Sisters mystified by slaying of their octogenarian parents inside Florida home
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Kim Melvin Hill and Tonya Mitchell sat in front of an array of TV cameras Wednesday, baffled as to why someone would kill his octogenarian parents in their Fort Lauderdale home and, it seems, only steal their 10-year-old car.
“Were angry. Were angry. We are very angry,” said Hill, the youngest of the couple’s 11 children. Major and Claudette Melvin were killed on March 22.
“We ask those questions, but we are also Christian people… so I can’t think about it that way because if you believe in God, he has your time, your place and how.”
Her sister was blunter.
“This maggot,” Mitchell said of the killer.
The case has drawn widespread attention in South Florida and Fort Lauderdale police have issued a nationwide alert for the couple’s red 2014 Ford Focus, Florida license plate LTDQ16. Homicide Sgt. Donald Geiger said Wednesday there is no indication the car has left the area, but declined to say whether the car has been detected since the killings by automated license plate readers found on many of the region’s major roads.
Geiger remained tight-lipped about the details of the killings, but Mitchell previously told reporters that her 89-year-old father was shot while sleeping on the living room couch and that her 85-year-old mother was then shot as she went to came outside. the bedroom. The killer left behind their mother’s wallet and other valuables, Mitchell previously said. Claudette Melvin’s brother, who has special needs, was in the home but was not injured. His sisters have said he could not provide any information.
A $5,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of a suspect.
The Melvins were married for 60 years. He was a retired excavator operator, while she had worked in hospital housekeeping. They had 28 grandchildren.
“They were the most loving people I have ever known,” Hill said. “They’ve lived in that area for fifty years and whoever this perpetrator is must….” Her voice trailed off as she stopped mid-sentence, overcome with tears.
“They didn’t deserve this,” her sister said.