It was 1984 & Karen Gregory was a 36-year-old woman from Albany New York; she was born on March 29, 1948. She attended Nazareth College in Rochester, New York & earned two degrees, one for art & one for science. Karen was described as athletic & loved to bike ride & swim. She loved cooking, reading, going to concerts & live stage shows. She had many friends & was someone who would do anything for those she loved. She was a vegetarian & her favorite movie was Black Orpheus.
In 1982, Karen relocated to the picturesque, artsy & colorful town of Gulfport, Florida in Pinellas County. Family & friends described Karen as a free spirit who had a variety of careers including teaching elementary school art, working as a potter & most recently, working as a waitress at the Garden Restaurant in downtown St. Petersburg before moving on to her current job at Datacom Associates as a graphic artist. She had just started this new job & was doing very well & enjoying the new challenge. Karen’s mom & two brothers remained in Albany, but her sister was living nearby in Dunedin, Florida.
Karen loved the sunny beaches & tourist attractions that Florida had to offer & after her move, she met her boyfriend, David Mackey at a jazz concert on the beach. Karen was the aggressor of the relationship & made the first move by contacting David when they first started dating. The two bonded over their love of the beach & music, specifically reggae. Karen loved this type of music because she felt it was about creating a peaceful world, living in harmony with others. After a year of dating, Karen & David decided to move in together.
Up until that point, Karen had been renting an apartment & living with her roommate Anita Kilpatrick near Pass-a-Grille Beach. On Tuesday, May 22, 1984, Karen was moving some last minute things from her old apartment into David’s house in his quiet neighborhood of Gulfport. David worked as a counselor at the Veterans Administration Medical Center at Bay Pines & was out of town for a conference in Rhode Island so she had the place to herself. That evening, Karen headed to her friend’s home, Neverne Covington, for dinner. The two relaxed & chatted over white wine as Karen told Neverne how happy she was with her job & her relationship with David. Between midnight & 1 a.m. on Wednesday, May 23, Karen left Neverne’s to head back to her new home.
Sometime around 1:15 a.m., at least 16 neighbors would eventually report hearing a scream within a two-block radius of Karen’s home. Neighbor Arthur Kulper described it as a short, agonizing scream. Martha Borkowski lived directly across the street and also heard the scream as well as a door slamming. She didn’t feel the scream sounded as if someone was in danger. When Glenda Harness, who lived adjacent to Karen & David’s home heard the scream, she looked out her kitchen window knowing that her boyfriend, George Lewis, was working in the garage. She felt scared but 20 minutes later, George came inside & the two went to bed. Despite nearly twenty people hearing this sound & the area having an active neighborhood watch, not one called the police, including George Lewis who was the head of the neighborhood watch team. George said he was in the garage with the door open & the radio on; he heard the scream though described it as faint. He said he went to the street & looked around for a few minutes but went back inside after finding nothing suspicious.
Later that day & into the evening of Wednesday, May 23, neighbor Martha who had heard the scream & then a door slamming, noticed that the door to Karen & David’s house was open. They had a jalousie door which has glass louvers that open & close like window blinds to let air in. Shortly after Martha took notice of this, a friend of Karen & David’s came to the house because Karen had invited him over for dinner. When no one came to the door, he left a note on David’s car that read, “Karen & David. Hello. Stopped by about 7:15 or so but saw no signs of life. Many to do tonight so I probably won’t be back but I have something you wanted. Will be home not too late.”
Meanwhile, David was still on his work trip in Rhode Island & began to worry when his calls home to Karen continued to go unanswered. David decided to call Karen’s old roommate Anita to see if she had seen her but she hadn’t. He checked in with Karen’s sister who also hadn’t seen Karen. The next morning, Thursday, May 24, David was hoping to catch Karen before she headed to work so he called early but there was no answer. When he called her work, they informed him that she wasn’t there that day & hadn’t shown up the previous day as well. David called Anita again to let her know what he learned & they both discussed how worried they were. Next he called their neighbor, Amy Bressler & asked her if Karen’s car was in the driveway & it was. He asked if she would please go & check on Karen.
When Amy got to the house, she knocked on the side door but got no answer. When she went to the front jalousie door, she noted some of the glass slats had been broken & glass was scattered on the pavement. When Amy peered through the bedroom window, she first saw an unmade bed & then to her horror, she noticed the lower half of a woman’s body, covered in dried blood. She couldn’t see the person’s face but assumed it was Karen. The next time David tried calling home, a police detective answered.
When police arrived, more than thirty hours had passed since the neighbors heard that scream in the early morning hours of Wednesday. Police & paramedics entered the house through the back bedroom window & found that Karen was in the hallway outside of the bathroom; blood was pooling around her head & stab wounds covered her neck. She was only partially dressed, wearing lingerie over the t-shirt she wore which made detectives believe that she could have been sexually assaulted. Detective Bill Brinkworth felt it looked like an attack of rage. On the bathroom tile, police found a bare footprint that had tracked through blood but Karen’s feet had no blood on them indicating that the prints were made by the killer. Bloody handprints covered Karen’s body as well as window sills, curtains, walls & the floor.
Police began speaking with neighbors & learned of the scream that many had heard. They also spoke with George Lewis, both head of the neighborhood watch & local firefighter. He filled police in on his recollection of events that night & indicated that he had noticed a man driving up to Karen’s house, walking up to the door & then back to the car where he left a note. Police were aware of the note that they had found on David’s car, signed by someone named Peter. Authorities quickly tracked Peter down & brought him in for an interview. Peter Kumble was cooperative & provided his fingerprints & footprints. They allowed him to leave though they weren’t convinced of his innocence.
In the meantime, David made his way back home from his conference while Anita & another friend went to the house to clean, not wanting David to see the blood. Anita was too distraught to continue the job so David came back home to his house that was now a crime scene.
Three days later, Karen’s autopsy was complete & it found that she had been stabbed twenty-one times in the head & neck & her throat had been slit which ultimately caused her death. The medical examiner noted defensive wounds on Karen’s hands, indicating she had fought for her life. She had been raped & tortured before she was murdered. It was likely the killer made Karen put the lingerie over her shirt before he killed her. Police noticed that no lights were on in the house & wondered how the killer would have been able to carry out their attack in the pitch darkness without knocking anything over. When police spoke with Martha, they found it curious that she noticed the front door open. When they spoke with Peter, he indicated that the door was unlocked when he stopped by but police found the door locked. This would indicate that the killer had returned to the scene of the crime to lock the door, realizing their mistake.
Because police found blood on the windowsill & curtains, they figured the killer exited the house that way. There was no sign of forced entry so police wondered if Karen had known her killer & willingly let them into the house. A screen on the rear bedroom window was torn & ajar but may have already been that way. It was clear that the struggle carried on throughout the house because of the blood trails. It was likely Karen struck the locked front door with force which caused the glass to break, scattering as far as the street curb.
Police took prints & hair samples but felt their two main suspects were Peter Kumble & David Mackey. David was more than 1,300 miles from Florida at the time that Karen was murdered but police theorized that he could have taken a flight back to Florida, killed Karen & gone back to Rhode Island before his next conference. Review of credit card statements indicated he had purchased only one flight. Police asked David if he noticed if anything was missing from the house & David said he believed that a white lace teddy that he recalls Karen purchasing, was no longer there. There was no evidence that David had any involvement & he was cleared as a suspect.
When police spoke with Peter, they noticed a scratch on his hand. They also wondered if he’d left the note as a cover for innocence. The choice of words that the house showed “no signs of life” was also eerie. Anita drove with Peter to Albany, New York for Karen’s funeral because Peter had a planned trip to Boston. When police spoke with Anita about Peter & mentioned the scratch on his hand, Anita mentioned that she had also seen the scratch & was horrified that she could have made the cross country drive with her friend’s potential killer.
When Peter came back from Boston, he was interviewed by police again & they asked him what he was referencing in his note when he wrote that he had something to give Karen. He told them it was a reggae tape because Karen loved reggae. He said that when he arrived at the house, he didn’t notice the broken glass & police found this hard to believe. Peter explained his plans to have dinner with Karen that night & told police that he thought David would be there too. Police questioned if Peter had feelings for Karen or a potential romantic relationship with her. David reinforced this idea & told police that he had his own suspicions & felt that Peter was trying to get closer to Karen. Peter’s girlfriend advised him to get a lawyer at this point. Peter had an alibi for the night that Karen was murdered & police didn’t have enough evidence to make an arrest.
Seven months had gone by without an arrest & it was December of 1984 & a farewell party was held for someone who was retiring. At the party was Marie Messervey who worked as a Gulfport bus driver & lived outside of the two blocks that police canvassed during their investigation. During the party, Marie told a sergeant that despite living a few blocks away from Karen, she had heard screaming that night & it sounded like a long, sustained wail which was a contradiction from what firefighter & neighborhood watch leader 22-year-old George Lewis had reported. Gulfport PD Larry Tosi, who was a friend of George’s, thought it was strange that despite living across the street from Karen, he only heard a faint scream. Tosi’s wife, Debbie worked with George’s girlfriend Glenda as bank tellers. Seven months after Karen was murdered, George married Glenda on December 15, 1984.
When police contacted George, he agreed to an interview but didn’t show up to the station. When police did interview him in January, they administered a polygraph test. He was failing the test while he continued to describe Karen’s scream as faint. He also told a new story about a man in Karen’s front yard standing near a tree who was tall & had red hair. Police questioned why he hadn’t given this information on his first questioning & he said that he was afraid because the man knew where he lived.
Police were skeptical of what George was telling them but Seargeant Tosi & two other officers tested George’s vision at night from the same distance that he claimed to have seen this man & George was unable to provide a clear description of the man at this distance. This led police to believe he was lying. Police also showed him pictures of alleged suspected prowlers in the neighborhood but he couldn’t identify them as the man he claims to have seen. Police began to speak with women in the neighborhood about any prowlers. One woman said that she was being watched by a man who ran away when she got close to the window to investigate & she described this person as none other than George Lewis.
Police brought George in yet again for questioning & he did admit to loitering near the woman’s window but claimed he was only fulfilling his neighborhood watch duties. In March of 1985, George was given a second polygraph test & questioned about the murder & the peeping allegations, being specifically asked if he raped & murdered Karen. When he said no, it indicated he was lying.
At this point, George changed his story yet again & claimed that the man he’d seen on the night that Karen was murdered had threatened to kill him & this made him nervous which caused him to fail the test. Police were not buying this story & took his fingerprints & footprints. During their continued investigation, police also learned that George had allegedly abused his previous wife & had been involved in a swinger’s club. His friends claimed that he had shown sexual interest in Karen before she had even moved in with David, making a comment that he wanted to participate in an orgy with her.
In March of 1986, nearly two years after Karen was murdered, police completed the analysis of the footprint from the crime scene vs. George’s, it was a match. Police brought him in again & once again, he changed his story. He said that he had gone up to the window & saw Karen injured & bleeding & went inside to help. He saw that her throat had been cut, which was a detail that had never been released to the public. He said at this point, he panicked & left. When police arrived, there was so much blood that they couldn’t determine her cause of death & needed the autopsy to do so, the knife wound to her throat not obvious.
Later, a woman came forward & told police that she had been given a white teddy from George; it was too large for her but would have been the size that Karen would have worn. Reports indicate that this woman was Tonya Dishone, a neighbor of Karen & David’s; she was seventeen-years-old & involved in a sexual relationship with George. According to Tonya, George gave her the lingerie as a birthday present in the summer of 1984. David indicated that George always had a thing for Karen. It was obvious to police that he waited for his opportunity & found that David was out of town & Karen was home alone when he decided to make his sickening move. Friends of Lewis thought that they had the wrong guy & insisted that Tosi had made a mistake, believing they knew George & that was enough.
In March of 1986, nearly two years after Karen was viciously attacked & murdered, George was taken into custody.
During the trial, George changed the details of his story yet again & indicated that he’d made the bloody footprint after finding Karen murdered. He said he had rushed to the bathroom to vomit after seeing the brutal crime scene & must have tracked through the blood in the process. His lawyers insisted that Peter Kumble was the murderer & it was his friend who George had seen near the tree in Karen’s yard, sent as a lookout man.
As deliberations began, George sat on a bench, snuggled with Glenda & their two-year-old daughter; some viewed this as a family under siege while others viewed it as a display to win the juror’s sympathy. George was found guilty of first-degree murder & sexual assault & received a life-sentence. He & his attorneys filed multiple appeals & the Innocence Project of Florida even took on his case. This group uses DNA testing to exonerate those believed to be convicted unjustly. An article from June, 2009 indicated that two attempts were made to make DNA comparisons & both times the results were inconclusive. Glenda divorced George but indicated that she still believed he was innocent & only did so since she & her two daughters needed to move on.
After his convictions, a trial judge overturned the charges, reasoning that Florida law required the evidence against George to exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. He indicated that the evidence suggested vs. proved that Karen was raped & the judge entered a verdict of acquital for that charge. The prosecution appealed the decision & got both the murder & rape convictions reinstated.
Detective Tosi understood that many believed that George was innocent as part of human nature since those who loved & trusted him wanted to believe the best of him. Tosi couldn’t understand why George did what he did but feels that he was infatuated with Karen for some time & had been watching her. She may have rejected him after he made a move so he attacked her & murdered her so she couldn’t turn him in. As the years had passed, Tosi believes that George started to convince himself of his own innocence, no longer knowing the truth.
He remained at the Tomoka Correctional Institution in Daytona Beach until he died at age 52 in December of 2015.
References:
- The Killer Queen Blog: The person you least suspect : The murder of Karen Gregory
- Tampa Bay Times: Former firefighter George Lewis, convicted in 1984 Gulfport murder, dies in prison
- Oxygen: Florida neighborhood watch captain exposed as peeping Tom, murderer & rapist
- POMC.org: Karen Gregory 36-years-old
- Tampa Bay Times: A cry in the night
- Altervista.org: George Lewis
- The Evening Independent November 6, 1984
- Wickedness: The Case of Karen Gregory
