|
|
Karen Gregory was an ordinary person, living her life one day at a time. She was a simple, yet beautiful woman and stood about five feet five inches tall. She was trim and tightly muscled and had olive colored skin, thick brown hair, and beautiful crystalline eyes that could mesmerize people just by glancing at them. She was born on March 29, 1948 and lived in uptown New York, right outside of Albany and was the first of Delmar and Sophia’s four children. Karen attended Nazareth College, a Catholic women’s college in Rochester, New York where she earned a bachelor’s degree in art education. By January of 1983, Karen packed up her belongings and moved south to Pinellas County, Florida, claiming she was tired of the cold and snow. She moved into the apartment on Pass-a-Grille Beach with Anita Kilpatrick, a writer for the St. Petersburg Times, a friend whom she had met at work. Karen has made many new friends in Pinellas County, including Neverne Covington and David Mackey. Soon Karen and David had fallen in love, and a year after their first meeting, the two had decided to finalize their plans to move in together. David was on a business trip in Providence, Rhode Island when Karen decided she would transport all of her belongings to his house in Gulf Port, no more than forty-fives minutes from her old apartment. Early in the evening after she had finished unloading all of her possessions, she went to visit Neverne who lived in Gulf Port. After nearly four hours consisting of eating dinner and talking over a few glasses of wine, Karen announced that she needed to leave to get some rest for the long day of unpacking ahead of her. They hugged, and Neverne watched her drive off into the darkness, not knowing this would have been the last time she would see Karen alive. It was around 1:15 A.M. when a startling scream rang out across the night air. More than a dozen of Karen’s neighbors had later reported hearing this blood curdling scream. Many told themselves it was just animals fighting, or kids getting rowdy late at night. Some went outside to investigate this sound, and where it originated. George Lewis, a firefighter for the city of St. Petersburg, happened to be one of them. He was up late working in his garage when he heard the scream. Lewis turned off the radio and walked out into the street to see if he anything looked suspicious, but returned shortly after not noticing anything. None of Karen’s neighbors had bothered to call the police and dismissed the scream as if nothing had happened. The next day, almost fifteen hours after the scream was heard George noticed a strange man pull up to Karen and David’s house in a van. He had left a note on Karen’s car that read: Karen & David, Hello. Stopped by about 7:15 or so but saw no signs of life. Many things to do tonight so I probably won’t be back, but I have something you wanted. Will be home not too late. Peter By the next morning, David had tried to reach Karen at home and at work several times with no answer. Worried, he called a neighbor, Amy Bressler, and asked if she would go check on the house while he waited on the line.
|
