Category: News

Zephyrhills Woman Dies In New Tampa Head-On Collision

By Matt Wiley

A woman is dead following an early-morning head-on collision in New Tampa.

According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), just before 4 a.m. on September 20, Kunjummen Arun Babu, 18, of Zephyrhills, was driving north on Morris Bridge Rd. near Pictoral Park Dr., about half of a mile north of Cross Creek Blvd. in his 2010 Honda Accord. At the same time, Rita Marie Sutliff, 68, also of Zephyrhills, was driving south on Morris Bridge in her 2012 Ford Explorer. Both vehicles were traveling at about 50 m.p.h.Continue reading

Deacon Blues To Play At Leukemia Society Fund Raiser At The Palms

By Gary Nager & Matt Wiley | September 14

Long-time Hunter’s Green resident Bernie Desrosiers is someone I consider to be a good friend, not only because he helped coach the Wharton High ice hockey team that both of my sons played for a few years ago, but also because Bernie was the first person I met in New Tampa who spent untold amounts of his free time helping others to try to build an actual community in the middle of our suburban sea of seemingly impassive, sometimes apathetic subdivisions.Continue reading

Schenecker Trial Postponed Until April 2014

By Matt Wiley | September 11

The trial for Julie Schenecker, 52, the woman accused of murdering her teenage children in the family’s Tampa Palms home, has been postponed from October 2013 to April 2014, court records indicate.

Schenecker’s case, which was originally scheduled to begin on October 7 of this year, has been postponed until April 28, 2014. The case was postponed during a hearing on August 16, in which Hillsborough Circuit Judge Emmett Battles granted a motion from Schenecker’s lawyers for a continuance, to which the state did not object.

New Tampa Teen To Tee Off At Pebble Beach During PGA Event

Terese Romeo, 16, practices her putting at the Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club.

By Matt Wiley | September 14

Terese Romeo looks down at the tee box on the signature par-3 17th hole at Tampa Palms Golf & County Club. After judging the distance and deciding her plan of attack to stay out of the hole’s large water hazard, she adjusts her stance, pulls her Ping club back, swings and watches her ball land safely on the green, just feet from the hole.

In just a few weeks, Romeo will be repeating the same process alongside a PGA Champions (formerly “Senior PGA”) Tour pro and in front of an international audience on one of the country’s most prestigious courses, the Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, CA.

At just 16 years old, Romeo, a Freedom High student and Tampa Palms resident, will be playing in front of the entire world during the 2013 Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, which will be held September 27-29 and televised on the Golf Channel.

Fugitive Killed After Manhunt Ends With High-Speed Chase, Shoot-Out With Authorities

By Matt Wiley

A fugitive wanted for violent sexual batteries on multiple women, as well as several armed home invasions during the early morning hours of September 6, is dead following a 13-hour manhunt throughout the Tampa Palms area, a high-speed chase through Temple Terrace and a final, desperate shootout with local law enforcement authorities.

Choppers buzzed overhead in the southern section of Tampa Palms and over the University of South Florida (USF) area, as law enforcement officials searched the wooded, conservation areas for 24-year-old Charlie Christopher Bates, a dangerous fugitive facing six counts of armed sexual battery, eight counts of armed kidnapping and one count of armed home invasion, with more charges possible, if the suspect weren’t already dead.Continue reading