Local News Now

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Kelly Ann Balerdas had obvious signs of trama to her body, Kissimmee police said, of the unsolved homicide of March 6, 2004.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – It was almost a decade ago ago that 22-year-old Kelly Ann Balderas was found slain in her motel room at the former Breeze Inn, located at 900 E. Vine St. by the hotel manager in well-being check after she hadn't bee heard from by friends for three days, Kissimmee cops said.

The locale is now a drug treatment facility. And it is near where Banderas's mother, mother, Diana Bryan, will be holding a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. Saturday, in remembrance of her daughter who was beaten to death. The homicide remains unsolved.

The vigil will be at the corner of Damon and East Vine streets, said Stacie Miller, spokeswoman for the Kissimmee police force.

It was 10 years earlier on March 6, 2004, that Kelly Ann Balderas's body was found at 4 p.m. in her hotel room with obvious signs of trauma to her body, Miller said.

Grassroots GOP conservative & school board member juggles civic & family roles

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Amy Lockhart is shown in a portrait pose in her successful run in 2012 for the Seminole County School Board.

LAKE MARY, Fla. – In just two short years, this Lake Mary public servant demonstrated the "can do" attitude in delivering on her campaign promises midway through her 4-year seat on the Seminole County School Board in addition to myriad duties in several civic posts and balancing it all out with her most treasured responsibilities: family and faith.

So it's easy to understand why Gov. Rick Scott didn't blink an eye Friday in piling on even more responsibilities on Amy Lockhart, appointing her to an open seat on the Seminole State College of Florida District Board of Trustees.

The 39-year-old Lake Mary wife and mother of two school-age kids previously served as chairwoman of the Idyllwilde Elementary School Advisory Council.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / A still image was made from a security camera of a robbery mid-day Friday at the IHop.

KISSIMMEE -- City cops responded at 12:15 p.m. today to the International House of Pancakes at 1715 West Vine Street after a man walked up to the cashier, implied he had a gun and demanded cash, before walking out the door with a wad of money.

"He threatened a server and demanded money from the register, Kissimmee police spokesman Stacie Miller told Headline Surfer®. "After obtaining an undisclosed amount of money, the suspect left on foot. No one inside the restaurant was injured during the incident."

"He threatened a server and demanded money from the register, Kissimmee police spokesman Stacie Miller told Headline Surfer®. "After obtaining an undisclosed amount of money, the suspect left on foot. No one inside the restaurant was injured during the incident."

Photo for Headline Surfer® / The largest proposed residential-commercial development in the history of Daytona Beach, the so-called Russian Towers, approved by the city last year for location at water's edge east of the Seabreeze Boulevard Bridge, already is six months past a scheduled groundbreaking and may be on shaky financial ground.

DAYTONA BEACH -- With an August groundbreaking that came and went with no dirt moved and growing whispers in recent days that the $150 million Russian Towers condo-hotel development may prove to be a bust rather than the economic boom propagated ad nausea in the News-Journal.

Headline Surfer® photos / Justin Kennedy, 2012 County Council candidate shown at far left, who accepted in-kind advertising from Waverly Media on its popular bus benches, refused to honor a subpoena issued by private attorney Jon Kaney (in the inset) and was a no-show for a deposition Wednesday. Kaney was hired by the County Council to look into Waverly, a move seen by some as politics at its worst.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Volusia County Council special investigator Jonathan Kaney, Jr's subpoena power is being put to the test by a defiant former County Council candidate who said it's not worth the paper it's written on.

"It came in the mail and it may as well have gone in the trash," 2012 district 3 County Council candidate and former Edgewater City Councilman Justin Kennedy told Headline Surfer® this morning, adding he was a no-show for his scheduled deposition Wednesday with Kaney.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Bike Week starts March 7-17, and is second only to Speedweeks and the Daytona 500 in importance as a special tourism event in greater Daytona Beach, typically drawing upwards of half a million bikers.

Born Feb. 17, 1934; died Jan. 11, 2014

ORLANDO – A gentle soul who wasn't afraid to challenge convential wisdom, Harry Garrett had two main pursuits in life besides his love of family: his career as a media/specialist librarian for two decades at Seminole High School in Sanford, Fla., until the mid-1990s, and a soft spot for animals of all kinds -- wild and domesticated.

Harry Ashley Garrett, 79, died Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014, at Halifax Health Hospice Center in Port Orange, Fla.,  where he had been staying since the previous Tuesday. He entered Florida Hospital the day after Christmas, losing a long battle with heart disease and other health complications.

Headline Surfer® graphic / Sanford teen Kimberly Phillips died  in an ATV accident in a heavily-wooded area of Osteen, in unincorporated Volusia County as shown in the locator map.

OSTEEN, Fla. -- An 18-year-old Sanford woman was killed Dec. 27 when she crashed her ATV in a ditch before it landed on top and pinned her, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.  

The freak accident occurred at 4:45 p.m. that Friday near Deer Run Road and Doe Drive when the teen, identified as Kimberly Phillips of Sanford, fishtailed while operating the 2012 Polaris all-terrain vehicle at a high rate of speed, the FHP said.

“Kids like Cameron (Fulling) and their families are the real heroes,” New Smyrna Beach Fire Chief David McCallister told Headline Surfer®. “We are just privileged to be part of Cameron’s passion for helping other people by serving as firefighters. We welcome him to our team.”

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Cameron Fulling, 6, with his honorary New Smyrna Beach firefighter helmet.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- This 6-year-old boy has an awesome firefighter's hat -- not the plastic kind with the white string that breaks easily. It's the least the New Smyrna Beach firefighters feel they can do their junior honorary partner, Cameron Fulling.

The pint-sized kid suffers from ependymoma, a malignant brain and spinal cord cancer. To help with travel expenses and medical treatment, New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater and Port Orange fire unions also have donated $1,700 to his family.