Crime

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The body of a 51-year Key West man was found today at Volusia County's Tomoka Farms Road in a load of refuse brought there in the morning.

The Sheriff’s Office was notified of the discovery at 10:33 a.m. and deployed its Major Case Unit to the scene to investigate. The victim has been identified as 51-year-old Ronald Lantery of Key West.

"The body was found inside a building operated by GEL Recycling Inc.," Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson told Headline Surfer®. "Investigators who visually inspected the body at the scene observed no outward signs of trauma or foul play. "

Anthony DeFeo, combative with deputies responding to 9-1-1 call of suspicious person in Deltona roadway, screams: 'I'm gonna die tonight!'

DAYTONA BEACH -- A Daytona Beach News-Journal reporter bonded out of the Volusia County Branch Jail this morning after he was arrested and booked on two felony charges for allegedly fighting with deputies while intoxicated -- including allegedly kicking one of them in the mid-section -- when they responded to a 9-1-1 call of a suspicious person in the middle of a road in Deltona.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The last place anyone perhaps might have thought a man wanted for questioning by New Smyrna Beach police in the bludgeoning death of his grandmother would re-surface within the next 48 hours would be the FBI in Daytona Beach. But that's exactly what Patrick Campbell did Thursday morning just before high noon.

ORLANDO, Fla. – A federal grand jury has handed up an indictment charging 54-year-old Robert Lee Craddock of Port Orange with wire fraud arising out of a scheme to defraud the compensation fund established as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

If convicted, Craddock, who also may have a residence in Daytona Beach Shores, faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. The indictment also notifies Craddock that the Office of US Attorney A Lee Bentley, III, is seeking a money judgment in the amount of $135,153, the proceeds of the charged criminal conduct.

According to the indictment, following the April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which was being leased by BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, Craddock submitted a claim to BP and the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, an independent facility established by BP to compensate qualified claimants, for lost earnings purportedly related to the impact of the oil spill on his businesses.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- By now you've probably heard about the 69-year-old woman who allegedly tried to ditch her pooch on Christmas Eve by throwing the gentle creature right out her driver's side door of her blue two-door Oldsmobile while she was passing through an intersection.

Acting Police Chief Donna Lavallee may be all smiles regarding steps towards accreditation in the New Smyrna Beach PD, but all is not hunky dory despite a PR statement from City Hall.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Amid the backdrop of the continuing fallout of the theft of items from the New Smyrna Beach Police Department uncovered two years ago and a revolving door of top cops in the interim, the office of City Manager Pamela Brangaccio put out a press release Friday announcing the police agency was moving towards accreditation.

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DELTONA, Fla. -- Volusia County sheriff’s deputies tracked down and arrested eight juveniles in connection with the Wednesday afternoon robbery of a pizza delivery driver in Deltona, an agency spokesman said.

Deputies responded around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday after the driver, Colton Reisner, of a local Papa John's, said he was robbed at a house at 1037 Abagail Drive.

Reisner didn’t report any weapons used in the robbery, or any money stolen. He said some of the teens snuck up and threw a blanket or sheet over his head when he knocked on the front door, then took off with pizza, chicken wings and soda. The house was vacant.

EDGEWATER, Fla. -- A 34-year-old man armed with a knife was shot in killed 1:30 this morning by two Edgewater cops who opened fire on him in the home he shared with his mother and her boyfriend after an attempt to subdue him with not one, but two tasers failed to stop his forward movement, Edgewater Police Chief Dave Arcieri told HeadlineSurfer.com.

Two eldest kids dead; third clinging to life in hospital

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PORT ORANGE, Fla. -- A domestic quarrel between a married couple on the verge of divorce ended in bloodshed before dawn today in the Spruce Creek Farms subdivision after the wife ran out of the house and the husband taking aim at their three children -- killing two of them in the process -- before shooting himself to death.

Sheriff's spokesman: Ankle monitoring device found in Burger King bathroom

DELTONA, Fla. -- The search has ended for an inmate who failed to return to the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach after a court-authorized furlough to attend a funeral over the weekend.

Andrew Rodriguez, 27, was captured at 11:01 p.m. Monday after an anonymous call led Sheriff’s deputies to his whereabouts.

"Late Monday night, a tip received through Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida led deputies to the house on Evergreen Avenue," Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson told Headline Surfer® this morning shortly after his capture.

"Just as deputies were heading into the house to search for Rodriguez, he bolted out of a side door and was quickly captured without offering resistance."