Flagler County Sheriff’s detectives are investigating what Sheriff Rick Staly is calling a “suspicious death” at 137 Florida Park Drive, a single-family house that’s been roped off with crime-scene tape since early this morning. The same family has owned and lived at the house for 20 years.
Numerous unmarked units of the Sheriff’s Office, along with the Crime Scene Investigation unit and some patrol units, lined Florida Park Drive and Forest Hill Drive at mid-morning. Traffic was not impeded. There was no visible activity inside the rope lines other than the occasional deputy or detective walking the grounds. Two private cars, a Toyota Corolla and a Honda Pilot, were parked on the circular driveway.
Staly said the agency received a request for a “welfare check” on that house very early this morning–a request for deputies to verify the well-being of the occupants. It was before dawn.
“They discovered a suspicious incident, and it’s currently an ongoing investigation,” the sheriff said. “So that I don’t compromise the investigation, while obviously I know more, I need to let my team have the ability to properly investigate this for everyone involved. We will have updates later, but at this point, this is all I can share to the community, other than to say that there is absolutely no threat to the community.”
The sheriff is not disclosing what type of weapons, if any, were involved, or whether the victim is an adult or a minor.
“I’m confident that we’ll be able to provide more details, maybe not all the details,” Staly said. “But we will be able to provide more information later today. That may be late afternoon. We know the community wants to know, and I believe in transparency, so as soon as we can release more information that’s not compromising any aspects of the investigation, we will.”
Virgilio Demegillo, 68, and Mae B. Demegillo, 58, originally from South Plainfield, New Jersey, bought the homesteaded house in 2005, the year one of their daughters, Anne Mae, was born. Another family member, Erika, is 31. A neighbor from across the street who has known the couple since then said they are a well-regarded , church-going family with two daughters, one of them in college, and that Virgilio was in the merchant marine.
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