Friend: Missing comic book writer was on downward spiral

Back in 1974, as a student at Johnson College in Vermont, Steve Bissette remembers his adviser telling him he needed to meet a fellow student and aspiring comic book writer named Steve Perry, who had written and produced a couple of science fiction plays at the college theater.

Bissette said he was instantly intrigued.

"When I went to college, my goal was to work on comic books," he said in a phone interview from his home in Vermont. "Steve Perry was the first comic book fan and aspiring comic book writer I had ever met in my life."

The two hit it off, said Bissette, becoming close friends and collaborators. More recently, Bissette led efforts to raise money for Perry, who had bladder cancer and was destitute. Perry, who wrote episodes of the "Thundercats" television show popular in the 80s, is missing from his home at 38046 8th Avenue in Zephyrhills and may be the victim of a homicide, investigators say. Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies found a body part near Perry's blue van and when they tracked it back to Perry's home, they found it ransacked and its occupants missing.

His two housemates, Jim and Roxanne Davis, were arrested last week on outstanding warrants and are now considered "persons of interest" in a "possible homicide," according to Zephyrhills Police Capt. Rob McKinney.

Investigators are still analyzing the body part - said by Zephyrhills Mayor Cliff McDuffie to be an arm. But so far, Perry is still listed only as missing. Leaving his friends, like Bissette, frustrated.

"We don't know what happened," said Bissette, who, given the information that has been released, fears the worst.

Perry never made much money, Bissette said. There were no royalty checks for the "Thundercats" and much of Perry's freelance work dried up in the late 80s, Bissette said.

"This is not a lucrative business," said Bissette, adding that he tried to help Perry when he could, which was limited, because he is a teacher. He chronicled Perry's foibles and tried to help raise money on his own website, SRBissette.com.

Perry had been on a long, downward spiral, Bissette said, and the only things he knows about the last year of Perry's life is information, sometimes in excruciating detail, which Perry provided in frequent e-mails.

The e-mails ranged from the poignant to the profane. In them, Perry speaks of his bladder cancer, his poverty, his tumultuous relationship with his ex-girlfriend Krystal Carroll -- the mother of their 5-year-old son, Leo, -- and his grudging reliance on the Davises, an on-again-off-again married couple with criminal histories who moved in with him sometime in April.

• "I am dead meat walking around. ... Not all the test results are in ... he wants to put me back next Tuesday. Said I might lose my bladder ... said the tumor is back, Partially blocking kidney. Hope I do not lose both. I almost do not want to know what comes next."

• "My only hope now is disability. Child support took my tax refund. I owed all of 2009, and much of 2008. I ended up with $1,400. I lived up to my word and paid for the van, even though it is wrecked. I could have screwed the guy, but that would just come back to me. I paid some bills, and have about $600 left. Still seems like a lot to me. Half of that will get my bank to zero. SO I am left with $300. I have money! I have money. I will probably go unpawn Leo's psp. He deserves it. Poor kid."

•"Krystal called, crying, begging to come back. I told her I hated her ... and hung up. She called at the wrong moment. I was mean. I feel bad about it."

•"Roomates are ... me badly, not doing what they promise. I am in a weird position where I need their car for doctor visits, which they loan to me. They also babysit Leo for these. I want to kick them out, but they rack up big electricity bills, and if I do they'll screw and I'll be left hiding the bag. They were supposed to make things CHEAPER. Instead, they eat all our food. They fight a lot. It sucks."

On April 30, Perry was granted a temporary injunction for protection against domestic violence by Carroll. Pasco County Circuit Court Judge Lynn Tepper ordered Carroll not to come within 500 feet of the home and to have no contact with Leo.

The order was good until a court hearing on May 13.

Three days later, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies found Perry's van and a body part at the Quality Inn on 400 E. Bearss Ave in Tampa.

According to Bissette, Perry's last-known e-mail was sent May 10 to Tom Yates, who worked with Perry on the Epic Comics Timespirits in the 80s. Also very long, 24 pages when printed out, Perry thanked all the folks at the Hero Initiative who had sent him money and promised that if he sent another e-mail, it would be nothing but positive news.

He also foreshadowed doom.

•"This ride is almost over," he wrote. "Should this turn out to be the last e-mail you ever get from me I want you to know I am honored by your presence in my wretched life's situation.

•"If I end up dead and the dead have any influence on the lives of the living, as a ghost or something, I will exert kind and wonderful things in your life. If death is blackness, nothingness ... well that is that."

Bissette said he turned copies of the e-mails over to Zephyrhills Police on Sunday. Zephyrhills Police are aware of the e-mails, said spokesman Capt. Rob McKinney.

Zephyrhills police, he said, are awaiting results of lab tests on the body part. They could come back later this evening or Wednesday. If they come back Wednesday, there will be a news conference Thursday, he said.

There are no suspects in the case, just persons of interest. He said that could change depending on the outcome of the ongoing investigation.