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Sheriff's Take On Boyfriend In Lutz Homicides: 'He Is Not A Victim'

Tribune photo by JAY CONNER

A memorial appeared near the mobile home in Lutz where a mother and her two children were slain.

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By JOSH POLTILOVE, RAY REYES and MIKE WELLS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 14, 2008

Related Links

• Photos From The Scene
• Previous Coverage
• Lutz Neighbors Shocked By Triple Slaying
• Sheriff Identifies Family Slain

Edward Covington

LUTZ - A day before Lisa Freiberg's mobile home became the scene of a crime so heinous it tested even the most hardboiled investigators, a probation officer visited to check things out.

The officer came to look in on her boyfriend, Edward Allen Covington, who lived there and was on probation for drunken driving and drug charges.

Freiberg was making lunch for her children, Zachary, 7 and Heather Savannah, 2.

The officer found the home "very messy with stuff everywhere." Covington said his girlfriend was a pack rat. Other than that, the probation officer wrote in a report, the home they shared had "no problems or concerns."

Twenty-four hours later, that familial setting became a charnel house.

Freiberg and her children were found dead Monday inside the home. The deaths were so grisly that investigators could not identify the bodies by looking at them. Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee confirmed the identities of the victims Tuesday.

"The victims were mutilated; some were dismembered," Gee said. "At least one was decapitated."

The family dog, a white German shepherd, was slain.

There was more than one weapon involved, Gee said.

Lisa Freiberg's mother found her daughter and grandchildren dead Monday after becoming concerned 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 discovering the bodies.

The first deputy to arrive found a man hiding in one of the children's closets. Gee, who identified the man only as Freiberg's boyfriend, said the man had pulled clothing over himself to hide.

Deputies took the man to University Community Hospital, Gee said, after he claimed to have ingested an unknown substance. The man is still at the hospital.

Gee said of the man: "He is not a victim."

No arrests were made Tuesday.

Gee said the mother and two children are thought to have been killed early Sunday morning. He would not release details on any motive for the slayings but said detectives do not think neighbors should be concerned about someone on the loose.

"The violence appeared to be oriented toward the family members," Gee said.

Neighbors Mourn Slain Family

A white cross surrounded by flowers, candles, notes and stuffed animals was posted around the corner of Freiberg's home, 1918 S. Mobile Villa Drive. The makeshift memorial sprang up overnight. It includes a picture of Freiberg with Zach and Heather Savannah.

Neighbors gathered Tuesday to comfort one another. They remembered Freiberg, who worked at Wal-Mart on North Dale Mabry Highway, as a "quiet girl" and "a good mom to her children," neighbor Kelly Baum said.

Others said Zachary and Heather Savannah were beautiful and recalled that when Freiberg first moved to the neighborhood, she threw a block party complete with a moonwalk and balloons for the children.

According to county tax records, the mobile home she lived in is owned by Keith and Barbara Frei- berg, who live in a house less than a mile away.

Monday afternoon, detectives were seen entering the couples' 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.

Freiberg met her live-in boyfriend on the Internet, neighbor Tom Collard said.

According to a driver's license issued April 28, Covington lives at Lisa Freiberg's address.

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 at the time. 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 taken to the emergency room at St. Joseph's Hospital, under the terms of the state's Baker Act, 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 said. "The cats appeared mutilated and deformed."

Ronnie Covington told police his son had been distraught after separating from his wife. He said his son suffers from depression and has bipolar disorder.

"There's not going to be any statements, so please quit calling," Ronnie Covington told a reporter Tuesday.

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 Florida 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 the Baker Act episode, corrections department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said. Before Covington returned to work, he was referred to the employee assistance program and deemed fit for correctional officer duty by an independent professional.

"The department took appropriate steps with this employee," Plessinger said.

According to his Department of Corrections personnel file, Covington was accused of verbally and physically abusing an inmate in 1999, but no action was taken. In 2002, his file states he shoved and knocked over an inmate and was suspended. He was cited for excessive absenteeism in 2005, and resigned.

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.

Collard, the neighbor, said Freiberg and her boyfriend enjoyed spending time with the children, including going to the beach and watching the children ride a child-size four-wheeler.

"She finally found somebody she could be happy with," Collard said.

Pets Led To Code Enforcement Citations

Freiberg filled her home with animals and had brushes with code enforcement officials because of it. She was scheduled to appear before a judge last week regarding citations for failure to have vaccination tags and allowing her dog to be at large, Hillsborough County Animal Services spokeswoman Marti 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.

According to a story published by The Tampa Tribune when she was 15, Freiberg said she loved spending time with her nine hermit crabs, rabbit, bird and two dogs. She had her heart set on becoming a veterinarian.

That dream appeared difficult to reach.

In March 2002, about one year after Zachary was born, Freiberg signed a joint agreement that would give her parents temporary custody of the child, court records show.

"The mother is just 20 years old and is simply not emotionally or financially capable of properly providing," the custody petition said.

At the time, Freiberg worked as a bakery clerk at a Publix grocery store on North Dale Mabry Highway and earned about $650 a week, court records show.

She regained custody of Zachary by 2005, the year Heather Savannah was born. Court records say that the father of the children is unknown.

According to a report by the Department of Children & Families released Tuesday, Freiberg would leave the children home alone at night while she drove around her neighborhood looking for her boyfriend at the time, Tom Fish. Fish was "badly on crack," the caseworker's report said, and Freiberg "sells her food stamps to support the boyfriend's habit."

Fish could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

Freiberg's parents refuted the accusations and said they had never seen the family use illegal drugs, or the children being neglected, according to report by DCF protective investigator Tanikee D. Wright. The children's vaccination shots were up to date and Freiberg and Fish tested negative for drugs, Wright wrote.

Wright closed her investigation of the family on Sept. 15, 2005, writing, "There is no concern for the children's safety."

'It's Very Disturbing'

The memory of those children and their mother pains Barbara Walker, 49, of Los Angeles, who 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 Tuesday. "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."

Reporters Valerie Kalfrin, Sherri Ackerman and researcher Melanie Coon contributed to this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691 or jpoltilove@tampatrib.com.

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