GUILTY FL - Niccole Halpin, 32, beaten to death in her Safety Harbor home, 8 Jan 2004

That is so sad. Please keep us updated on the investigation. Why would someone do such a horrible thing?? Sick, sick, sick. :(
 
Soloflyer thanks for providing us with this information. I imagine you are feeling very uncomfortable if this happened so near your home. Hopefully the police will be able to find out who did this very soon! Did you know this woman? Such a brutal crime! So very thankful the kids didn't get hurt physically, but sure they will require extensive psychological counselling in the future. Please keep us updated!
 
that is awful. She sounds like a really sweet and caring woman who loved her children to the end. No doubt she saved their lives. And thanks to the quick thinking of the bf whom also made have saved those children.
I hope that catch the coward soon...
 
I feel the same way as the ex-husband, sick to my stomache. What kind of world are we living in today? Crime is just getting more and more violent and sick. Sometimes I just feel like I can't take it anymore. Maybe I need to take a break from reading so many unhappy stories.
 
No I do not know her. She has not lived here too long from what I have learned. But, I think her exhusband's father is an escaped felon with attempted murder convictions. I am not sure it is the ex father-in-law but the name is the same and the his conviction was one county North (but we live at the north end of Pinellas county). It appears that the husband has remarried possibly because he and another female (with his last name)recently bought a home.

Our newspaper may have won some awards years ago but the truth is, it stinks! They rarely cover crime. The front page is always Bush bashing and liberal rhetoric. The whole paper reads like the "official" liberal view of the world. Man I wish we had a real newspaper that just printed the news.
 
The case of the murdered couple in Florida reminded me of another Florida murder. Does anyone here remember the case of the divorced mom in Florida that was murdered while her son hid in the home? I think he may have called 911...there was some speculation it could have been an ex boyfriend that broke in and killed her. I think she was originally from the northeast. And if I remember right, I think the son was handicapped.

I want to see if anyone was ever arrested in this case, so if anyone remembers this, please refresh my memory! Thanks!
 
Sorry to respond to my own post...but I figured it out. The murdered Florida mom was Niccole Halpin. Here's a link to a story about the case in case anyone is curious about it:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:IFQFpEMsLzkJ:www.sptimes.com/2005/01/09/Northpinellas/A_light_in_darkness.shtm

snip
SAFETY HARBOR - Drew Halpin sat in a darkened theater watching Finding Neverland, the story of J.M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan. Drew pulled his shirt up over his head and began to sob, tears soaking the fabric.
"What's wrong?" his father, Don, asked, reaching over to hug him.

"It isn't fair," the 8-year-old insisted. "Tinkerbell can come back to life, but my mom can't."

One year ago this weekend, his mother, Niccole Halpin, was beaten to death in her bedroom by a masked intruder. Drew and his brother, Max, who witnessed the attack but escaped injury, defiantly call her killer the Coward. Memories of the man, who remains at large, continue to haunt them.

Max, 10, curls up each night in his father's king-sized bed, too scared to sleep alone. The boy approaches strangers at playgrounds or at the grocery store to tell them, "The Coward killed my mum."

The boys have been reunited with their father, Don Halpin, 51, who divorced Niccole about a year and a half before the attack. And they have moved back into the same home at 15 Clearview Drive where their 32-year-old mother was murdered.

Nikki.jpg
 
nanandjim said:
Is the ex-husband a suspect in hiring someone to kill his ex-wife??
No...I found an article I'll post about her ex-boyfriend. I was wondering the same thing.
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..
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Here you go:
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11/29/Northpinellas/Man_gets_prison_term_.shtml

snip

...Niccole Halpin's name never was mentioned in court Monday. But in some ways, she was everywhere.
A masked man dressed in black murdered Halpin in her Safety Harbor home two years ago. The intruder attacked and beat Halpin in front of her two young sons. No one has been charged with the killing.

Detectives came to investigate Halpin's ex-boyfriend, Daniel P. Welch. Halpin, 32, had complained to family that Welch was pestering her. She considered a restraining order. Welch also could not confirm his whereabouts the night of the killing.

During the investigation, detectives began to suspect Welch also was illegally selling prescription drugs. He was charged with drug trafficking and convicted last month.

Though Welch never had been convicted of a crime before, prosecutors asked a judge to give him the maximum sentence, 60 years in prison, for the drug charges. Welch's defense attorneys accused prosecutors of trying to punish Welch for a murder that they never charged him with committing.

On Monday, Judge Linda Allan sentenced Welch to 31/2 years in prison, the minimum sentence allowed. Allan noted before announcing her decision that she could only consider evidence presented in court.

Still, Halpin's parents sat in the courtroom Monday. They flew here from their Massachusetts home to attend the sentencing. Halpin's mother also had attended the trial. She hugged prosecutors after the sentencing hearing.

Halpin's parents believe Welch soon will be charged with their daughter's killing. Prosecutors said they could not comment on that.
 
From May 2007:

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/19/news_pf/Northpinellas/The_end_of_a_nightmar.shtml

The two young boys saw and heard their mother beaten to death. They hid in a bathtub until deputies arrived. They have suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome and nightmares ever since. No one wanted to see them testify at a trial.

So the man accused of killing their mother was allowed to take a deal Friday in which he will spend 25 years - and not his whole life - in prison.

Daniel P. Welch, 39, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder for the Jan. 8, 2004, killing of Niccole Halpin, 32.
 

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