Suspect Sony Josaphat arrested for allegedly gunning down nurse and her pastor husband 7 days after their wedding
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA: In a tragic turn of events, a newlywed nurse and her pastor husband were brutally murdered at their home in West Palm Beach, just seven days after celebrating their joyous union.
The suspect, identified as Sony Josaphat, 46, is currently in custody at the Main Detention Center without bond.
Newlywed nurse and pastor brutally murdered at home
The horrifying incident unfolded on Saturday at 8.36 am when deputies responded to a shooting at the couple's residence on the 12000 block of Summit Run Circle.
The victims, whose identities were not officially released by authorities but were later identified by a family member, were a newlywed couple – a nurse practitioner and a pastor. The couple had tied the knot on December 2, marking a momentous occasion on the nurse's birthday.
Tragically, the nurse and her pastor husband were found dead inside their home. Disturbingly, three of the nurse's children, including an adult who witnessed the shooting, were present during the incident too.
What was the motive behind the tragic crime?
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office issued a news release confirming the double homicide, withholding the victims' names but identifying a "person of interest," Josaphat. Details surrounding the motive for the heinous crime and the timeline of events have not been disclosed by authorities.
The sister of the slain nurse described her as someone who had moved to the United States from Haiti 25 years ago and had dedicated herself to achieving her dream of becoming a nurse practitioner.
The sister expressed the profound happiness her sibling had found in her recent marriage, stating, "She has never been as happy as she was now," Law & Crime reports.
Marsy's Law, the victim privacy statute, has been invoked in this case, further limiting the information available to the public. Residents in the quiet neighborhood were startled by the incident, with one neighbor, Deanne Germeil, expressing disbelief, "It's pretty quiet and we don’t have too many things over here so I don’t know how this happened."
Another neighbor, Dicter Pineda, recounted hearing, "what sounded like gunshots, but I thought people were just working on someone’s roof so I ignored it and went into the house and then later when I went back outside that’s when I saw all the police activity out here."
