Sheriff's wife, deputy among 4 dead in shooting

**Willowdared** · 01-30-07, 10:32 PM

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MARIANNA, Fla. -- The Jackson County sheriff's wife, a deputy and two suspects were killed Tuesday in a shooting, authorities said.

Mellie McDaniel, wife of Sheriff John McDaniel, a deputy and two suspects were killed, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Karen Mason said. The identities of the deputy and suspects were not immediately released.

McDaniel was driving home when she noticed a suspicious car following her. She pulled into her driveway when two suspects shot and killed her. The suspects also fatally shot the deputy who responded to the scene, local news reports said.

It was not immediately known whether the shooting was random or whether McDaniel had been targeted. No other details were immediately available.

Bay County Sheriff's spokeswoman Ruth Sasser confirmed there had been a shooting and said their agency was investigating with a SWAT team, K9 units and air units.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office declined to comment Tuesday night.

**10-42Adam** · 01-30-07, 10:40 PM

That's absolutely terrible. These guys need to rot in hell...

CopsRCool302 · 01-30-07, 10:46 PM

How Very sad!!

**Ducky** · 01-30-07, 11:05 PM

It sounds to me like they were out to get the Sheriff back for something.

RIP Mrs McDaniel and the unnamed Deputy.

**bmf95b** · 01-30-07, 11:07 PM

Damn...

**Willowdared** · 01-30-07, 11:11 PM

When the story first broke, it sounded like she had interrupted a burglary in her home!

Scary!

**phoenixrose** · 01-30-07, 11:22 PM

Thoughts and prayers for all involved.

**121Traffic** · 01-31-07, 12:40 AM

This is TERRIBLE.

If we can take anything away from this...ladies, hell, EVERYONE: If you notice someone following you, and are spooked enough to call 911, DO NOT STOP! Keep driving, and DEFINITELY don't lead them to your home.

**Pedro56** · 01-31-07, 02:28 AM

I never, ever ever ever take the same route home. RIP.

**cntryboy0531** · 01-31-07, 06:33 AM

RIP. This is very sad..

**Pinki** · 01-31-07, 06:42 AM

What a terrible tragedy! I actually read another report on Yahoo that said that the sheriff's father was killed by a serial killer 27 years ago, and now his wife is killed.

**Willowdared** · 01-31-07, 10:37 AM

A little more coming out.....

MARIANNA, Fla. — Investigators were trying to determine Wednesday why two people shot and killed a sheriff's wife and a deputy before officers killed the suspects at the sheriff's home.

The Tuesday evening attack apparently targeted the home of Jackson County Sheriff John McDaniel and his wife, Mellie McDaniel.

"The community should not be concerned. We believe this was not a random case," State Attorney Steve Meadows said at a news conference late Tuesday, declining to discuss a motive.

More than 100 officers searched the area surrounding the McDaniels' home into early Wednesday, although most had left by late morning. Meadows said authorities did not believe there were other attackers, but the search was conducted as a precaution.

The shootings began around 5 p.m. when Mellie McDaniel arrived home. She managed to call her husband's office and report intruders in the area, but she and one of the deputies sent to the house were killed, said Joe Grammer, a spokesman for Meadows.

Other officers arrived and killed the two suspects in an exchange of gunfire, Meadows said. The sheriff was there but Meadows said he could not say whether he fired his weapon. The sheriff was not injured.

The names of the dead deputy and the suspects were not released.

Edwin Douglas said he was taking a nap at his brother's house, across the street from the McDaniels', when gunfire woke him.

"I heard 15 to 20 gunshots," Douglas told The News Herald of Panama City. "It was quite a bit of excitement. About 20 police cars showed up."

McDaniel's father was gunned down while working at a Jackson County gas station in 1980. McDaniel, then a sheriff's deputy, responded to a robbery call to find his father, former Malonen Mayor John P. McDaniel Jr., shot to death. Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed.

"We never quit working a murder case," McDaniel said at a news conference in 1990 when Lucas was extradited from Texas to Florida. "We will always continue to work any and every murder case until we come to a happy conclusion — that conclusion being the person who committed the heinous crime will go to justice."

**Willowdared** · 02-01-07, 04:47 PM

This case takes an even stranger twist!

Sheriff's wife's killer enmeshed in macabre life insurance scheme
BY MELISSA NELSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MARIANNA, Fla. -- Long before Lionel Sands put on a disguise and killed the local sheriff's wife and a deputy, he was already enmeshed in the macabre battle over life insurance from his second wife's mysterious death - a death in which he was the prime suspect.

A U.S. Army veteran, described as a smooth operator and loner by those who knew him, Sands had two masters degrees and a history of violence. His first wife, Susan Schenk, had taken out a restraining order against him more than two decades ago.

"She warned me that he was a very, very smooth manipulative character. He was very good at telling people what they wanted to hear," Susan Schenk's current husband, anesthesiologist John Schenk, told The Associated Press Thursday from the couple's home in Portland, Ore.

"My only fear was that if he ever came back, that we'd have enough warning to have the guns ready," Schenk added.

Lionel Sands' lawyer said Tuesday he was stunned by the violence, and that Tuesday's killings confirmed for him that his client had murdered his second wife.

"You've got someone who is extremely diabolical and calculating and is able to camouflage reality and was able to get away with the murder of his wife for five years," said his attorney Sidney Matthew of Tallahassee.

Sands, 60, and Daniel Brown, 54, scoped out the home of Jackson County Sheriff John McDaniel and fatally shot his wife of five years, Mellie McDaniel, as she arrived there Tuesday evening, slaying Deputy Harold Michael Altman as he responded to her distress call.

Sands and Brown were carrying plastic restraints, bleach, vinegar and latex gloves, authorities said. Both men were killed in a shootout with Sheriff McDaniel and other deputies minutes later.

"Common sense would dictate those items could be used in a kidnapping situation," said Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Karen Mason, but she added authorities "don't dare speculate on what was their plan."

Life had began to unravel for Sands years before the shootings. His second wife's body was found at the bottom of the couple's swimming pool in 2001. An autopsy revealed of Gail Joanne Sands' died from blunt force trauma - not an accident. But Lionel Sands maintained his innocence, offering to give the money to charity, and was never charged in the death in part because Brown provided an alibi. No money was ever paid, and eventually AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company filed a lawsuit against Sands last year.

Sands had dropped his claim to his wife's $200,000 life insurance payout days before Tuesday's killings, after learning the case would go before a trial judge instead of a jury, Matthew said.

Matthew compared the death of Gail Sands to the McDaniel shootings.

"You're talking about the same two individuals, and you're talking about an elaborate scheme to sinisterly and evilly commit a horrific act and to cover it up," he said.

Matthew said the sheriff's office had recommended another life insurance company also bring legal action against his client.

State Attorney Steve Meadows refused to say Wednesday whether the sheriff was involved in the life insurance dispute. Neither he nor Jackson County sheriff's Maj. John Dennis immediately returned messages seeking comment Thursday.

John Schenk said investigators in the McDaniel case told him that Gail Sands had worked for a local law enforcement agency.

"They knew something stank but they just couldn't prove it," he said.

Sands met his first wife Susan when the two were in college in 1967, Schenk said. They later wed and she followed Sands, a reservist, to Fort Campbell in Kentucky, where she also joined the Army, and then to Fort Shafter in Honolulu, he said.

But the marriage soured as Sands became violent, and his wife filed a restraining order in 1980.

"At the time, he took most of her money. She came home one day and all of their stuff was gone because he had pawned it to pay off somebody," Schenk said, adding that his wife always feared one day "the deadbeat might try to come and harangue her up for financial help."

The violence Tuesday began while Mellie McDaniel, 51, chatted on a radio phone with her husband as she drove home from the grocery store. Suddenly, she told him she was being followed and then screamed, Meadows said.

The sheriff called for help and Altman quickly arrived. More than 100 law enforcement officers searched a four-mile area around the McDaniel's home through the night Tuesday and into Wednesday morning for any additional suspects or clues.

The loss of his wife was not the first tragedy the sheriff has faced. McDaniel, then a sheriff's deputy, responded to a robbery call in 1980 only to find his father shot to death. A serial killer later confessed to the murder.

Separate funeral services will be held Saturday for McDaniel and Altman, who is survived by his wife and two stepchildren. McDaniel is also survived by three adult children and five grandchildren.