A mother of two begged her children to run inside and call 911 before she was kidnapped and murdered by her on-off boyfriend, a Florida sheriff’s deputy, in a shocking murder-suicide.
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Troy Savetz, 47, was waiting in the woman’s front yard in Hudson when she and her two children, ages 9 and 12, had just returned from the beach Monday evening, authorities said.
She told the children to run inside and call for help when she started arguing with Savetz — with whom she’d been in a “tumultuous” on-off relationship — over a TV he wanted back.
The deputy then snatched away his panicked ex’s phone as she tried to also call for help, the sheriff in a neighboring county said, stressing how he wanted the dead woman’s kids to know how she prioritized their safety.
“We listened to that 911 tape and we know that your mother said to go inside, save your lives and call 911,” Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said at a press conference Monday night.
“Your mom is looking down from heaven, and she is so proud of you… You two did the right thing, you did exactly what your mom wanted you to do.”
Police rushed to the woman’s home around 5:30 p.m., but she and Savetz, who they knew to be armed, were already gone.
He kidnapped the mother in a rental car that police tracked to Platinum Drive in Spring Hill, about 6 miles away from the woman’s home, around 7 p.m.
Inside the car, they found both Savetz and the woman dead from gunshot wounds.
The victim’s name has not been released.
Nocco said her two children are now in the care of their biological father.
“Those two children should be starting off this week getting ready for school,” Nocco said. “But what they’re getting ready for instead is a sad life without their mother.”
Savetz had worked for the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office for 14 years and was assigned to the marine unit, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.
He condemned Savetz’s actions Monday night, calling what he did “inexcusable.”
“The moment this individual committed a crime he was no longer a law enforcement officer. He was a criminal.”
The murder-suicide remains under investigation.
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