder but was in the apartment when it occurred," Wheeler testified. "When she said that, she had kind of a wry smile, which indicated to me that she was kind of fudging it." Beach then said that Morales "either choked (Broshar) or suffocated him," according to Wheeler's deposition. Beach was at the hospital that day because she had overdosed on drugs, according to reports. "She said that she was trying to . . . commit suicide over, you know, this murder," Wheeler testified. Detectives arrived at the hospital, questioned Beach and arrested her in connection with Broshar's killing. She told them where they could find Morales, and he was arrested a short time later. Beach and Morales have both pleaded not guilty. No trial dates have been set.
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