Posted on 05/22/2007 6:48:07 AM PDT by Rita Hayworth
A family in Central Florida is outraged that they were kept in the dark about their new house's dark secret: A triple murder and suicide happened within the four walls they'd just begun to call home. John and Kathy Johnson and their 24-year-old daughter Christina were horrified to learn that their bucolic Lake County ranch home was the scene of such a bloody crime — and worse, that the realtor and seller kept quiet about the grisly homicide. But on May 5, when the Johnsons moved into the Greenbrier Street residence, a neighbor mentioned that local police Cpl. Michael Mount of Eustis, Fla., gunned down his estranged wife Kim, fellow cop Joe Gomez and Gomez' wife Serena in a jealous rage in February 2006, according to The Orlando Sentinel. He then shot and killed himself. The crimes took place in what was then the Gomez family's house. A minor in the family inherited the property. "There was no way we could ever stay here," Christina Johnson told the Sentinel as she stood in the master bedroom, where three of the four victims perished. "It would be like living in a morgue." Her mother, Kathy Johnson, said the family thought about staying in the home, but after finding out what had happened, they were scared to death and felt fearful whenever they were inside. "We couldn't live with someone dying in the house," she said in a telephone interview with FOXNews.com. The house cost the Johnsons $227,000, but a Florida state law — one they want amended — allows real estate companies to withhold information about their properties' unsavory pasts, including homicides, suicides or deaths that occurred on the premises. "They don't have to reveal that three people died and a person committed suicide in the home," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Additionally, if a murder ocurred at a certain residence it would be a matter of public record, wouldn't it? A buyer interested in a property need only make a few calls to local law enforcement to find out about recent goings-on at said dwelling. That's certainly the case where I live. Buyer beware or buyer be stupid, but for crying out loud, keep superstition out of law.
There’s no reason it needed to be disclosed. They could have gotten the information if this kind of thing is so serious to them. And dontcha think this story made a big splash in the papers? It happened just last year. Sounds more like cold feet looking for an easy way out of the deal. Or some disturbingly superstitious people. It’s not a “morgue” unless they left the bodies there.
Quite an eloquent way of supporting deception. Remind me to never buy a car from you.
Whatever! Go play with some runes or something.
That's what I was getting at--bodies decaying in the basement, yes...that should be disclosed. That would indeed pose a health risk--a genuine health risk--to an occupant. Maybe not the decaying bodies themselves, but certainly the vermin drawn to them.
Where should it end? "Has anyone ever suffered melancholy in your home? Has anyone been diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder in the dwelling?"
What about miscarriages? I bet most miscarriages occur at home. That's a death. Does that get disclosed? What about murders or suicides that happen in apartments? If a landlord doesn't disclose what happened to previous tenants, should said landlord have to pay for the moving cost of a current tenant when the bogeyman comes? What century is this again? How big do we want our government? How little control do we want to have over our properties? This is just another intrusion, and a stupid, lazy one at that, because you are right--this information is available to anyone, far more easily than the kinds of things that should appear on disclosure statements.
/rant. You can't stop some folks from worshipping trees, I guess.
It wouldn’t end. It would just get more ridiculous. We’re already at a point where some people who are hyper sensitive to “feelings” think we should ban booing & stop keeping score at games. These people need to get a grip. “Stuff” happens. That’s life. This was a terrible tragedy, but only for the families of the victims. If the buyers don’t want to live there they can sell. If it’s at a loss that’s life too. Property values rise & fall. I would want it properly cleaned but I’d be more concerned about termites & the structural integrity of the property.
I don’t believe in poltergeists. It’s just a house. It’s not responsible for the crime.
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