Introducing Take 5:00. 13
AMITW Aug. 23: 530 nests, 577 false crawls, 258 hatched nests.
Good labor. 3 Astheworldterns join the AMI workforce. 6
VOLUME 27, NO. 44
Tracking turtles. 26
Happy Labor Day Weekend
AUG. 28, 2019 FREE
County approves added AMCP funding. 4
Meetings
On the government calendar. 4
Op-Ed
The Islander editorial, reader opinions. 6
10-20 YEARS AGO From the archives. 7
Manatee commissioner stands alone against Cortez megabridge. 8
Save the date. 10
Happenings
Community announcements, activities. 11 AM reviews fiscal spending. 12 WMFR’s new admin facility progresses. 14 Election 2019. 15
Streetlife. 15 County ramps up capital improvements. 16 HB contracts for storm debris removal. 17 AM votes to end A-frame signs. 17
Gathering. 18
AmE NEWS
Marauders go to bat, kinder-cop goes beyond call of duty. 20-21 Nesting notes. 22 23 League action intensifies at center. 24 Freshwater invades Tampa Bay. 25 Cruising for business. 26-27
PropertyWatch. 28 CLASSIFIEDS. 28 NYT Times Sunday
The Best News on Anna Maria Island Since 1992
islander.org
10-year-old ‘undetermined’ death case remains closed By Kathy Prucnell Islander Reporter
Sheena Morris would have turned 33 years old Aug. 1. Instead, the Tampa woman’s death at age 22 in a motel room has left her mother, Kelly Osborn, still searching for answers and law enforcement with another possible review. However, the police investigation will remain closed, at least for now. BBPD Detective Sgt. Lenard Diaz said Aug. 22 he would reopen the investigation only if “a good confession or a video of the crime” came to light. Bradenton Beach police Morris found Morris dead Jan. 1, 2009, hanging from a dog leash in a shower at the BridgeWalk Resort on Bridge Street. Brought to light in August is a December 2018 report — signed by an independent forensic pathologist and crime scene technicians — that relies on a photograph in evidence since 2009. The independent report focuses on a photo of Morris showing a pattern of lividity — blood that settles after death — on her back and buttocks, alleging the marks are from a wicker chair. The report’s authors claim the lividity indicates she was moved to the shower after she died. Osborn claims the death scene was
Bradenton Beach Detective Sgt. Lenard Diaz reviews reports Aug. 22 in his office about the 2009 death of Sheena Morris in a motel room in the city. Islander Photo: Kathy Prucnell
staged. However, Bradenton Beach police say all evidence from the 10-year-old closed case — including a lack of evidence suggesting strangulation — points to suicide or accidental/suicidal death.
The District 12 medical examiner’s office, where Manatee County deaths are examined, also weighed in on the report in a Jan. 8 letter to the pathologist. Medical examiners Suzanne Utley and Russell Vega conclude in the letter, “We strongly disagree with the conclusions that, based on the lividity pattern, either 1) the pattern must have been caused by the chair; 2) the body must have been moved to the hanging position after the pattern developed or 3) both.” Assistant State Attorney Art Brown, the 12th District homicide division chief, said Aug. 23 that he sent the 2018 independent report and the medical examiners’ response to the BBPD and Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Brown said he would await their responses before commenting on whether his office would reopen an investigation. Backdrop Osborn and the investigators she hired, as well as some of her friends, have protested the case throughout the years, including a change to the initial ruling of “suicide” by the medical examiner to “undetermined.” Osborn publicly protested the decision not to reopen the case, claiming Morris’ fiance, Joe Genoese, was involved. One of Morris’ investigators, Jan JohnPLEASE SEE CASE CLOSED, PAGE 5
Rescuer blames ‘something toxic’ for rash of dead birds By Sandy Ambrogi Islander Reporter
Jeanette Edwards has a nickname she loves: “The Pelican Lady.” Years ago, she took on a mission to care for seabirds, with pelicans by far her favorites. Now Edwards is concerned with what she says is transpiring at a small mangrove conservation zone on Flaming Cay, just a stone’s throw from her home on Palma Sola Bay. The island is a bird rookery, and lately the birds are dying at an alarming rate, according to Edwards. She wants to know what is killing the birds. “It has to be something toxic,” Edwards told The Islander Aug. 21. “There is no fishing line entanglement or gear, no blood or
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It has to be something toxic. — Jeanette Edwards
Jeanette Edwards holds a sick egret April 7 on a rookery island in Palma Sola Bay. Islander Courtesy Photo
wounds. I just find them dead in the branches or floating in the water nearby.” As of Aug. 21, Edwards had retrieved 21 dead birds from the rookery since January. She found four dead birds Aug. 6-16. Another 22 birds were rescued and transported to the Seaside Seabird Sanctuary in Indian Shores for care, though some of those birds also died. Those numbers are considerably higher than past years. 24 were taken to Seabird for rehab. In 2016, Edwards retrieved four dead “I’ve found sick ones on the ground, birds from the rookery and saved another or up in the branches. The pelicans can’t nine that were sickened. hold their heads up. All of the birds seem PLEASE SEE BIRDS, PAGE 2 In 2017, eight dead birds were found and