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Published: November 2, 2008
TAMPA - A Citrus County medical examiner ruled Saturday that the deaths of Alicia Chomic and her three young sons are consistent with a murder-suicide.
Autopsies were performed on the four bodies discovered a day earlier by Chomic's mother at her Floral City home.
Investigators think Chomic, 23, shot to death the boys, ages 15 months to 3 years, then turned the gun on herself. A firearm was found nearby.
The youngest child was in his bassinet when he was shot; the bodies of the other two boys were found on the bed with their mother.
"We are still trying to piece the puzzle together," Citrus County Sheriff's spokeswoman Heather Yates said.
Chomic had been living in Pasco County but recently moved into her mother's Floral City home.
Detectives continue to look for a suicide note, Yates said, or for something that explains Chomic's actions. Chomic had no history of violence, sheriff's officials said.
Deputies have resumed talking with Chomic's mother, Vicki Maslowski and her husband, Greg, but Yates said there was nothing she could release Saturday about the conversation.
Results on toxicology tests on the bodies could take up to six months, Yates said. Meanwhile, Maslowski, has been released from Citrus Memorial Hospital, where she was taken Friday after becoming distraught.
Tania Wiegand, 29, said she and Chomic became friends when the two were neighbors in Port Richey a few years ago. Chomic rarely talked about her past, she said.
"I'm still in shock," Wiegand said Saturday. "She was the sweetest girl and she loved her kids more than anything in the world. I just don't get it. She did everything for them. She was always with them - playing with them, taking them to the park, taking them for walks."
Wiegand, herself the mother of a young daughter, said she often watched and admired the way Chomic doted on her children.
"I don't know how she did it," Wiegand said. "She was just like supermom. I have one child and I can barely keep track of her sometimes. She had three and was just awesome at it. That's what I don't understand."
Authorities think Chomic killed her children and herself sometime Thursday evening at her mother and stepfather's home at 4983 E. Stoer Lane in Floral City. According to the sheriff's office, Chomic had moved there three days earlier.
Reached by telephone Saturday, a man who said he was Greg Maslowski declined to comment.
Thomas Anthony Goldsmith, the father of Chomic's oldest son, is incarcerated at the Wakulla Correctional Institution in Crawfordville. He was arrested Oct. 9 for violating probation.
Goldsmith, 25, has previous convictions on charges of possession of a controlled substance, stalking, battery and domestic violence. He is scheduled for release in March.
The father of Chomic's two youngest boys, Anthony Lietz, 25, of Pasco County, could not be reached for comment. His criminal record includes convictions for grand theft and possession of a controlled substance.
He pleaded guilty in 2001 on charges of carrying a concealed firearm, court records show, but adjudication was withheld. On Feb. 14, 2007, Lietz was arrested on charges of domestic violence; he pleaded not guilty and the case was dropped.
Researcher Diane Grey contributed to this report. Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144. Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084.
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