Sara Trost of Parkland and killer Raymond Reese of Boca Raton.
By Kevin Deutsch
The man who murdered beloved Parkland mom and real estate agent Sara Trost mistook her for a homeowner who had recently evicted him and was upset by an email his former landlady sent him the night before, according to newly released court records.
Sara Trost, 40, was sitting in the driver’s seat of her Jeep Wrangler on Dec. 23, the vehicle parked directly in front of 5730 NW 48th Ct., when witnesses in the home’s driveway saw a blue Ford Fusion drive up to Trost’s Jeep and crash into its front, driver’s side tire around 12:33 p.m., according to charging documents filed by Coral Springs Police.
“They watched as the victim opened the driver’s door,” wrote Coral Springs Police Detective Brian Koenig. “The driver of the sedan then pointed a handgun out of the window and fired multiple rounds at the victim from within the dark blue sedan. The suspect then fled the area.”
Police officers arrived to find Trost dead in her Jeep with gunshot wounds to her upper left chest and left arm, according to the records.
At 1:28 p.m., less than an hour after the shooting, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers received a 911 call from a man identifying himself as Raymond Reese.
“Can you send an officer to pick me up? I shot somebody,” Reese said, according to the court records.
Reese, 51, gave his new address on Riverbend Terrace in Boca Raton. He said he had shot his former landlord in Coral Springs and believed she was dead.
Reese also said the gun he shot her with was in a Ford Fusion in the parking lot outside. When PBSO deputies arrived, they found the crash-damaged Fusion with blood on its passenger side.
At a PBSO substation, Reese told detectives he had shot someone at his former residence in Coral Springs and “stated that he was upset at his former landlord over an email she sent him the previous day, which he had read that morning,” according to the records.
Reese then asked for a lawyer.
Trost was at the home to show the property to a prospective buyer, the records state. The home’s owner, who had hired Trost, told police “she had very recently evicted her former tenant, Raymond Reese from the residence and suspected that Raymond may have been the shooter.”
“She stated that Raymond was very upset with the recent eviction and believed that she may have been the intended target,” the property owner told detectives.
Trost, who hails from the United Kingdom, was a married mother of a little girl as well as a pet-sheltering volunteer for Paw Patrol Animal Rescue and Sanctuary.
Reese is charged with first-degree murder in her death and is being held without bond at the Palm Beach County Jail.
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Author Profile
- Kevin Deutsch is an award-winning crime journalist and author. A graduate of Florida International University, Kevin has worked on staff at The Miami Herald, New York Daily News, and The Palm Beach Post.
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