APOPKA, Fla. — Deputies said a woman shot and killed a man and then herself after storming into an independent living facility in Apopka on Wednesday.
Neighbors said they heard a lot of screaming and yelling coming from the home known as Hoepfinger's Hideaway on Apopka Boulevard, but said they were used to the commotion. They had no idea an apparent murder-suicide had just taken place inside.
Authorities said Eva McDermid, 43, pulled up, went into the residence and shot and killed Markeith Pope, 43, before turning the gun on herself.
"Scary, but doesn't surprise me," said neighbor Samantha Dowd.
Several men and women struggling with mental illnesses live in the multi-unit home, Channel 9 learned.
"It's something to help them, because they are, you know, on medication and so forth," said one worker.
The woman who found the bodies said she was devastated.
“I proceeded to see him on the couch with a bullet wound to the head. It was like a really bad scene out of 'CSI'," said Kim Snelling.
Pope was known on the streets of Orlando as “The Hardest Artist” for his sketches.
“He was amazing,” Snelling said. “Just a really good friend that you wouldn’t expect something like that to happen to.”
The nature of McDermid's and Pope’s relationship is unclear.
“He introduced her as his childhood friend that he grew up with,” Snelling said.
Snelling said the images of the two bodies left her so shaken, she plans to find somewhere else to sleep Wednesday night.
“I just need to get away for a couple days from here,” she said.
Emergency personnel said they know the house well, saying ambulances and police are constantly called.
Channel 9 checked and found deputies were called to the home nearly 40 times this year for issues ranging from battery to mental distress.
"One of them came over here one time and said her roommate beat her up," said Dowd.
Authorities still are trying to determine a motive in Wednesday's killing.
The independent living facility is for the mentally challenged, which means it doesn’t require oversight from the Department of Children and Families.
WFTV
