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Bradenton Restaurant Honors Slain Manager

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By KIM HACKETT

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: June 2, 2008

BRADENTON — The restaurant where Pamela LeRose was grabbed, taken outside and slain opened on Sunday to memorialize her.

About 50 people gathered at Peach's to remember the 39-year-old restaurant manager, who was shot to death Saturday by a former boyfriend.

"It was a very emotional, trying day for all of us," said Michael Luciano, who owns 10 Peach's locations. "We needed to be there for our customers. We're bonding as a team and as a family."

LeRose's mother and children spent the day trying to cope while making funeral arrangements.

"He killed her, and I don't know why," said LeRose's mother, Pamela Cain. "My baby is dead."

LeRose kept her troubles with 27-year-old Matthew B. White of Parrish from her family. She never told them that he had been stalking her and slashed her tires.

On Saturday, White, armed with a pistol, came through a rear door at Peach's, grabbed LeRose and pulled her outside.

He took her to a nearby tree, where he shot her twice. Co-worker Cyndi Bryant ran outside to try to help LeRose but ran when White pointed the gun at her.

Witnesses frantically called 911 from their cell phones. Police quickly responded and followed White as he sped off in LeRose's Jeep. They lost sight of him as he ran through red lights and stop signs and later found him with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.

Friends and co-workers said White would not leave LeRose alone after they broke up. He called her, leaving vulgar messages. He showed up at her Bradenton home, where she lived with her three children, ages 16, 14 and 12.

Cain, who had met White in summer 2007, never knew they had been romantically involved. "He was a friend of hers," she said. "We met him at the Fourth of July. He was very naive and silly but friendly."

LeRose brought White to Thanksgiving dinner. "He wanted her to be his love, but she told him, 'Matt, I'm too old for you,' " Cain said.

LeRose never told her mother about the threats.

"She didn't tell me things that she thought would upset me," said Cain, who last saw her daughter on Mother's Day.

Friends say that in January White choked LeRose, yet she did not call police.

"I did not know the extent of the stalking," Luciano said. "She should have called the police."

Peach's has set up a memorial fund at Bank of America. The family is planning a memorial service for 7 p.m. Tuesday at West Bradenton Baptist Church, 1305 43rd St. W.

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