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Bradenton home invasion shatters family

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Crystal Youngblood was shot and killed while pregnant after a home invasion. Her child was delivered but later died at All Children's Hospital.

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By SARAH HOYE | The Tampa Tribune
and RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 12, 2009

Updated: 07/12/2009 10:31 pm

BRADENTON - Masked men kicked in the apartment's door early Sunday morning and rushed in, shooting at the couple just inside the doorway.

Nineteen-year-old Crystal Youngblood, seven months pregnant, made a run for the bathroom but was shot once in the neck. Moments later, her 21-year-old boyfriend, Lawrence Funsch, carried her outside.

He screamed for help, while neighbors at the Desoto Village Apartments called 911.

But it was too late.

"I watched her die," said neighbor Jalecia Rivers. "They were doing CPR; she was trying to talk. We were screaming. Everybody was screaming."

Youngblood died at Manatee Memorial Hospital. Her daughter, Lariah, was delivered there and taken to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, where she lived on a respirator for two hours.

Investigators with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office are still piecing together what happened about 1 a.m. today at 3810 E. Fifth St. E., where Youngblood was sharing an apartment with her mother and sister, who were asleep in their bedrooms when the first shots were fired. Detectives don't know what led to the shooting but say it wasn't random.

Three loud kicks to the front door roused Funsch. The first kick sent him scrambling for his clothes. Youngblood started moving to check out the commotion at the sound of the second kick.

The third kick flung the door open.

"It went boom, boom, boom," Funsch said. "They didn't tell us to get down or lay down. They kept shooting. It was at least 14 to 15 shots."

He grabbed his .38-caliber handgun and returned fire.

"That's the only thing that saved us," he said. "I don't know why they came. I don't have nothing."

Funsch said he hit at least one of the intruders. The sheriff's office said a man was taken to a Bradenton hospital early this morning with a gunshot wound. Detectives are interviewing the man but haven't made any arrests, sheriff's office spokesman Dave Bristow said.

"We're determining if he was involved," Bristow said. "We've gathered a lot of physical evidence."

Hours later, Youngblood's mother, Susan Moore, returned to the apartment where she'd been living with her two daughters for about a year, carrying a small, blue heart-shaped box. Inside was all she could bring home of Lariah: the baby girl's hospital identification bands, the tubes that connected her to the respirator, her pink knit booties and a matching hat.

"A couple more weeks, she could've made it," said Moore, 53. "But she couldn't. She was too little."

More reminders were waiting inside the apartment, now a crime scene. Youngblood and Funsch had bought a bassinette and about 50 name-brand outfits for Lariah, who was baptized before she died, Moore said.

My daughter "was going to be a good mom," she said. "She wanted to be a mom more than anything. They were looking forward to the baby."

Now, Moore says she wants to move soon. She can't live in the apartment where her daughter was killed. Betsy Hunt also showed up at the apartment Sunday afternoon to comfort her son, who lives with her in Sarasota.

"Crystal and my son were two peas in a pod," Hunt said. "They just loved each other. They were happy about having a baby. I wish I could've seen the wedding."

Hunt wants justice for her son.

"I hope they get the ones who did this," she said. "I hope they're punished for dear life for what they've done. They took my grandbaby away from me. They took my son's first love."

Funsch said he can't believe his girl is gone.

"It hurts me a lot to know she's gone," he said. "I ain't going to wake up to her in the morning."

Anyone with information can call the sheriff's office at (941) 747-3011, ext. 2159, or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-634-TIPS.

Reporter Sarah Hoye can be reached at (813) 259-7832. Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920.

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