Former homicide cop joins probe
Ex-Orlando detective now part of criminal investigation after client’s death, official’s exit
A former Orlando police homicide detective who solved some of the city’s highest-profile killings before retiring this year has joined the criminal investigation into Rebecca Fierle, the former professional guardian whose use of “do not resuscitate” orders has been linked to the death of a client.
The detective, Michael Moreschi, is now a special agent for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which confirmed July 25 it had launched a criminal probe into Fierle. The agency has been tight-lipped about the scope of its investigation, but two people interviewed by agents so far shed light on what elements of Fierle’s practice state authorities are examining. It includes the death of 75-year-old Steven Stryker of Cocoa, who was under Fierle’s guardianship until he died in a Tampa hospital May 13. The revelation that hospital staff were unable to attempt live-saving measures due to a DNR Fierle filed against Stryker’s wishes sparked a scandal that has embroiled Florida’s troubled guardianship program and caused the embattled guardian to resign from all her cases statewide.
Linda Lanier, Stryker’s friend and health care surrogate, told the Orlando Sentinel she was interviewed Tuesday by Moreschi and Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Cass Michael Castillo, a member of Florida’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.
Before retiring from the Orlando Police Department, Moreschi was a homicide detective who was lead investigator in 60 killings, including the murders of singer Christine Grimmie, a former contestant on NBC’s “The Voice,” who was gunned down at The Plaza Live, and Alex Zaldivar,
a witness in a home invasion case who was killed to prevent his testimony.
After leaving OPD, he joined FDLE’s genetic genealogy team, which focuses on solving cold cases using DNA.
The Office of Statewide Prosecution prosecutes crimes involving two or more judicial circuits in Florida, often taking on large and complex investigations, including organized crime. Prior to joining the office, Castillo retired in 2014 as a prosecutor from the Bartowbased 10th Judicial Circuit, according to The Ledger, which reported his specialty was “successfully prosecuting murder cases where the victim’s body was never recovered.”
Moreschi told the Sentinel he could not talk about the investigation. Castillo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FDLE would not comment on the makeup of its team investigating Fierle.
“Multiple agents from the Orlando Regional Operations Center are working on the investigation into Rebecca Fierle and the circumstances surrounding her guardianships in the State of Florida,” spokeswoman Jessica Cary said in a statement. “At this time, we are unable to comment on the direction of the investigation nor provide specific names of the agents conducting the investigation.”
Kylie Mason, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Ashley Moody, confirmed Castillo’s involvement in the probe but declined to comment further. “Our office has multiple investigations into these allegations, some of which we are barred from discussing,” she said.
Fierle has not been charged with any crime.
James “Jack” Meagher, a former ward of Fierle, said an FDLE agent contacted him within the last week to talk about how Fierle handled his finances. Lanier said Moreschi and Castillo asked her about how lucid Stryker was before his death at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa.
An investigation by the Okaloosa County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller’s Office, which is part of a statewide alliance of clerks that probes complaints against guardians, concluded the court-appointed decision maker refused to remove the DNR despite Stryker’s desire for life-saving actions, and that her claims about his final wishes contradicted the accounts of Lanier, Stryker’s daughter and a psychiatrist.
“The ward had never previously expressed a desire to die, and it seems unlikely that, as soon as he was appointed a guardian, he would suddenly be unwilling to tolerate a condition that he had been dealing with for many years,” wrote Andrew Thurman, an auditor and investigator under the Okaloosa Clerk. Thurman cited Florida’s statute for aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person in his report.
The Okaloosa Clerk was assigned the investigation by the state’s Office of Public and Professional Guardians (OPPG) after Stryker’s daughter, Kim Stryker, complained to the Ninth Judicial Circuit on May 9 that Fierle refused to remove a DNR order filed on her father.
“His guardian has insisted on including a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order on his medical records, despite his vocal opposition,” Kim Stryker wrote in an email, court records show. “He is doing much better and is quite lucid and extremely upset that this woman has full control over his medical and financial records.”
The investigation discovered that a licensed psychiatrist who examined Stryker at St. Joseph’s Hospital was also concerned about the DNR and had asked the hospital to rescind the DNR and order an ethics consultation. Despite the consultation, Fierle told the investigator she decided to keep the DNR order on Stryker because it was “an issue of quality of life rather than quantity,” and she regularly filed DNRs for her incapacitated clients.
Stryker choked to death, Lanier said. The investigation found hospital staff did not perform “lifesaving procedures” on Stryker because of his guardian’s order.
Lanier’s interview by investigators came the day after agents searched the Orlando office for Fierle’s business, Geriatric Management, at 1646 Hillcrest St., finding the cremated remains of nine people. A spokeswoman for the Office of Attorney General said Wednesday investigators are working to identify the remains and the cause of death for each person.
■ Go to orlandosentinel.com/ guardians for more coverage of this issue.