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Ocala Fla--Man Kills Wife Shoots, Sets house on fire, then shoots himself
Ocala man shoots wife, ignites house, kills self
BY AUSTIN L. MILLER
OCALA STAR-BANNER
LEEWARD AIR RANCH - An Ocala man shot his wife Thursday, set his home on fire, called 911 and turned the weapon on himself in a shooting that shocked friends and neighbors in this upscale community.
Thursday evening, hours after the early morning shooting, Cheryl Deamer-Boykin was clinging to life in critical condition at Munroe Regional Medical Center. Her husband, Mark Boykin, was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. When rescue workers arrived, they found the couple's bloody bodies draped on an American flag on the patio, the home ablaze.
Mark and Cheryl Deamer-Boykin were both airplane enthusiasts.
In 1991, the Boykins got married in a 1928 Ford Tri-Motor passenger plane thousands of feet above Lakeland. Their first date, according to an interview they did with the Star-Banner in 1995, was in an airplane when Mark reportedly picked up his future bride from Ocala and took her to dinner in Orlando.
Things turned tragic around 3:45 a.m. Thursday when Mark, 47, allegedly shot Cheryl, 46, in the head, before turning the weapon on himself.
Detectives have classified the case as an attempted murder, arson and suicide. No suicide note has been found so far, officials say.
"It's the last place you would expect something like this would happen," said Bill Doty, a nearby resident.
Cheryl was an administrator for West Marion Hospital. She was described by one couple as a "hard worker who is pleasant and cordial with everyone she comes in contact with."
"She was a fun-loving person," Penny Jacobs said.
She and her husband, Don Jacobs, said they were "shocked and stunned" to hear about the shootings.
"We walked with them in the mornings and we never heard them at each other's throat or anything like that," Don Jacobs said.
But the day before the shooting, a neighbor was reportedly at the home helping Cheryl pack her husband's belongs.
And, according to another neighbor, things were not going well with the couple. Apparently, the stockbroker had been unemployed for some time.
"Mark was supposed to move last night (Wednesday)," John Kelley said. "They were on the verge of splitting up."
Neighbors told detectives that Cheryl had given her husband 24 hours to move out, and he apparently had taken steps to leave the residence.
BY AUSTIN L. MILLER
OCALA STAR-BANNER
LEEWARD AIR RANCH - An Ocala man shot his wife Thursday, set his home on fire, called 911 and turned the weapon on himself in a shooting that shocked friends and neighbors in this upscale community.
Thursday evening, hours after the early morning shooting, Cheryl Deamer-Boykin was clinging to life in critical condition at Munroe Regional Medical Center. Her husband, Mark Boykin, was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. When rescue workers arrived, they found the couple's bloody bodies draped on an American flag on the patio, the home ablaze.
Mark and Cheryl Deamer-Boykin were both airplane enthusiasts.
In 1991, the Boykins got married in a 1928 Ford Tri-Motor passenger plane thousands of feet above Lakeland. Their first date, according to an interview they did with the Star-Banner in 1995, was in an airplane when Mark reportedly picked up his future bride from Ocala and took her to dinner in Orlando.
Things turned tragic around 3:45 a.m. Thursday when Mark, 47, allegedly shot Cheryl, 46, in the head, before turning the weapon on himself.
Detectives have classified the case as an attempted murder, arson and suicide. No suicide note has been found so far, officials say.
"It's the last place you would expect something like this would happen," said Bill Doty, a nearby resident.
Cheryl was an administrator for West Marion Hospital. She was described by one couple as a "hard worker who is pleasant and cordial with everyone she comes in contact with."
"She was a fun-loving person," Penny Jacobs said.
She and her husband, Don Jacobs, said they were "shocked and stunned" to hear about the shootings.
"We walked with them in the mornings and we never heard them at each other's throat or anything like that," Don Jacobs said.
But the day before the shooting, a neighbor was reportedly at the home helping Cheryl pack her husband's belongs.
And, according to another neighbor, things were not going well with the couple. Apparently, the stockbroker had been unemployed for some time.
"Mark was supposed to move last night (Wednesday)," John Kelley said. "They were on the verge of splitting up."
Neighbors told detectives that Cheryl had given her husband 24 hours to move out, and he apparently had taken steps to leave the residence.