Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office: On May 15, 2000, the suspect, Ms Katherine Freeman entered the residence of the victims, shot Mr. Freeman, causing his death and then becoming involved in a physical altercation with Ms. Constance Freeman. She struck Constance Freeman in the head several times with the handgun and then fled the scene. Constance  Freeman fled the residence to a friend’s house. Mr. Freeman called 9-1-1 and died soon after. As the Homicide Unit was investigating this incident, Ms. Katherine Freeman drove her 1999 Cadillac to the center span of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, exited the vehicle and jumped off of the bridge. Katherine Freeman was located in the water by St. Petersburg Fire Rescue and brought to land where she was airlifted to Bayfront Medical Center. As a result of the investigation, Sheriff’s detectives obtained a warrant for Katherine Freeman’s arrest, charging her with 1st degree murder, armed burglary (dwelling) and aggravated battery.

05.17.00, © St. Petersburg Times, Top lawyer slain; ex-wife charged, Suspect survives leap off Skyway
Investigators say prominent lawyer Grover Cleveland Freeman Jr., 54, was shot to death Monday night by his ex-wife, Katherine, in his home in Tampa's Carrollwood. Grover Cleveland Freeman lived there with his current wife, Constance. 
By AMY HERDY
TAMPA -- Katherine Freeman delivered home-baked poundcakes, bathed a friend's young daughter and chatted with neighbors Monday afternoon in her tony Carrollwood subdivision.
Hours later, investigators say, she shot to death her ex-husband, successful lawyer Grover Cleveland Freeman Jr., 54, before beating and attempting to strangle his wife in the couple's two-story lakefront home in Carrollwood.
Katherine Freeman then drove her 1999 Cadillac to the Sunshine Skyway bridge early Tuesday morning and leaped from the center span.
Remarkably, she survived. Officials credited brisk winds with slowing the 140-pound woman's descent. She is thought to be the fifth person to survive the 200-foot fall since the bridge opened in 1987.
Katherine Freeman was still conscious after drifting more than 40 minutes in the main shipping channel before being plucked from the water by officials with St. Petersburg Fire Rescue, said spokesman David Nolsheim. An initial assessment of her condition showed possible broken legs and a broken pelvis, Nolsheim said.
She was taken to Bayfront Medical Center, where she underwent surgery and was in critical condition with internal injuries.
Tuesday afternoon, Hillsborough sheriff's deputies charged the 41-year-old homemaker and former stockbroker with first-degree murder, armed burglary and aggravated battery.
The chain of events stunned her upscale community and left the couple's 13-year-old daughter in shock, friends said.
"We can't fathom any of this happening," said Michele Karpenko, a friend of Katherine Freeman's who answered the door Tuesday morning at Freeman's home at (address withheld), just blocks from her ex-husband's house at (address withheld).
Like many neighbors, Karpenko described her friend as a vivacious, upbeat person who doted on her daughter and maintained a friendly relationship with her ex-husband despite their 1996 divorce after 10 years of marriage.
"They were best friends who got married," she said. After the divorce, she said, Katherine Freeman would sometimes comment she missed her ex-spouse.
"She would say, "I realize how much I liked him as a person,"' Karpenko recalled.
Yet for some reason, investigators said, she armed herself with a handgun and entered her ex-husband's home shortly after 11:30 p.m. Monday. She then confronted him, said sheriff's spokesman Rod Reder, shooting him several times.
Upon hearing shots, Freeman's wife, Constance Freeman, 50, approached the pair and was attacked by Katherine Freeman, who choked her, pistol-whipped her and broke one of her fingers, Reder said.
"Mrs. Freeman then ran to a friend's house, and the suspect fled," Reder said.
Grover Freeman called 911 but died at the scene.
It is not clear how Katherine Freeman spent the time after the shooting and before leaping off the Sunshine Skyway bridge Tuesday morning about 6.
However, she did not return to her home where her daughter was in the care of her mother, said Karpenko, who was watching after the teen Tuesday.
A neighbor and close friend of the couple, Laurie Winkles, said Katherine Freeman may have reacted to tensions between her daughter and Constance Freeman, who had been with the teen Monday when the girl placed a call to her mother.
"She was very protective" of her daughter, said Winkles, who described the woman as "passionate, and utterly devoted" to her child. "Something must have been said to really tick her off."
The incident came as a surprise to others who said that Grover and Katherine Freeman were an ideal example of an amicable split.
Divorce records show that after the couple's breakup, Grover Freeman kept the marital home, valued at $650,000, as well as several condominiums, sports cars and various bank and stock accounts.
Katherine Freeman received $110,000 in cash, $96,000 in alimony and $1,450 in monthly child support, plus half the furniture and photographs.
Six months later, court records show, Grover Freeman remarried on Oct. 12, 1996, to Constance Elaine King. If that situation was difficult for Katherine Freeman, friends say, she never showed it.
It was one of many challenges she had faced in life.
In March 1983, sheriff's deputies said, someone shot to death her boyfriend, 30-year-old Ronald Heinlein, in his jewelry store on N Dale Mabry Highway.
"Kathy was dating Ronald, and he was a homicide victim," said Reder, the sheriff's spokesman, adding that the case remains open.
A year later, in February 1984, a robber took Katherine Freeman hostage after beating and robbing her in a jewelry store she owned on E Busch Boulevard in Tampa.
The suspect was shot by Tampa police 11 times in the store's parking lot. He recovered and eventually was sentenced to prison.
In 1986, friends said, Freeman had recently given birth and was living in the Mossvale Lane home when she was attacked by an intruder while her husband was out of town.
Yet despite her hardships, friends said, Katherine Freeman was not angry, bitter or resentful.
"Her attitude was, "Life goes on,"' said her friend Karpenko.
Recently, she had been typically upbeat, neighbors said, and making plans to take her daughter to Hawaii in two weeks.
When she did talk of her ex-husband, it was with respect, said Janine Rosen, who lives across the street from Katherine Freeman's one-story stone home.
"She spoke of him with admiration, talked of his successes," Rosen said.
For her part, Winkles speculated that the friend who e-mailed her jokes and organized outings for their kids was perhaps hiding an inner pain, accumulated from her life experiences.
"I wonder if it all just added up."

05.18.00, © St. Petersburg Times, Shooting was act of frustration, investigators say. Details emerge that portray the murder suspect as a woman angry with her ex-husband and his wife. By AMY HERDY
TAMPA -- Kathie Freeman drove to her ex-husband's home Monday night with a loaded 9mm handgun she kept for protection, investigators said, then emptied the gun into Grover Freeman, shooting him 14 times. 
Hit in the chest and mortally wounded, Grover Freeman managed to dial 911 before dying. 
Wednesday, in the aftermath of the killing, details emerged that portray Kathie Freeman as an angry woman increasingly frustrated with her ex-husband, his current wife and differing views on how to raise Grover and Kathie Freeman's teenage daughter. 
Naomia Swain, a housekeeper for three years for Grover Freeman, a successful Tampa attorney, and his wife, Connie, said Kathie Freeman appeared upset by her ex-husband's marriage. 
"I think it really bothered her to see them together," Swain said. 
After killing her ex-husband and striking his wife with the empty gun, police said, Kathie Freeman attempted suicide by jumping off the Sunshine Skyway bridge. Somehow, she survived. 
She remains in critical condition at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg but is expected to survive the internal injuries and broken bones she suffered. 
As she drifted in and out of consciousness Wednesday, making requests to see her daughter, investigators searched her home and garage at (address withheld) in Carrollwood. The 41-year-old homemaker and former stockbroker faces first-degree murder, armed burglary and aggravated battery charges. 
Friends said Tuesday they were shocked by the violence and that the divorced couple had never shown any signs of friction. They had split amicably, continued to live near each other and shared in the raising of their daughter. 
But Swain, the housekeeper, said she thinks Kathie Freeman was upset by recent developments in her ex-husband's current marriage. Grover and Connie Freeman had recently talked through some of their differences and pledged to stay together. Swain said the couple had spent the weekend as an inseparable pair, planting an herb garden and dining out on sushi. 
That closeness, she said, may have angered Kathie Freeman. 
"I guess it's true what they say about the fine line between love and hate," Swain said. 
She described Connie Freeman, 50, as "classy, educated and kind," and said she did not interfere in the raising of Kathie and Grover Freeman's daughter. "She wasn't the evil stepmother," Swain said. 
Beaten and bloody, Connie Freeman escaped Monday night by running first to one neighbor's home, and then another before finding shelter. She sought solace with friends Wednesday, said her husband's law partner, Howard Hunter of Freeman, Hunter and Malloy. 
Hunter said Connie Freeman has planned her husband's memorial service, set for Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in downtown Tampa. 
"She has an inner strength that I have been marveling at," Hunter said. 
Friends said there were other sources of tension between Grover Freeman, 54, and his ex-wife. 
While Kathie Freeman wanted the couple's daughter to attend a prestigious private school next year, friends say, Grover Freeman wanted her to go to a public school, in part to avoid what he feared would be a superficial crowd concerned with status. 
"His concern was that she would then be around people more concerned with what they were wearing and what they were driving" than more valid issues, said Kurt Rhodaback, whose daughter is a friend of Freeman's daughter. 
Whatever enraged Kathie Freeman, Swain said, was enough to make her break down the front doors to Grover Freeman's two-story, lakefront home at (address withheld) in Carrollwood on Monday night. 
Wednesday afternoon, the frame of the two wooden doors remained splintered.

03.17.01, © St. Petersburg Times, Ex-wife admits killing: To avoid a death sentence, Katherine Freeman pleads guilty to murdering her ex-husband. [Times photos: Thomas M. Goethe] Katherine Freeman, center, looks on during her sentencing Friday with public defenders Lyann Goudie and John Syke. By DAVID KARP TAMPA -- As she admitted crimes Friday that will keep her in prison for the rest of her life, Katherine Freeman, 42, sounded remarkably calm. She answered Circuit Judge William Fuente in short, certain sentences as he asked whether she understood what she was doing.

"Yes, sir," she said.
Freeman's decision to plead guilty Friday to murdering her ex-husband, successful lawyer Grover Cleveland Freeman Jr., and attempting to kill his wife, Connie Freeman, came down to a calculation for the former stockbroker.
By admitting guilt, she escaped a possible death sentence.
The decision was a turnaround for Freeman, who attempted suicide last May after shooting her ex-husband and choking his wife in their lakefront Carrollwood home. She drove her 1999 Cadillac to the Sunshine Skyway bridge, removed her diamond earrings, and jumped. Amazingly, she survived.
While Katherine Freeman will live out her life in prison, Connie Freeman, who survived the attack that night, has had ovarian cancer diagnosed. In court Friday, Connie Freeman, 51, stood a few feet from Katherine Freeman and addressed the court.
"I am pleased that Katherine Freeman has come forward to accept her responsibility for her crime and has accepted the serious consequences of her crime," she said.
She expressed no bitterness and afterward, speaking to reporters, she said she did not object to the deal that allowed Katherine Freeman to escape death row.
"I feel this sentence was just," she said. "I will be able to go on with my life, and I know that is what Grover would have wanted."
In court, prosecutor Jay Pruner described how Katherine Freeman killed her 54-year-old ex-husband for money. She owed about $71,000 to credit card companies and was borrowing money from one credit card to buy overdraft protection to pay other credit card bills, Pruner said.
She had tapped out a $30,000 revolving line of credit against her mortgage and was borrowing money to buy stocks and then betting the stocks would turn a profit. Her alimony payments from her 10-year marriage had ended, and her only steady income was child support of $1,450 a month, court records showed.
Despite her debts, Freeman continued to live a lavish lifestyle, Pruner said, taking vacations to Europe, Las Vegas, New York and San Francisco.
Her solution? Kill her ex-husband and his wife, Pruner said. If they died, Grover Freeman's will left Freeman's daughter, then 14, a fortune, including his $472,000 house in Carrollwood.
Prosecutors said Freeman bought a 9mm handgun in Georgia, then slipped into her ex-husband's house late on the night of May 15, 2000. As Grover Freeman lay in bed, Katherine fired at him 16 times. Connie Freeman listened from the bedroom as her husband cried out in pain.
"You're next, b----!" Katherine Freeman said.
She then struck Connie Freeman with her pistol, which had jammed, and dragged her by the hair to the balcony of the two-story house, where she tried to throw her over the railing. Connie Freeman managed to break free and run from the house, seeking refuge at a neighbor's.
Her husband managed to dial 911. "Help . . . shot . . . ex-wife," he said.
Katherine Freeman fidgeted slightly Friday as the prosecutor described the night.
Sheriff's detectives recently interviewed Freeman about the 1983 shooting of 30-year-old Ronald Heinlein, who was Freeman's boyfriend at the time, according to Alan Evans, a photojournalist for NBC News in Atlanta and one of Grover Freeman's close friends. The killing never was solved.
A sheriff's spokeswoman declined to confirm Friday whether Katherine Freeman was a suspect in the 1983 shooting.
The Public Defender's Office represented Freeman at taxpayers' expense even though Judge Fuente found recently that Freeman did not qualify as an indigent. She had received $74,000 in November from the sale of her Carrollwood house. It was too late in the case, however, to force Freeman to change lawyers, the judge said.
In one final move Friday, Fuente placed a lien on Freeman's assets, saying he would force her to reimburse taxpayers for the public defender's services. Her lawyer estimated the office's staff had spent more than 400 hours on Freeman's case and incurred $25,000 in costs.
Katherine and Grover Cleveland's daughter, now 15, is living with one of Katherine Freeman's friends.

09.06.06, ex-jail-bird, Wow...I was in prison with Kathie Freeman from 2001 to 2004, she is actively appealing her sentence...she has a real snotty, better-than-thou attitude...oh and she does walk with a very profound limp.... (in this day and age, it would surprise no one if they would let her go. thanks for your input and welcome back to the free world. now behave yourself.)

02.04.01, Lindsey G., St. Petersburg, FL., This is by far the sickest thing that I have ever seen. Who ever created this website needs "serious clinical health. In case you dont realize, the people who have decided to end their lives in this way were sick mentally. They were sick people who had families who loved them. It is discusting and sadthat people have to make their lives seem better by making fun of other greivances. One of your "counts" from 2000, was my brother. His life, nor any of the others',was a thing to mock.  It is people like you who should not exist in this world or call themselves human beings (we created this site and if you read even a small part of it, you would see we do try and give those that want to jump some help if they want it. however, if they decide to bypass help and jump, for whatever reason, it is their option to remove themselves from whatever pain they are no longer able to endure and neither you nor we can do a damn thing about it. we are then free to express ourselves with this form of humor, as "sick" as you say it is. we are sorry for your brother's loss, but we're sure he feels a lot better about things now then when he was walking the planet. try to put aside your selfish feelings and let him go. obviously, that's what he wanted. he is the cause of all the mocking. as for wanting our life to end, that just shows you have more need of "serious clinical health" then we do.)

11.02.04, Joy, St. Petersburg, Florida, The kids name was Ryan, I went to highschool with him. I was out of the state at the time living in AZ. But, close friends called me and informed me that at one of the infamous 'Skyway Parties' at that time he had done a whole bunch of "Special K" (Horse tranquilizer) along with several other drugs of choice that evening and had jumped from about the peak of our grand bridge.- Windy night - he jumped and hit the rocks.. what a mess. (if his drug intake was as you state, then it may explain why he jumped off the bridge.)

04.20.05, daniel, california, Its kind of funny how things work out. You guys may think I'm totally nuts but if that guy ryan gilbert hadnt commited suicide I may not be here today. about eight years ago I f**ked around on a ouji board and ryans death was predicted as was mine when ryans came to pass it really opened my eyes and i was able to potentially avoid my demise. anyway just found your website and thought i'd drop a line. believe me or not it really happened and if ryan had been there that night things might be different.

04.24.00, © St. Petersburg Times, Body in bay might be missing woman ~ By AMY WIMMER
Three fishermen found a woman's body off the Manatee County coast Easter morning, and a Gulfport man is holding out hope that the body is not his wife's. 
But the dead woman is white. She has reddish-brown hair. And she was wearing the same type of casual clothes his wife was wearing when last seen Monday morning. 
"I'm still holding out hope until somebody definitely does verify that it is her," said Gulfport resident Art Davis, whose wife of 12 years, Dalana Davis, has been missing since Monday. "The thing is, it's not every day that a Caucasian female with reddish-brown hair is found." 
An investigator with the medical examiner's office in Sarasota said an autopsy will be performed today, and the office will attempt to identify the body. 
The Florida Highway Patrol found Mrs. Davis' car at the top of the Sunshine Skyway on Monday, about 30 minutes after she told her daughter she was going out for cigarettes. The abandoned car's engine was still running. 
Art Davis said his wife had displayed suicidal tendencies in the past, but she was terrified of the Skyway. He would tease her while driving over the bridge, urging her to look at the sailboats on the water beneath them. 
Mrs. Davis would stare straight forward or close her eyes to avoid looking. 
"She was always deathly afraid of that bridge," Davis said Sunday afternoon, shortly after learning about the discovery of the body. He was informed by a victim's advocate assigned to him by the state attorney's office. 
Art Davis himself went out on the water Saturday, looking for some sign of his wife without success. Dalana Davis, 40, has two children -- Aaron, 16, who attends Boca Ciega High School, and Amber, 14, who attends Tyrone Middle School. The family lives at 5221 Jersey Ave. S in Gulfport. 
The body discovered by the fishermen was found at 10:15 a.m. Sunday in Manatee County, less than 2 miles from the Skyway, near Port Manatee. 
"We haven't made any positive ID," said David Winterhalter, an investigator with the medical examiner's office. 

NEWS RELEASE
St Petersburg, FL
Date: April 29, 2000

LOCAL WEB PAGE MAY HAVE INFLUENCED SKYWAY BRIDGE JUMPER
On April 17, Gulfport woman Dalana Davis, jumped to her death from the skyway bridge. Her body was found and recovered a week later. An article in the April 24 issue of the St. Petersburg Times stated that, "she was always deathly afraid of that bridge". According to e-mails from a friend of the Davis family, received by the creators of the web page "Guess the date of the next skyway bridge jumperpool" (old site address removed), the jumper, who had made prior suicide attempts, had been to the web page. She made a point to send the address to her brother in Kansas as well as detailing her curiosity for the site and it's content just days before jumping. On their last visit, Ms. Davis had even taken her family across the bridge telling them about the bridge's reputation. Whether or not the web page had anything to do with Ms. Davis' decision to jump off the very same bridge she so feared in the past, will always be unknown. -30-

10.22.00, Janet, Kansas: (after she contacted us about the apparent news blackout on bridge jumpers) Dalana Davis, who jumped in April, was my niece. I feel kind of bad, because I think my family probably had a lot to do with the blackout of jumper news. They raised a big stink because Dalana had been looking at your site before she jumped. Let me tell you something about Dalana.... She was the sweetest person you'd ever want to meet, but she had her problems. Her mother abandoned her when she was 5 years old. (My sister was her step-mother.) I believe this was the source of her problems. She'd had a drug & alcohol problem since she was about 16 years old. She also had an ongoing battle with depression. She'd attempted suicide on at least 3 occassions that I know of. Your site in NO WAY gave her the idea to commit suicide. She'd had that idea on her own, several times prior to when she finally succeeded. I believe the only influence your site might have had on her was the method she used to achieve her goal. I really think she just wanted her 15 minutes of fame. My family does not think kindly of my opinion, but you'd have to know them as well. They will blame anyone under the sun for anything, except for the person who is really at fault. In this case, it was Dalana. As I told my sister, nobody looks at that site and thinks, "Hey, that looks like fun, I think I'll try that this weekend." Dalana did that all on her own. Put the blame where the blame is due.

04.16.07, amber, st. pete, fl., That was my mothe who jumped off of that bridge, and i think you are sick and evil for thinking up this website. Im glad to know it gives you hapiness to bet on the pain of others. My mother was a grat woman who was at a very down time in her life and made a mistake. Now im left without a mother and im glad i have all you great people to thank for making this easier, yeah f**k you! And Janet if your reading this no wonder everyone hopes you die you selfish bitch. She wasnt your niece. quit trying to get attention, everyone hates your sorry ass. May evertone who goes on this site gets thearpy and god bless. i hope none of your kids take their lives, or hell maybe i do just so you can get a taste of your own medicine!!! I love you mom!! (sorry for your loss and nasty attitude. we like janet, she was very nice and informative. you should have left an e-mail address. we could guide you to a separate page dedicated to your mother's jump and discussion about it.)

08.09.07, carrie, wichtia, Dalana was my sister. I agree with her daughter Amber. Janet is an extremely evil and nasty person. The family has not had anything to do with her for over 20 years because of her mean and crazy behavior. She is the definition of mentally ill. For you to say you like her just shows how truly stupid you people are. She is as cold as John Wayne Gacy. She is HER mothers daughter. (sorry you lost your sister. like we said, janet was nice to us, never a harsh word. we can only base our opinion of anyone by how they respond to us. janet may well be "mean, crazy, and the definition of mentally ill", but she was nice and you were not. then again, we are "truly stupid". as usual with jumperpool detractors, carrie left no email address, so we couldn't send her the web address to another page about her sister's jump.)

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