Man accused of killing two with machete
Homeless men attacked in the middle of the night on the beach
The killer who hacked two homeless men to death off Fort Lauderdale beach likely attacked them while they were sleeping in the middle of the night, newly released court records show.
Daniel Dovi, a drifter with a history of mental illness and a past in Pennsylvania, Maine and Texas, might have surprised his victims at the beachside Earl Lifshey Park on June 9, according to the police records. Video surveillance showed a man walking in the area just before 3 a.m. with a machete.
The man attacked Walter Amryan III, 59, while Amryan still was in his sleeping bag, court records show. The other victim, Adan Gonsulez, 37, was 43 feet away, and both of his “arms were almost completely severed off,” the records show.
The men may have been attacked by a stranger. “At this time, detectives are unclear if Mr. Dovi knew the two men but have no evidence to suggest any type of
relationship prior to this incident,” Fort Lauderdale Detective Ali Adamson said Tuesday. “Detectives are still working to gather information and details related to Mr. Dovi, to include how long he had been in the Fort Lauderdale area.”
The newly released records give the greatest insight yet into how investigators suspect Dovi went to kill the men. The police records, filed in Broward County Circuit Court, also reveal for the first time the extent of weapons found in Dovi’s Jeep: an 18-inch machete, razors, two saws and 20 various knives.
Dovi told the police that everything they found in his car — the saws, machete and many knives — was for camping. He explained that the ax was for chopping trees and that the blood on it could have come from bugs that were killed while he chopped.
He told the people he didn’t confront anyone. Instead, he described images of people in his car and the voices he had heard. He wanted the cops, who had damaged his Jeep during their dramatic highway chase, to buy him a new car.
Beyond that, police didn’t get any direct explanations from Dovi, records show. Dovi ignored an officer for 20 minutes before he spoke.
A passerby found the bodies just after 6 a.m. June 9, sounding horrified when he called 911. Investigators also found blood at public showers nearby on the beach.
Dovi drew police’s attention that morning, because he got into a violent argument with a property owner four blocks from the site of the murders, police said.
Dovi had argued with
aproperty owner who told him to leave his private property, a grassy field, police said. The property owner said Dovi had camped there overnight. But Dovi got aggressive, insisting he was the owner of the land, and gave the property owner a push. The man backed off and called police and then returned to the site while he waited for police.
During this time, a friend of the property owner’s drove up in a golf cart. Dovi put the Jeep into reverse and struck the golf cart, police said, and then rammed into the property owner’s Porsche before taking off.
An hour later, at 10 a.m., when police still were at the scene surveying the damage and talking to the two witnesses, Dovi returned in the Jeep. Then a police chase began, becoming a televised event. The chase stretched 10 miles on Interstate 95.
A Highway Patrol trooper forced the Jeep that Dovi was driving to flip on its side him.
Neither the State Office or the Defender’s Office comment Tuesday.
Relatives of the two victims could not be reached for comment.
In June police found relatives for Amryan, but “thus far, we have been unsuccessful in all of our attempts to locate or contact next of kin for Adan Gonsulez,” Adamson said Tuesday.
Dovi was described in court after his arrest as a man with a history of mental health issues and past run-ins with police. His charges include criminal trespass out of Maine in 1992, resisting arrest out of Texas in 2002, assault causing bodily injury out of Texas in 1997 and unlawfully carrying a weapon out of Texas in 1997.
Records show Dovi was also arrested in 1998 in Texas on a charge of animal cruelty. And in Fort Lauderdale, he was arrested in 2006 on the charge of loitering and prowling, but the city ultimately decided not to prosecute.
In the Fort Lauderdale killings, Dovi has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder. A spokeswoman for the State Attorney’s Office said Tuesday prosecutors can’t convene the grand jury to present cases because of the new coronavirus. There is no first-degree murder indictment unless a grand jury decides that is the appropriate charge. and they arrested
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