Victims shot in their beds, police say

Al Weaver and his daughter Allyson, 9, leave a memorial service at Universalist Unitarian church on Saturday. Allyson was supposed to attend a birthday party for 4-year-old Olivia Bernsdorff. [Joseph Garnett Jr. | Times]

Oliver Thomas Bernsdorff apparently shot his ex-wife, his two children and his ex-wife's girlfriend as they lay in their beds Friday morning, authorities said today.

First, he killed ex-wife, Jennifer Davis, 27, and her partner Andrea Pisanello, 53, said Largo police, who said their investigation and their findings are still preliminary.

Bernsdorff, 36, tore a screen from a window of Pisanello's apartment, where Davis was living, and crawled in, a police official said today. He found the women in bed, shot them with a what police believe was a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and fled -– leaving Pisanello's 4-year-old daughter, Annie, alive.

Megan Szczepanik, Annie's biological mother, said she and Pisanello were a couple for eight years, and Annie considered Pisanello both women as her mothers.

Annie went to Pisanello's body and shook it, trying to awaken her, Szczepanik said. Moments after the shooting, neighbors said they heard the girl screaming, "Mommy, Mommy!"

Pisanello and Davis had been living in the apartment for about a month and a half. Davis and Bernsdorff were divorced this fall, and Davis did not contest the divorce because she was desperate to get out of an abusive relationship, according to two domestic violence counselors who spoke with her the week she died.

On Saturday afternoon, about 200 people attended a service for the dead at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Clearwater. All five of the deceased were members of the church.

"We gather this afternoon as a church family, mourning the death of five family members," said the Rev. Millie Rochester. "This is horrible, there's no question of that. We miss them. We will cry -- together and separately -- and we will support one another."

This morning, Davis' mother, Patricia Davis, visibly upset, declined to comment, but family member Rob Nicolas stepped outside the Largo home to speak briefly with a reporter.

"Everyone is still in shock and trying to find out what happened," Nicolas said. "Everyone is trying to find out why. Right now, we are trying to find out what to do next. We are hoping that it's a bad dream, and that we are going to wake up."

The family released a statement through the Largo Police Department on Saturday evening that read, "Our family is devastated by the killing of Jennifer, Olivia, Magnus, and Andrea. Words do not even begin to describe the pain and heartbreak we are experiencing. We love Jennifer, Olivia, and Magnus so much. Jennifer was so smart and so excited about living her life. Magnus, even though he was only 2, could melt hearts with his beautiful blond hair and devilish smile. Olivia was a beautiful child with big brown eyes and a shy smile that only widened once she got to know you.

"We can't explain why this has happened -- we can barely believe that it has happened. Our hearts go out to all the families and individuals impacted by this incident. We want to thank all the friends, acquaintances and concerned people who have helped in this difficult time. We want to thank the police in all the communities who have helped in this situation.

"May Jennifer, Olivia, Magnus, and Andrea rest in peace."

Before the shooting, Bernsdorff apparently made comments to others that he would kill his family and himself if he could not get them back together, police said today.

At 6:42 a.m., police received a call of shots fired and responded to the Monterey Lakes Apartments, a sprawling complex at 7501 Ulmerton Road in Largo. There they found Annie amid the grisly scene.

A police official said investigators suspect that after the Largo shootings Bernsdorff went to his Clearwater home and shot his children, Olivia, 4, and Magnus, 2, in their beds. But police also said it's not known for sure which pair of homicides took place first and that investigators might not know that for some time.

At some point Friday morning, however, he called the children's school to say there was no need to send someone to pick them up.

"He said he was staying home with the kids that day to do something fun," Largo police Sgt. Mark Young said.

Authorities, however, believe Bernsdorff got into the family van and drove south on Interstate 275, crossing the Sunshine Skyway bridge.

About 10:30 a.m., Manatee sheriff's deputies began receiving 911 calls about an erratic driver on the interstate. Deputies began to tail the van once it crossed to the Manatee County side of the skyway.

Just before Exit 5, the van pulled over to the side. But instead of stopping, it crashed into the thick mangroves lining the highway.

The driver, believed to be Bernsdorff, was found in the driver's seat with a gunshot wound to the head. A handgun was also found in the car, said Manatee sheriff's spokesman Dave Bristow.

The driver's face was disfigured from the gunshot, Bristow said. Largo police were examining fingerprints. Clearwater police said the driver might have to be identified through DNA.

The rampage left many who knew Bernsdorff at a loss, questioning what could have driven a man who presented himself publicly as a doting father.

On a family Web site, Bernsdorff posted letters he wrote to both children before they were born.

"Dear Olivia ... Your first name, as mine, means 'bringer of peace,'" he wrote in a letter dated Thanksgiving 2002. "Whether that is in the smallest corner of the world, or across galaxies may you stay true to it."

Bernsdorff, who had no criminal record in Florida, was an adult education instructor for the Pinellas County School District.

Tammy Pleasant, 41, lives across the street from the Bernsdorff family house on Powderhorn Drive, a dead-end street in Clearwater. She said the entire family frequently sat on lawn chairs on their driveway.

"The kids were always outside, running around and playing and riding bikes," Pleasant said. "The wife seemed like a normal person, a good mother."

Several neighbors referred to Bernsdorff as a hippie because of his tie-dye T-shirts and the way he painted the family van in a patchwork of rainbow colors, calling it the "happy bus."

But despite the appearance of domestic tranquillity, the eight-year marriage was unraveling. In August, Bernsdorff filed for divorce, and he received custody of the children. Davis began meeting with Brown, the domestic violence counselor. In those conversations, Davis told her she was in love with Pisanello.

The women met at the Unitarian Universalists Church in Clearwater and worked together at the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast.

"Jen said she had never been more in love with anybody," Brown said. "Andrea made Jen very happy."

Brown also met with Bernsdorff to discuss the divorce. He blamed all his troubles on Davis.

Those problems included massive debt. According to divorce records, Bernsdorff had $168,000 in student loans and $27,000 in federal income tax liabilities from 1999 to 2003. He also agreed as part of the settlement to take on the couple's $50,000 credit card debt.

Erica Moore, an adult education teacher who worked with Bernsdorff, said he was usually very talkative and outgoing. But recently, with the divorce, he "became very obviously despondent."

On Wednesday, based on a referral by Brown, Davis met with Frieda Widera, a domestic crisis specialist for the Largo Police Department. Davis told her that she had been with Bernsdorff since she was 18 and that he had been abusive the whole time.

"She left and he got everything in the divorce, and she didn't have the energy or the resources to fight then," Widera said.

But, Widera said, Davis was just mounting the strength to get back her kids.

"He won everything except her, and he found a way to take everything away," she said.

A memorial service is planned this afternoon at Unitarian Universalists of Clearwater, where Bernsdorff, Davis and Pisanello attended church.

Jacob H. Fries, Jonathan Abel, Jose Cardenas, Lorri Helfand and Demorris A. Lee, Times staff writers