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Funeral Set For Lakeland Teacher In Murder-Suicide Case

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By GEORGE H. NEWMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 25, 2008

LAKELAND - Funeral services have been set for a Lakeland grade school teacher with local ties who authorities say was the victim of a murder-suicide.

Heather Rimmer, 37, was found dead in her home Saturday after Polk County sheriff's deputies responded to a 911 call about shots being fired shortly before 8 a.m.

The 1989 Plant City High graduate is the granddaughter of Louise Gibbs, a former manager of the Florida Strawberry Festival. She taught at Lakeland's Valleyview Elementary for seven years. For the past three, she was a teacher at South McKeel Academy, also in Lakeland.

Gibbs said Monday she would not discuss the circumstances surrounding her granddaughter's death until after the funeral Wednesday.

"This is a terrible time for the family," said Gibbs, who moved to Lakeland some years ago.

Polk Sheriff's deputies found Rimmer and her husband, Larry, dead of gunshot wounds when they arrived at the couple's home at 5802 Highridge Loop in Lakeland. Detectives determined the 40-year-old landscaper, who was called Clay, apparently shot his wife, then himself. The couple's daughters, ages 7 and 12, were in the home at the time.

"We will not discuss if the children witnessed the shooting," sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilder said.

Wilder said Heather Rimmer gave Polk authorities a statement Aug. 7 regarding "an act of violence that took place outside our jurisdiction." She was able to secure an injunction, which she rescinded Aug. 20, Wilder said.

Mother and daughters moved back in to the family home just days before the shooting.

"It was obvious there were problems in the recent past with the Rimmers," Wilder said. "There is at least the one documented incident where he showed violence in the home." The investigation is continuing.

The children are now staying with the maternal grandparents.

Visitation for Heather Rimmer will be held Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., followed by funeral services at First Baptist Church at the Mall, 1010 E. Memorial Boulevard. She will be buried at Lakeland Memorial Gardens.

Reporter George Newman can be reached at (813)865-4451 or gnewman@tampatrib.com.

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