Photo from Brevard County Sheriff’s Office via Florida Today
Three teens, two reported to be the children of doctors, were arrested Friday for the attempted murder the day before of a fellow teen in Satellite Beach, Florida.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrests of 17-year-old Dylan Thomas and 18-year-old Jessie Umberger of Satellite Beach along with 18-year-old Rebecca Gotay of Indialantic in the attack. The small, usually quiet neighboring towns are south of Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic coast of central Florida.
A neighbor told WOFL-TV in a video report he could hear the victim’s mother screaming for help after the attack.
Initial reports the victim was shot in the head turned out to be incorrect—the attack was done with a crowbar.
BCSO described the plot to kill the 17 year old boy, Daniel Vukovich as he got ready to go to school Thursday morning.
“…the attack was in retaliation for the theft of marijuana and smoking paraphernalia that belonged to Thomas and Umberger. They believed that the victim was responsible for the theft and have been planning to kill him for the past several weeks in retaliation. Based on the investigation, it was determined that on Wednesday night the three met at a residence where Thomas and Umberger were staying. Gotay was to drive her vehicle to the area of the victim’s residence shortly before the victim would leave his residence for school. Thomas would then exit the vehicle, armed with a crowbar and kill the victim.”
Florida Today, published in Brevard County, reported on the background of the suspects:
“Investigators said none of the suspects were living with their parents at the time of their arrests. According to Tod Goodyear, an investigator with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, two of the suspects — Dylan Thomas and Rebecca Gotay — are children of Brevard County physicians.
“According to their Facebook pages, Jessie Umberger and Dylan Thomas were listed as engaged as of June 26, 2014.
“Thomas liked a number of pro-cannabis pages through his profile. He also participated in sports, having played with the South Beach Seahawks football team and, more recently, lacrosse at Satellite High School, though he is not currently listed on the team’s roster online.”
Vukovich is listed in critical condition at a Melbourne, Florida hospital.
