PORT ORANGE, Fla.,None — Evidence suggests that the deaths of a woman and her ex-boyfriend, whose bodies were found inside a Port Orange motel room Monday, are the result of a murder-suicide, police said. Amber Turner and her ex-boyfriend, Erin Ross, both had gunshot wounds.
Police believe Ross first shot Turner, and then himself.
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Turner knew she was in danger. She asked a judge for a temporary injunction to protect her from her ex-boyfriend, but she was turned down.
Turner was reported missing over the weekend after she failed to show up for work at a nursing home. She was found dead with her ex-boyfriend, Erin Ross, by her side, along with a gun, inside the Town and Country motel on South Ridgewood Avenue in Port Orange (see map) , just four miles from the apartment where she disappeared.
Investigators believe it was around 10:00pm Sunday night when Ross finally made good on his threats to kill 22-year-old Amber Turner. Turner's car, a silver Chevy Cobalt, was found parked outside of the motel and their bodies were found in Room 7.
Amber Turner And Erin Ross 083010 Amber Turner | Erin Ross Friends and family rushed to the small motel, huddled in hugs and buried their faces in their hands, sobbing.
WFTV reporter George Spencer spoke with two of Amber Turner's friends Monday afternoon (full interview) .
"I'm at a loss for words. I don't know what to say. I just seen her Friday and now she's gone," Turner's friend Jessica Johnson said.
"[She] told him, 'Leave me alone, leave me alone.' Past few weeks she got harassing phone calls, had him stalking in the parking lot, texting her what she was wearing," Turner's roommate Mona West said. "The pain, I just can't describe the pain I feel."
West was the last friend to see her alive, around 6:00am Sunday. Turner left for work, but never made it there.
Co-workers immediately thought of 27-year-old Ross, the ex-boyfriend who been threatening Turner for weeks via text message and showing up at her work, school and home.
"He was just saying, if he can't be with her, he was gonna kill her. That's when I told her to get a restraining order," friend Aubrey Lundy said.
Turner asked a judge for an injunction, writing, "I am really afraid to come out of [the] house because he has been known to wait [at] the apartment, follow and I have had harassing phone calls."
But the judge didn't find sufficient evidence.
Then, about one week later, police said, another guest at the motel heard gunfire around 10:00pm Sunday night.
"It might've been a situation where the occupant heard a noise. Didn't think really more of it," Captain Frank Surmaczewicz of the Port Orange Police Department said.
It wasn't until a 911 call at 10:00am Monday that the police discovered the bodies inside the room. They say there had clearly been a confrontation in the room before gunshots were fired and there was no suicide note in the room.
South Daytona police confirmed that Ross' abandoned car was found in a bank parking lot across the street from Turner's apartment complex.
The judge did not deny Turner's request for protection completely. The judge said she needed to show more evidence at a hearing on September 3, but that was too late.
WFTV tried to reach Judge William Parsons, who denied the injunction, but was told he's on vacation.
COULD TEMPORARY INJUNCTION HAVE PREVENTED IT?
WFTV talked to victims' advocates who said the judge in the case may have done the most dangerous thing possible; he set a hearing, without granting a temporary injunction. So, Turner's ex-boyfriend would be notified by the courts of her accusation without having any restrictions placed on him.
The Harbor House says it's a recipe for deadly rage.
The Harbor House domestic violence shelter in Orange County has seen it again and again. A judge isn't convinced there is a strong potential for harm to the alleged victim, won't grant a temporary injunction, but asks the alleged batterer or stalker to come to court to answer to the accusations.
Sometimes, just finding out that their object of control has taken that first step and gone to court, combined with the absence of the threat of arrest for violating the injunction, sends them into an unfettered rage.
"There's no legal protection for that victim if that batterer goes and contacts them, shows up at their house," Carol Wick of Harbor House said.
The same scenario played out last February at the AT&T call center near UCF. Days before an injunction hearing, the man who had stalked Alissa Blanton at home, at work, and through email showed up at her office and opened fire, killing her.
Recent cases in Orange County show judges granted temporary injunctions 77 percent of the time and Harbor House says almost half those cases had the potential to be deadly. Harbor House says, once someone asks for an injunction, he or she should come up with a safety plan with the help of a domestic violence expert.
"If they show up at your car, if they try to run you off the road, having a plan already in place gives you power over them," Wick said.
Harbor House says about a third of the cases where Orange County judges denied temporary injunctions before hearings could have ended in death.
Previous Stories: August 30, 2010: Police Searching For Missing Woman, Ex-Boyfriend