TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Double Murder: Teenager Arrested

ADVERTISEMENT

By KYLE MARTIN

Hernando Today

Published: April 12, 2008

MASARYKTOWN - A teenager has been arrested in connection with the brutal double murder of Patrick and Evelyn DePalma 18 months ago.

An arrest affidavit dated Thursday names a distant relative of the couple, 18-year-old David Bostick, of Tampa, as one of the suspects, but Bostick did not do the actual stabbing.

That was perpetrated by one of two other men, one of whom is known to the DePalmas, the affidavit states.

Those men remain at-large.

"We still have a lot of work to do, but we feel able to give some closure to the family," said sheriff's spokeswoman Sgt. Donna Black.

It's been a rollercoaster day of emotion for the DePalmas' son, Patrick DePalma Jr., who was woken up at 5 a.m. by a sheriff's detective with news of the arrest.

His elation was tempered by the memories stirred up by the news.

"Not a day goes by that I don't think of them," he said by phone from North Carolina. "I think about what went through their minds, how frightened they must have been when they knew they were going to die."

He said Bostick is his cousin's grandson.

According to an affidavit, here's how the murders occurred:

The week before Halloween in 2006, Bostick was hanging out in Tampa with the two other suspects when they set out to run some errands.

Their trip took them to Hernando County, specifically the property of Bostick's "Uncle Pat" and "Aunt Evelyn."

Bostick's familiar face led the DePalmas to invite the trio into their home on Korbus Road in Masaryktown, on the Pasco County border. Suspect No. 2 was armed with a fixed-blade knife in a sheath.

All three sat in the living room chatting, when suspect No. 1 told Bostick to fetch his cell phone from the car. It took awhile to find the cell phone, Bostick told authorities, and by the time he returned the couple was dead.

Suspect No. 1 was yelling at Suspect No. 2 about killing them and his bad temper. When Bostick saw the murdered couple, he vomited into the kitchen sink.
Bostick provided investigators with details of the crime scene that were not released to the public, according to an affidavit.

With the DePalmas dead, the trio ransacked the house; Bostick carried out a garbage bag of the couple's belongings.

Because the incident occurred while Bostick was underage, the Department of Juvenile Justice is holding him on two counts of first-degree murder.

On the anniversary of the murder, the lead investigators told Hernando Today in an interview that they were trying unconventional methods to test what little evidence they had. Black said Friday that didn't play a part in cracking the case, but that it was simply "detective leg work."

DePalma gives the credit to the detectives for this first step in a long road toward closure.

"I'm so thankful they stayed on it," he said.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT