Top 100 Volusia County Stories

NSBNEWS.net photo by Sera King. Cutline: The New Smyrna Beach City Commission voted "no confidence" in City Manager John Hagood in September, but stopped short of terminating him or asking him to resign.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Perhaps the only thing that saved New Smyrna Beach City Manager John Hagood's job when the City Commission voted a "no confidence" in his performance Sept. 23, was the fact he would have received a $300,000 severance.

ORMOND BEACH -- Isaac Turner had been city manager of Ormond Beach for seven years before he was forced to resign Aug. 6 after differences of opinions with several city commissioners.

In December the city chose Joyce Shanahan, who holds the same position in Fort Walton Beach. She is expected to arrive here early in the new year.

Turner is a finalist for the city manager's position in Venice near Sarasota.

DEBARY -- The search for an accused murderer in the gunshot-slaying of a DeBary woman on Christmas Eve ended less than two days later with the discovery of the suspect's body in a wooded area of St. Johns County.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The lawyer for the Florida Law Enforcement found dead with his wife in their Cedar Avenue home died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head Sept. 22, while there were no outward signs of trauma to the wife's body, autopsies done by the Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office revealed.

DAYTONA BEACH -- A man stumbled out of his friend's apartment at 139 South Halifax Drive, to which a neighbor herd him say, "I'm dying," before he did just that the night of Feb. 20. The woman inside was already dead.

Both Kirk Allen Zoeller, 50, and Donna Truillo, 51, had been stabbed to death just before 8:30 that night.

Police later charged 26-year-old Doug Blaine Matthews with two counts of first-degree murder in what may have been a drug-related robbery.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Zodrick "Scooter" Jones was shot dead during the late hours of June 21, in what may have been a vengeance killing.

The 20-year-old was found in a pool of blood outside his grandmother's home on Cedar Heights Boulevard just before midnight that night.

According to police reports, the grandmother heard a series of gunshots and when she got outside, she found blood puddled under his head.
Less than a month later, Daytona Beach police arrested Woody Ross on a charge of murder.

Courtesy photo. Cutline: Monquisse Green of DeLand was charged with second-degree murder in the Sept. 5 fatal shooting of Kenya Rashawn Alexender.

 DELAND -- A 22-year-old DeLand man was shot and killed Sept. 5 on Valleydale Avenue by another man in an argument over a relationship involving a woman, DeLand police said.

DAYTONA BEACH -- When police responded to calls of shots fired during the early morning hours of Sept. 21, they found Terry Mclaine in a pool of blood in a Bethune Street driveway. He died three hours later at Halifax Medical Center, the victim of two gunshot wounds in what police said was an apparent drug deal gone bad.

Richard Burnette, 35, of Palm Coast, was charged with second-degree murder.

DELAND -- A 29-year-old man who started an Aug. 9 fight at a DeLand convenience store because he didn't like the way another man stared at him paid for it with his life when he was stabbed in the neck, DeLand police said.

Steven Story, 29, was stabbed in the left side of his neck in the late night fight and was pronounced dead in the parking lot of the Kangaroo Express Mart at State Road 15A and West International Speedway Boulevard and died at the scene.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Yippee Kayee! The Daytona Cubs won the Florida State League Championship Sept. 9, after defeating the Fort Myers Miracle, 7-3, at Jackie Robinson Ballpark, taking the best of 5 series, three games to one.

This was the Cubs' fourth championship since 1995, including titles in 2000 and 2004 sandwiched in between. The parent club is the Chicago Cubs, which hasn't won the World Series in a very, very long time. That's 100 years, but hey, who's counting?