TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online
Email
Print
Sheriff Confirms Identities In Lutz Triple Slaying
News Channel 8 photo by PETER MASA
Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee confirmed that Lisa Freiberg, 26, was killed with her children, Zachary and Heather Savannah.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: May 13, 2008
Updated: 05/13/2008 05:30 pm
Related Links
Sheriff Identifies Family Slain
Photos From The Scene
Previous Coverage
Lutz Neighbors Shocked By Triple Slaying
Edward Covington
LUTZ - Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee has confirmed that Lisa Freiberg, 26, was killed with her children, Zachary, 7, and Heather Savannah, 2, at her mobile home.
"The victims were mutilated; some were dismembered," Gee said at a news conference this afternoon. "At least one was decapitated."
There was more than one weapon involved, he said.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement blood-spatter experts will work the scene today along with Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office investigators.
Lisa Freiberg's mother found the woman and children dead Monday after becoming concerned when she hadn't heard from Freiberg on Mother's Day.
Freiberg's mother forced her way into the home because it was locked, Gee said. She called the sheriff's office after seeing the bodies.
The first deputy who arrived found a man, whom Gee identified as Freiberg's boyfriend, hiding in one of the children's closets. Gee said the man had pulled clothing over himself to conceal himself.
Gee said deputies took the man to University Community Hospital after he claimed to have ingested an unknown substance. The man is still at the hospital, Gee said.
Gee would not identify the man but said, "He is not a victim."
Nobody has been arrested so far.
Gee said the mother and two children are thought to have been killed early Sunday morning. He would not release details on any motivation for the slayings but said detectives do not think neighbors should be concerned about someone on the loose in their area.
"The violence appeared to be oriented toward the family members," Gee said.
A probation officer visiting Edward Allen Covington on Saturday afternoon at the mobile home Covington shared with Freiberg and the children found "no problem or concerns."
Today, friends and family have left flowers, candles, notes, stuffed animals and a white cross near the where the bodies were found.
The makeshift memorial sprang up overnight. It includes a picture of Freiberg with her children.
This morning, neighbors gathered to comfort one another and share memories of the family. Tom Collard said Freiberg met her live-in boyfriend on the Internet.
"She finally found somebody she could be happy with," Collard said.
He said the pair enjoyed spending time with the children, including going to the beach and watching the children ride a child-size four-wheeler.
Dan Gannett remembered Freiberg throwing a block party when she first moved into the neighborhood, complete with a moonwalk and balloons for the children.
Investigators were back at the home this morning, ducking under yellow crime scene tape as they continued to collect evidence. It was a scene that even veteran crime fighters couldn't stomach: two children, one of them a toddler, found dead inside a mobile home, a woman's body nearby.
Even the family dog was slain. Gannett said it was a white German shepherd.
Whoever killed the mother and children did such a gruesome, bloody job that investigators could not make positive identifications by looking at them. Neither could family.
"This is the most horrific crime scene I've ever seen," Gee said Monday. "It's an extremely difficult crime scene to work."
The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office would not provide details today.
"We're not putting out anything," office spokesman Dick Bailey said. "Anything we have, we're going to communicate with the sheriff, and the sheriff will communicate with you."
Covington lives at Freiberg's home address, according to his driver's license issued April 28.
He previously was arrested on an animal cruelty charge, but that case was not prosecuted. In January 2005, a 911 call led Tampa police to Covington's home. An officer asked Covington to come to the door, but he said he couldn't, a police report states.
The officer forced his way in and saw Covington face down on his living room floor, crying. "I don't want to die like this," he told the officer, according to the report.
Covington was Baker-Acted and taken to the emergency room at St. Joseph's Hospital, the report states.
Police saw three dead cats on Covington's kitchen floor.
"There was blood spatter all over the surfaces of the kitchen and in some areas throughout the residence," the report states. "The cats appeared mutilated and deformed. What appeared to be the cat's fecal matter had been deposited all over the kitchen floor. On the rim of the kitchen sink was a blood smear containing cat hair and a fair amount of blood surrounding the blood smear. It appeared the cat's head had been slammed into the sink fracturing the skull."
Ronnie Covington told police his son had been distraught after separating from his wife. He said his son suffers from manic depression and is bipolar.
"There's not going to be any statements, so please quit calling," Ronnie Covington told The Tampa Tribune today.
When asked about Edward Covington, state attorney's office spokeswoman Pam Bondi said the office "cannot make any comment at this time."
Covington, 35, is a former officer with the state Department of Corrections. He worked for the department from May 1996 to January 2006 in Hillsborough and Hardee counties.
He continued to work for the department after being Baker-Acted, corrections department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said. Before Covington returned to work, he was referred to the Employee Assistance Program. Then he was evaluated by a non-department professional and was deemed fit for correctional officer duty and allowed to return to work.
"The department took appropriate steps with this employee," Plessinger said.
Covington is on probation for misdemeanor driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance, according to the Department of Corrections.
On April 22, he told his probation officer he would have to move in with Freiberg at least temporarily, according to DOC records. He was unemployed and looking for a job.
Covington was assigned a new probation officer April 25. That officer visited his home, Freiberg's mobile home, on Saturday, records state.
Freiberg, who worked at a Wal-Mart on North Dale Mabry Highway, was making lunch for the children.
Covington told the officer he had been looking for a job, without luck, records state.
This is a notation from the record of that visit: "No problem or concerns noted at the present time."
Sheriff's deputies responded to a 911 call from 1918 S. Mobile Villa Drive at 10:37 a.m. Monday.
According to county tax records, the property is owned by Keith and Barbara Freiberg, who live in a house less than a mile away.
Monday afternoon, detectives were seen entering the Freibergs' home on East Lake Burrell Drive, where Lisa Freiberg grew up. Detectives spent about three hours inside. Neither the detectives nor the Freibergs would comment.
According to a Tribune story from when she was 15, Freiberg was a Lutz girl who had her heart set on becoming a veterinarian and loved spending time with her nine hermit crabs, rabbit, bird and two dogs.
Her love of animals continued later in life.
Three men in a black pickup with Michigan plates took a white German shepherd mix and a fish from Freiberg's home today. They would not identify themselves.
Freiberg was scheduled appear before a judge Wednesday regarding citations for failure to have vaccination tags and her dog being at large, Hillsborough County Animal Services spokeswoman Marti Ryan said. The dog was a white shepherd wolf named Dakota.
As far as Covington, no details were immediately available, Ryan said.
In June 2006, a neighbor complained about a rabbit and a large white horse living on Freiberg's property, said Ed Brill, Hillsborough County's manager of code enforcement. The horse was owned by a young girl who visited the property occasionally, according to a report. By August, the horse had been removed from the property.
Barbara Walker, 49, of Los Angeles, lived next door to Freiberg for nearly five years but left in August 2007.
"It's like I lost part of my family," she said today. "It's very disturbing. I'm taking it very hard. She was like a daughter to me. It's very heartbreaking."
Walker said Freiberg's son was a beautiful child who had his own way of talking and that she was so close to Freiberg's daughter, "You would have thought she was my own child."
"Those kids were innocent," she said. "Whatever snapped in someone to do that to those kids and to her, we're dealing with a real coldhearted person."
Reporter Valerie Kalfrin contributed to this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691 or jpoltilove@tampatrib.com.
Email
Print
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
