Neighbor recalls fatal 2006 shootings
On the evening of Dec. 2, 2006, Shelva “Jeanie” Ferree and her boyfriend had just returned to her mobile home from the dog groomer when she heard a commotion in the driveway next door.
They went to go see what was happening. It turned out they were interrupting an armed robbery of her neighbor, 61-year-old John Bigler.
Ferree, 48, and her boyfriend were both shot. She died, but the boyfriend survived. Bigler also was fatally shot.
Nearly 10 years after their deaths, the case remains unsolved.
Ferree and Bigler lived next door to each other at the end of a cul-desac at the Audubon Village mobile home park off Beggs Road, east of Orange Blossom Trail. Neighbor James “Heinie” Heinzelman lived a few trailers away. He was at home and heard three shots.
“Then I heard someone yell, ‘I want blood, I want blood, I want blood,’” he said. “That’s something I will never forget.”
Heinzelman said he and other neighbors went outside. Someone had already called 911. He saw Bigler on the ground and later
watched as the other two victims were taken away.
The boyfriend, Roger Houle, was the shot in the face, but he survived.
One of Ferree’s daughters, Nina Steinmeyer, now 28, was at a friend’s house when she heard about the shooting.
“At that moment everything stops,” she said. “You don’t know what to think.”
She went to the hospital, where she learned her mom died.
Orange County Sheriff’s deputies were able to get detailed descriptions. The getaway car was described as a silver four-door Chevrolet Impala, 2003 to 2005 model, with dark, tinted windows and a black bra across the front bumper. One of the suspects had dreadlocks while the other had gold teeth. There were also sketches made. Neighbors and victim family members say there was a fourth victim at Bigler’s home — another neighbor — who faked a seizure or acted as if he was dead. They believe
that man was involved in the robbery because he came out unscathed.
Orange County Sheriff ’s detectives declined to comment on the case. While no arrests have been made, it appears detectives had suspects.
According to Steinmeyer, detectives asked her to write letters to people in prison.
“They were basically trying to get somebody to come forward,” she said.
Detectives wouldn’t tell her who they were sending the letters to, she said.
Neighbors and family members also believe the robbery was drugrelated.
Bigler sold marijuana and prescription pain-killers, according to neighbors. It’s a fact that his exwife and the father of her two children, Sharon O’Neill, believes to be true.
“Does that mean he deserves to get shot? Of course not,” she said.
Bigler lived in New Jersey where he owned a sports memorabilia store for most of his life before moving to Florida a few years before his death. He left behind two children who are left asking questions about who killed their father.
“They haven’t gotten the closure they deserve,” O’Neill said.
Ferree left behind four daughters. She was a manager at Thrasher Custom Seats, which made motorcycle seats. Steinmeyer said her mother was “feisty” and “full of spunk.”
Another daughter, Tami Spencer, 34, said her mother was giving.
“She was everybody’s mom,” Spencer said. “She would give her last dollar for someone who needed it.”
Heinzelman echoed that sentiment.
“I sold someone [in the mobile home park] a table and I was carrying it over there,” she said. “She got in her truck and said, ‘You don’t have to carry that, let me give you a ride.’ That’s the kind of person she was.”
Both Spencer and Steinmeyer say they take some comfort knowing they told their mother they loved her not long before she died. Still, it’s hard not having her around, especially to enjoy time with her six grandkids, Steinmeyer said.
“It’s tough when you go through those big milestones to know that there hasn’t been justice,” she said. “I try to tell my sisters: Whether they are caught or not, it’s not going to bring Mom back. I do want justice. It would be nice. I have comfort knowing she’s in a better place and knowing we will see her again.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the Crimeline at 1-800-423-8477.