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Couple Found Dead In Home

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By LISA A. DAVIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 13, 2008

SHADY HILLS - Michelle Dillow sat on her front porch Tuesday morning talking on a telephone and looking on as Pasco County Sheriff's Office detectives and crime scene technicians searched for clues as to who killed her neighbors and why.

Relatives of David Ray and Sherrill Shelton Wright discovered the couple's bodies Monday night at their home at 18101 Moorhaven Drive, sheriff's officials say. The family members told authorities they didn't have a cell phone and couldn't find a phone in the house so they had to go to a nearby gas station and call for help.

Details about the couple's deaths were not released, only that both suffered trauma "consistent with homicidal violence." They were both 54.

Investigators have a person of interest but haven't released a name. No arrests had been made by late Tuesday afternoon.

"We know where this individual is," sheriff's office spokesman Doug Tobin said. "We don't feel there is a danger to the community now."

Back on her porch, Dillow, her eye's wet, said she didn't realize anything was wrong next door.

"What bothers me is I didn't see anything. I haven't heard anything," she said, fighting back tears.

She had noticed that the Wrights' dogs hadn't been outside since before the weekend.

"They have the dogs, and they love to antagonize the horses," said Dillow, whose horses roam behind her house.

The 40-year-old woman said she also noticed that David Wright's silver Toyota Tundra pickup with a big toolbox hadn't been parked outside his home since Friday.

"I thought maybe he was out of town," she said.

Sheriff's officials released no information about the Wrights' vehicles and Tobin wouldn't confirm whether a truck was missing.

Dillow said David Wright was a building contractor, who worked local and out-of-town jobs. It wasn't unusual for him to come and go or to have other workers in and out of his home.

She said she thinks the killer must be someone the couple knew because the dogs didn't make a commotion. She described the dogs as "mean" and "protective."

In fact, sheriff's officials had the dogs removed by animal services because they were protecting the bodies.

David Wright, she said, often helped her and her mother with chores around the house. Sherrill Wright kept to herself more, she said, but was pleasant.

"They were the nicest people," Dillow said. "They'd do anything in the world for people. ... They were so good. They are going to be so dearly missed."

It was the little things the Wrights did that impressed Dillow and her mother, Denise Hammond, who lives with her.

He would stop for a chit-chat over the fence. He would compliment her mom on her baking skills.

"My mom was going to make him a cake for Valentine's Day," she said.

After Dillow attended the couple's New Year's Eve party a couple of years ago, he called her with a cute comment.

"We still have the message on the answering machine," she recalled, smiling.

"He said, 'You were voted the coolest person on at the party.'"

Mike Sinn, 43, who lives across the street, also attended that party.

"He was a pretty nice guy," he said of David Wright.

He hadn't seen him since Wednesday, the same day Dillow said she last spoke with the Wrights.

"It's pretty scary, you know" Sinn said. "You come to find out two people get murdered like that."

Dillow was uneasy, too. She said it's normally a quiet and crime-free in this rural part of Pasco County, just south of the Hernando County line.

She looked across the wire fence toward her neighbors' yard, buzzing with investigators.

"I just wish they'd come out now and their dogs would antagonize our horses. This isn't happening."

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

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