ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A man's obsession with a former Hooters waitress appears to have led to murder. Investigators, Tuesday night, confirmed the identity of the victim and shooter in Monday's murder-suicide in east Orange County and it supports a theory that the man was stalking the woman he murdered.
Investigators said Tuesday night that 61-year-old Roger Troy shot 23-year-old Alissa Blanton in Research Park, near UCF, on Monday afternoon, then he shot himself. Tuesday, WFTV reporter Kathi Belich traced the beginnings of the story into Brevard County. That's where she found a request for a restraining order.
Before investigators confirmed the identities, Eyewitness News pieced together the information based on the SUV investigators took from the scene Monday night and court records.
AT THE SCENE: Aerial Images | Ground Pics VIDEO REPORTS: Stalker Suspected | Friend Speaks Out
The owner of the SUV, 61-year-old Roger Troy, lived in a Cocoa Beach condominium. His neighbors say the local police notified them of his death. They told Eyewitness News they never saw this coming.
Neighbor Margo Gould told Eyewitness News her neighbor, Roger Troy, was an accountant and computer consultant. They said they never knew him to say or do anything inappropriate, crude or violent.
"We had no reason to think there was anything duplicitous about Roger, great sense of humor," Gould said. "Sometimes the people that have these problems hide them the best, because he was just a good friend and neighbor to me and my husband."
Victim Alissa Blanton 020910 Alissa Blanton But court records obtained by Eyewitness News show that, next door, behind closed doors, Troy was sending menacing and demeaning emails to a woman almost 40 years younger than he, a woman named Alissa Blanton (pictured at left), whom records say he met when she was waitressing at a Brevard County Hooters restaurant.
Blanton wrote in a complaint to the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, on January 24 of this year, just two weeks before the deadly shooting at AT&T, that Troy dropped off a 3-page letter at her home addressed to her husband calling her all kinds of names. He also emailed it.
The issue was set for a hearing next week at the Viera courthouse. Her complaint also says Troy owned a gun. She says he stalked her at her Hooters job and at her new job in Orlando. Eyewitness News learned she left Hooters because of Troy.
A woman who says she worked with Blanton at the Brevard Hooters restaurant for about a year says Roger Troy was a Hooters customer who had stalked her, as well as Blanton. In a telephone interview, Blanton's friend, who only wants to be identified as Jeannie, told Eyewitness News Blanton's brother broke the news to her about the murder.
"Her brother notified me yesterday a couple of hours after it happened," Jeannie said. "I just want it out there that she's just a victim to this. She wanted nothing to do with this man at all."
The friend says Blanton's brother had recently warned Troy, face-to-face, to stay away from Blanton.
"She was very sweet. Everyone just thought of her as real sweet, such a nice girl," Jeannie said.
Previous Stories: February 9, 2010: SUV Taken Into Evidence In Murder-Suicide Investigation February 8, 2010: Two Dead In Shooting Outside AT&T Building Near UCF
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