Documents Released In Triple Homicide Of Lutz Family

The day Edward Covington killed his live-in girlfriend and her two children, he called his ex-wife, authorities say.

He couldn't reach her, so he left a message on her cell phone, records state.

"He said, 'Cheri, I need you to call me, I'm in a lot of trouble,' " Cheri Tate of Brooksville told authorities.

The message "was calm like nothing was wrong or anything, it was just smooth. It was empty."

A transcript of Tate's interview is part of the 361 pages of information prosecutors released this morning of the investigation of Edward Covington, who is accused in the Mother's Day slaying of Lisa Freiberg and her two children in Lutz.

Tate said Covington was violent throughout their relationship and told her he was taking drugs while living with Freiberg.

"In the beginning, he was nice," she said. "After a while, it started getting really violent ...he started hitting me."

Others witnesses said Freiberg told them Covington was beating her and they worried he also was hitting the children.

Marissa Bohannon, the children's babysitter, said that the week before the slaying, Savannah, Freiberg's 2-year-old daughter, showed up with a black eye and a swollen lip.

Bohannon said a tearful and distraught Freiberg told her "she was scared of Eddie because he is bi-polar and off his medication."

The babysitter said Freiburg told her Covington couldn't control his anger and threatened to kill himself.

Barbara Freiberg, Lisa Freiberg's mother, said she took pictures of bruises on Savannah's buttocks, swelling on her lips and bruising around her eye. Deputies took the camera she used.

One of Freiberg's co-workers told detectives she heard Covington started beating Freiberg two weeks before the slaying because he had lost his job.

Another witness in the triple-slaying said he Covington beating the family's dog, which also was slain, on that day.

A forensic dentist said bites found on Savannah's forearm, elbow and foot matched dental impressions he took of Covington.

The information is part of the exchange of information between prosecutors and defense attorneys. A court order has been regulating the release of documents.

The bulk of the information is typed statements of interviews by deputies. It also included an inventory of the more than 340 pieces of evidence investigators logged, including blood swabs from throughout the trailer and knives recovered there.

Wesley Vyner told a detective he was on a ladder behind the Freiburg mobile home, helping a neighbor put on a new roof, when he saw a man he identified as Covington beating a dog in the victims' home.

"I hear a dog yelpin'. He's squallin' pretty good," Vyner said. "But I seen him swingin' on the dog.

"Yep. It sounded like he was beatin' on his dog," he said.

The mutilated of bodies of Freiberg, 26, and her children, Heather Savannah, 2, and Zachary, 7, were found in their mobile home on May 12. Authorities found Covington, Freiberg's live-in boyfriend, huddled in closet. He told deputies he killed all three, according to earlier court records.

Covington, 36, is being held without bail and is awaiting trial.