Missing Tampa Couple Found Dead

Previous Coverage: Couple Missing; Pets Found Alone

WFLA Jeff Patterson Report

TAMPA - A missing couple has been found dead, the apparent victims of a murder-suicide.

Wendy Dusza's body was found in a storage shed at their Beach Walk Condos complex late Saturday night. Investigators said it appears the 34-year-old was killed a week earlier, either the night of Oct. 25 or the morning of Oct. 26.

There were injuries to her upper body, Hillsborough County deputies say.

Dusza's boyfriend, Trevor McGinty, was found dead in a hotel room in Gainesville Sunday night. Gainesville police say he shot himself in the head.

Her cousin, Amy Croce, said the family is a wreck even though it wasn't surprised that Dusza was killed. Croce learned this morning that her cousin's body had been found.

"We went to church yesterday to pray, but I already knew in my heart she was dead," Croce said. "We just knew."

Trevor McGinty was physically abusive to Dusza, and her family considered him a jerk, Croce said.

Several times during the couple's three-year relationship, she told Dusza to leave McGinty. Dusza was afraid for her life with him but went back to him time and again, Croce said.

Dusza told family members he was a good man.

"He pulled her hair; he choked her; he was physically and mentally abusive," Croce said. "She wasn't allowed to speak to her family often, and when she did speak, it would be on the speakerphone, and he would be in the background."

McGinty pleaded no contest in March in Hernando County to charges of domestic battery, discharging a firearm in public, use of a firearm under the influence of alcohol, driving under the influence and resisting arrest without violence, records show. He spent nine days in jail.

Jealous of the time Dusza spent with her family, he shot up their home on Thanksgiving Day, Croce said.

McGinty fired a 12-gauge shotgun several times in their Hernando County home on Nov. 23, a Hernando sheriff's office report states. A deputy found holes in their home's ceiling and in multiple walls, as well as several spent shotgun shells throughout the home and backyard. A turkey fryer found in the backyard also had been shot.

McGinty told deputies he shot up the home because he was mad at Dusza, who was not there at the time. Authorities say he registered blood-alcohol levels of 0.123 and 0.125. Florida statutes say it is unlawful for a person to use a firearm when affected by alcohol "to the extent that his or her normal faculties are impaired."

In February, McGinty was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery.

"Wendy walked through the house and was 'slammed' around a few times in the garage," the sheriff's office report states. "Trevor pulled her hair and slammed her on the ground. She advised he threw her around like a 'rag doll' and pushed her. I did observe an area on the left side of Wendy's head where there was hair missing."

In that incident, McGinty pushed Dusza's daughter out of the way and threw her dog across the room, according to the report. He later threw her teenage daughter's PlayStation 2 and tossed stereo equipment off her daughter's dresser, which hit her daughter on the left arm, causing a small cut.

Last year, Croce said, McGinty threatened to kill himself if Dusza attended an uncle's funeral. Dusza still went, and Croce was proud of that.

A Gainesville police officer spotted McGinty's car Sunday evening at a Holiday Inn in one of the city's busiest areas. A SWAT team verified McGinty, 30, was inside a sixth-floor hotel room and tried to contact him several times by phone. The SWAT team then knocked on the door about 11 p.m.

Before police could do anything, they heard a gunshot, Gainesville police spokesman Keith Kameg said. The team entered the room and found McGinty bleeding from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

"I'm sure there will be an autopsy," Kameg said. "But the cause of death was quite clear: He shot himself in the head. There was no one else in the room."

Asked why police didn't release information about Dusza's death earlier, Hillsborough sheriff's office spokeswoman Debbie Carter said, "We didn't know if he had met foul play [before then]. At that point, we didn't know if he was a victim, and it wasn't until Sunday when we were able to connect him to the homicide."

Keith Scheerer, a neighbor of theirs from Hernando County, said he saw the couple recently.

They told him they were having financial problems and were packing their bags, preparing to start new lives in Chicago, where McGinty's father works as an attorney.

McGinty's MySpace screen name is tmac1377. A Craig's List advertisement using the e-mail address tmac1377@yahoo.com shows postings for homes in Pasco County and Hernando County for rent. A separate posting is for a dog in need of a home.

"MOVING TO CHICAGO CANT TAKE OUR WONDERFUL DOG WITH US," the posting states. "SHE NEEDS TO HAVE A FENCED YARD AND NEEDS TO BE THE ONLY DOG. GREAT WITH KIDS AND CATS. NEEDS HOME IMMIEDIATLY!!"

Mariana Martinez of Port Richey gasped at the news that Dusza, a longtime neighbor, was dead. She last saw Dusza two weeks ago, and Dusza seemed content when she stopped in to work on her Embassy Hills home.

"Everyone got along with her. She was always happy. I never saw her mad or sad," 57-year-old Martinez said through her screen door Monday afternoon.

Dusza had told her she wanted to sell her home, or at least rent it because the last tenants didn't work out. Dusza didn't indicate that anything was out of the ordinary except she mentioned her teenage daughter had gone to live with her father in New York over the summer.

"I miss her so much," Martinez recalled Dusza saying about her daughter.

When Dusza lived next door, Martinez said, the single mother seemed to do everything to keep life in check.

"She was a very nice person," she said. "She worked hard. She sometimes worked night and day for her daughter and her house."

Martinez said she had seen McGinty but never met him, but from what she understood the couple had an on-again, off-again relationship.

Next door at 9240 Crabtree Lane, Brittany Parish, 22, said she had just met her landlord about two weeks ago and she and her brother found the house for rent on Craig's List.

When they went to check out the home, Dusza and McGinty were landscaping the yard.

Dusza told them they had problems with their last tenants and they required a security deposit and first and last month's rent.

"They had told us they were in a rush to rent the house because they wanted to move to Chicago," she said.

Parish and her brother paid the security deposit and for the past week had been trying to track down the couple so they could pay their first month's rent. But neither Dusza nor McGinty answered their cell phones, which she was odd, she said, because every other time they called, the couple answered.

"They seemed happy together," Parish said.

A security guard at the couple's Tampa condominium complex said management refused to comment.

Kevin O'Malley, the couple's condominium complex neighbor, saw "an amazing amount of activity" from the sheriff's department this weekend at the complex. A deputy was watching the unit as early as Friday afternoon, and a deputy still was watching the unit Sunday, he said.

"Crime-scene units rolled in Saturday morning carrying out bags of belongings throughout the day," he said. "It was amazing how much they were carrying out. In the bags, there were some bed linens."

Dusza's family members had not heard from her in a week so they drove Friday to her condo, which she shared with McGinty.

They found the couple's pets alone and hungry and alerted the Hillsborough sheriff's office. Deputies started a national search for the couple.

Croce said she was supposed to be maid of honor at Dusza's wedding but that the couple never followed through with marriage plans.

She said she considered Dusza a sister.

"She was the maid of honor at my wedding," Croce said. "She was everything to me. I just can't believe this happened. You think you only see this on TV."

Dusza leaves behind the 14-year-old daughter, who now lives in Buffalo, N.Y., with the girl's father, Croce said. Dusza's body will be flown to Buffalo, where funeral services will be held.

Stay with TBO.com for developments.

Hernando Today reporter Kyle Martin, Tribune reporter Lisa Davis and Tribune researcher Michael Messano contributed to this report. Information from Tribune archives was used in this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.