THE NEWSCASTER
THE NEWSCASTER
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Deborah Russell - Editor/Publisher
Wednesday April 29, 2009
Inglis, FL 34449
Tom Russell - Consulting Editor
A Publication of
Sally Price - Correspondent
Permit No. 14
Newscaster Publishing
Mike Moore - Photojournalist
Squawk Box
With Doug Johnston
Inglis Mayor will be missed
In August it will be 22
years ago that I was hired to
manage Food Ranch Supermar-
ket in Inglis. On my first day at
“The Ranch”, I was in the
stores’ back room taking a vi-
sual inventory of what was
there when an employee came to me and said
that there was a very important member of the
community in the store and she had a com-
plaint.
I was led to the candy department
where Carolyn Risher was staring at a blank
hook on the pegboard candy rack. On that
day she wanted to know who I was and why
I was out of gummy bears. That was my first
encounter with Mrs. Risher and as we talked
I realized she was sizing up the new guy in
town. That’s okay because I was sizing her
up too. I don’t know if I passed her test but, I
decided right then and there that anyone who
could convince me that the earth was going
to stop spinning on its axis and life as we
know it would be over if we didn’t get re-
stocked with gummy bears knew how to push
buttons and wasn’t afraid to do it.
Pat McJunkin of Dunnellon looks over the glass pendants at Saturday’s Boomtown Days celebration. Grace and Ron Gazdik of Spring Hill were just one
From the first day I met Carolyn she
of many vendors at the three day event. More phosos at flickr.com/thenewscaster. Newscaster Photo by Tom Russell
was a “go-to” person. She always had an-
Deputies Investigate Apparent
Man Sought
swers about the make up of the community
and was very helpful to me. As a few years
passed and she became a member of the town
Murder/Suicide
In Shooting
government her value to those of us who
needed help or information was magnified.
As her tenure unfolded she either
(Crystal River) Citrus County Sheriff’s Office detectives are investigating an apparent
Incident
spearheaded, or was at least a part of, almost
murder/suicide that was reported around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21.
every worthwhile project in the Inglis com-
Deputies found the bodies of twin brother and sister Barbara Gruppo and Gerard Gruppo,
munity. She was the person who every new-
Bronson -The Levy
50, in a non-operational Volkswagen van parked on the property shared by the siblings at 9535
comer, be they rich or poor, young or old was
County Sheriff’s Of-
most often referred to4 Squawk Box or prob-
Continued on page when a question
W. Pomegranate Street off W. Dunnellon Road. Continued on page 3 - Murder-Suicide
fice received a 9-1-1
Robber Hits Floral City
Continued on page 4 - Squawk Box
call in reference to a
Adopt A
shooting that oc-
curred behind the
Convenience Store
Pet-Page 2
Bronson Post Office.
Deputies arrived on
the scene within
(Floral City) Deputies were dispatched to
three minutes of the
the Citgo convenience store at 7810 S. Florida
call and found the vic-
Avenue shortly before 3 p.m. Friday in re-
tim, Cosmo James lay-
sponse to a robbery call.
ing on the ground and
Witnesses told them a lone white male
Aaron Hope
bleeding from a gun-
entered the store and took an undisclosed
shot wound.
amount of cash out of the clerk’s drawer.
At the scene there were three eye-
While the man said he had a gun, no weapon
witnesses to the shooting and they stated
was ever displayed.
that “Doughboy” shot the victim and then
He apparently left the scene in a tan or
attempted to shoot them by firing multiple
beige-colored Chrysler Sebring, with a partial
times. The suspect left the scene in a 1988
Florida tag number of 871, heading south-
Suspect in Surveillance photo
Continued on page 3 - Attempted Homicide
Continued on page Convenience store