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Slain Woman Found Buried

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By DAVID SOMMER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 20, 2008

HOLIDAY - A body unearthed late Wednesday behind a partially burned home is slaying victim Theresa Jones.

Jones, 46, of 4635 Darlington Road, died of "homicidal violence," Pasco County Sheriff's Office spokesman Doug Tobin said after the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office performed an autopsy Thursday.

Detectives are withholding the condition of the body and the exact cause of death, Tobin said.

Pasco Fire Marshal Larry Whitten said there is no evidence that Jones was inside the house when firefighters extinguished a blaze early Tuesday that gutted the dilapidated structure's gables but left the roof fairly intact.

A cause of the blaze has not been determined, and his investigation continues, Whitten said.

"The murder investigation has nothing to do with what we are investigating," he said.

A 13-year-old boy who said he is best friends with Jones' 14-year-old son found her body Wednesday afternoon after going to the burned home to retrieve a mini-motorcycle the boys had been working on.

Mark Tringone, who was circling a group of journalists on his bicycle Wednesday evening as the medical examiner arrived at the scene, said a swarm of flies and a new pile of dirt led him to a woman's body wrapped in what he recognized as Jones' blanket.

Tringone said he had been on the property Tuesday and that there was no body, no dirt pile and no swarming flies in the backyard during the day after the fire.

His mother, Maureen Tringone, said Jones, her friend for many years, recently broke up with a man she had been dating for as long as Tringone could remember.

Two new men, known as Chuck and Buddy, had been hanging around Jones' rented home and doing odd jobs for her, Maureen Tringone said. Her son said at least one of the men had been at the house about noon Wednesday.

Firefighters had surrounded the house with crime-scene tape warning against trespassers, but the structure was not guarded or boarded up.

Maureen Tringone said she called Pasco County Fire Rescue on Tuesday to ask what had happened to Jones. The victim's son had slept at a friend's house the night of the fire, and Jones was nowhere to be found after the blaze, Tringone said.

After the fire rescue operator said no one was injured in the fire, Tringone said that her friend was missing. Relatives of Jones' son put him on a plane to Chicago shortly before the body was unearthed Wednesday, Tringone said.

Tobin said a deputy and firefighters searched the home after the blaze and concluded no one was inside when the fire started about 2:30 a.m.

Reporter David Sommer can be reached at (727) 815-1087 or dsommer@tampatrib.com.

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