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Lutz Neighbors Shocked By Triple Slaying

Tribune photo by JAY CONNER

A friend came by to see Mike Lathery, 37, who lives down the street from the home where the family was found dead. Neighbors in the mobile home community along Mobile Villa Drive react to the slaying in their neighborhood.

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By KENNETH KNIGHT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 13, 2008

LUTZ - A neighborhood rocked by the slaying of a young woman and her two children is ready to begin to heal, but first residents need to know who would commit such an act.

Tuesday, Mike Lathery and his neighbors stayed clear of the Hillsborough County sheriff's investigators who worked behind yellow crime tape near the dead-end of Mobile Villa Drive South.

They watched from a distance as uniformed deputies trekked in and out of a small, rustic mobile home under an oak canopy and back to their mobile crime scene laboratory.

"Everybody around here wants to know what happened," said Lathery, who lives five doors away from the crime scene.

"It's kind of nerve-racking. It happened so close to home."

He was happy that his wife and children were away in Indiana. "I'm glad they don't have to see all this," he said.

Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies confirmed Tuesday that the victims were Lisa Freiberg, 26, and her children, Zachary, 7, and Heather Savannah, 2. Freiberg's mother discovered their mutilated bodies about 10:30 a.m. Monday.

Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said deputies found Edward Allen Covington hiding under a pile of clothes in one of the children's closets Monday morning. He was taken to University Community Hospital to be treated for ingesting a substance, deputies said. He remained there Tuesday. The investigation is continuing and no charges have been filed.

"The concern of neighbors is: Do they have the right guy?" said Tim Kelly, 50, who offered assistance when Freiberg's parents found the bodies.

Most residents say they knew Freiberg but not the man who lived with her.

Shocked residents said they are starting the process of coping with their loss but admitted that the neighborhood would never be the same.

Greg Terry, 42, who lives six houses away on Mobile Villa Drive South, said he couldn't shake the sense of young lives cut short. "It was on my mind quite a bit, thinking about the children," he said.

Several neighbors called the murders "an isolated incident," unlike any that has occurred in their quiet, semirural community of mobile homes tucked behind chain-link fences, many posted with "Beware of Dog" signs.

"What happened here is so unusual" for the neighborhood, Kelly said. "It's like the chance of lightning striking twice."

Reporter Kenneth Knight can be reached at (813) 865-4842 or kknight@tampatrib.com.

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