Delayed engagement on mom's mind in murder-suicide
By LYDA LONGA and SARA KIESLER
Staff Writers PORT ORANGE -- Volusia County sheriff's deputy Ronald Edmour Vachon and his girlfriend Kendra Earley were trying to patch up their relationship. Family members said Vachon had broken off his engagement to Earley about six weeks ago, but then proposed again, and this time, she suggested they wait.
Monday morning, Vachon shot Earley and then killed himself in the apartment the couple once shared, Port Orange police said.
"I have to believe they loved each other," Earley's mother, Lonna Earley, said Monday afternoon at her DeBary home.
"She moved out of his apartment six weeks ago," Lonna Earley said. "He had broken off their engagement six weeks ago. On Wednesday, he took her to the beach and proposed again, but she said it was too soon."
Earley, 24, worked at an Applebee's restaurant in Orange City and was an avid traveler who called her mother every morning before going to work. Relatives said she had no idea what she wanted to do with her future, but said "she knew how to live."
The shootings occurred in the same building where the resident apartment manager was shot to death last year by her former husband.
"It didn't surprise me to see police here," said Aurora Testa, a resident at the Legacy at Crystal Lake, as she drove out of the complex on Monday afternoon. "We had that murder here last year.
"This is so sad," Testa said, covering her face.
Vachon, also 24, was a former Daytona Beach police officer who was currently training as a Volusia County sheriff's deputy.
Vachon was well liked at Daytona Beach police where his personnel file showed several commendations for good arrests and undercover work.
Weeks ago, the young officer joined the Sheriff's Office where he was training and was expected to begin patrolling by the beginning of May.
Vachon shot Earley, then killed himself, said Port Orange Police Cmdr. Tim Girard.
Girard said residents reported hearing an argument just after 5:30 a.m. Monday. When police arrived in Building 2 of the complex, they could not find anyone in a dispute.
Officers then spotted an apartment with its door partly open. When they walked inside, they found Vachon and Earley dead in a bedroom of the deputy's apartment, Girard said.
According to Vachon's personnel file, he received at least six commendations for participating in arrests in which drug dealers and prostitutes were nabbed. He was also congratulated for exceptional work during the 2004 hurricane season because he was quick to assess situations, clear roadways and set up perimeters.
Relatives of Vachon reached Monday were too distraught to talk about the officer.
Last June, Monica Greene, the 33-year-old resident manager at the Legacy complex, was shot to death by her ex-husband a day after the pair's divorce had been finalized.
Greene was shot six times -- twice in the head -- after witnesses saw her screaming and running away from John Greene.
He was sentenced to life in prison with no parole, last August.
Cathy Barber, of the Harvard School of Public Health, said studies have shown that murder-suicides between men and women are usually fueled by the imminent or recent break-up of a couple.
""It's usually someone saying I'm going out and I'm taking you with me," Barber said.
HE was a good guy, it's amazing how someone can just snap. Sad ending.
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