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Police: Man Angry About Slamming Door Killed Neighbor

Thursday, February 23, 2006 – updated: 12:53 pm EST February 24, 2006

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BELLEVIEW, Fla. -- It's an unusual motive for murder. Investigators in Belleview said slamming the door drove a man to kill his next-door neighbor in Marion County.


ALSO: Surveillance Video Shows Woman Attacked At Apartment Complex

Investigators believe Betty Shepperd was murdered over something that sounds extremely trivial. They said 45-year-old Vito Loiacono was irritated that Shepperd was slamming the door at night and waking him up.

The two allegedly argued earlier in the day and then Shepperd's friend said she got a strange phone call from someone else in the complex.

"[The person] said, 'The reason I'm calling you is I saw Vito coming out of Betty's apartment.' I said, 'That can't be,'" said Shepperd's friend, Maria Folks.

Folks went to Shepperd's apartment and found her in the bathroom, where she had been stabbed to death.

"I found the door ajar. I started yelling, 'Betty! Betty!'"

Other neighbors told police they saw Loiacono carrying a plastic bag behind the building. Investigators found the bag with a knife and bloody clothes inside and arrested him.

Now one of Shepperd's closest friends is stunned by her death and what apparently led to it.

"She didn't do nothing to that man," Folks said. "She got along with everybody."

Loiacono is in the Marion County jail charged with first-degree murder.

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