Caught But Not Convicted
It's been five years since Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz were abducted, tortured, raped and murdered on sequential nights during a chilly weekend in late December 2003. Wachholtz's badly decomposed body was found in the back of his Jeep Cherokee in January 2004—about two weeks after authorities say he died. Galehouse's body has never been found. Investigators believe it was dismembered and the body parts distributed in Dumpsters throughout Tampa Bay.
Neither of the men believed responsible for these horrendous acts has faced murder charges, but both Steven Lorenzo and Scott Schweickert are in federal prisons following drug convictions dating to 2005.
"This is just ridiculous," says Pamela Williams, Galehouse's mother. "This has just been going on too long, and it's time for these guys to be put away forever. I know they murdered my son, and they murdered Michael Wachholtz. The State Attorney's office just won't move forward."
Officially, State Attorney Mark Ober plans to pursue murder charges against Lorenzo and Schweickert. But if the cases are progressing, that information is not being shared with the media—or the families.
Prisoners with cases pending
Granted, neither Schweickert nor Lorenzo is going anywhere. In January 2006, Lorenzo was sentenced to 200 years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty on nine counts of administering the date-rape drug GHB and one count of conspiring with Schweickert to distribute the drug. Schweickert is serving 40 years after a jury found him guilty as Lorenzo's accomplice.
Lorenzo is serving his sentence in a maximum security cell at the Lee United States Penitentiary in Jonesville, Va. Schweickert is housed in a minimum security facility at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson, Ariz.
Just weeks ago, a federal appeals court upheld Schweickert's convictions. The court affirmed that Schweickert conspired with Lorenzo to drug and torture at least two victims who died in Lorenzo's home, and specifically that Lorenzo drugged Wachholtz with the intent to commit a crime of violence.
Lorenzo, now 49, and Schweickert, 44, will remain incarcerated. But those related sentences aren't enough for Williams. She's incredulous that, despite the findings of the juries in the drug and conspiracy cases, prosecutors are unwilling to proceed with murder charges.
"I can't move on until I see the men who killed my son punished for that crime," a tearful Williams says. "I need closure, our family needs closure, and I know Michael Wachholtz's family needs closure."
That closure may have to wait. Authorities say that without Galehouse's body, it's difficult to press murder charges. And a more vexing problem could be the nature of Schweickert's interrogation by law enforcement.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, suspects have the "Miranda" right to an attorney while being questioned by law enforcement. But according to records, Tampa Police officers didn't "Mirandize" Schweickert—inform him of his right to counsel—during preliminary questioning.
Affidavits show that Lorenzo's attorney was present at all times during questioning, so his interrogation is less problematic.
Prosecutors argue that Schweickert's interrogation was also legal because Miranda protections only apply to questioning that takes place while a suspect is in police custody. Since Schweickert was "free to leave" during his initial interview, they argue he was not technically in custody.
In fact, after being questioned, Schweickert left the police station and slept that night in a nearby hotel room. The following day, records indicate that he toured Tampa Bay with police and voluntarily showed officers where he and Lorenzo had dumped Galehouse's body parts.
The delay in bringing murder charges is understandable, according to Brian Winfield of Equality Florida, but he also believes that the Galehouse and Wachholtz cases should now move forward.
"It's time to take the next step," Winfield says. "We understand and appreciate the effort [Ober] is putting into making sure he has the best case possible, but we're coming up on five years. Regardless of the Miranda issue, we know the case."
More unsolved disappearances
Meanwhile, investigators are considering whether Lorenzo and/or Schweickert may have been involved in the mysterious and still-unsolved disappearances of other gay men in Tampa Bay and South Florida prior to 2003. The circumstances in each case are more than a little coincidental. Almost all of the men were in their late 20s or early 30s, had slender builds, occasionally used drugs, and were last seen at a gay bar. And none of them, save Wachholtz, has ever been found.
There was James Shumaker, a handsome 30-year-old gay man who frequented the now-closed Parthenon Café on Whiting Street in downtown Tampa. He disappeared in 1995 and has not been heard from since.
Thirty-one-year-old Bradley Lee Williams vanished in 2001. When he didn't report to work on June 8, his coworkers at the U.S. Post Office assumed he had quit. His family, accustomed to not hearing from Williams for weeks at a time, became concerned when Williams' mother went to his Tampa apartment and discovered several starving pets. His personal belongings, including cell phone and wallet, were intact.
Weeks after his disappearance, police found Williams' car on Kennedy Boulevard near Metropolis, another gay nightclub. And they learned that no attempt had been made—and has ever been made—to access $4,000 in Williams' bank accounts.
In November 2001, Mark Allen Thompson, 30, failed to show up for work after leaving the Pro Shop Pub in Clearwater late the previous night. His mother reported him missing, and four days later, investigators found his Ford Ranger pickup abandoned in Tampa. There were no signs of struggle, Thompson's body has never been found, and the case remains open.
Other missing-persons cases in Florida have also raised eyebrows, but authorities remain uncertain whether any can be linked to Lorenzo or Schweickert.
Fort Lauderdale resident Mark Jackson, 35, was last seen in June 2004 at the Coliseum Nightclub, where he'd gone with a male friend to dance into the early morning. Both returned to Jackson's Drake Towers apartment after 4 a.m., but when his friend awoke the next morning, Jackson was gone. His personal belongings—including cell phone, keys and medicines—were left behind, along with some speed and cocaine. Jackson reportedly left a note, but police have never disclosed the contents.
Curiously, Lorenzo owned a condo directly across the street at the time. And Jackson wasn't the first person to disappear from Drake Towers. In 1988, roommates Barry Block and David Rhodes vanished from the complex.
Authorities have not linked either case to Lorenzo. But when Lorenzo was arrested in Tampa in 2005, police immediately canvassed the Drake Towers area. They drained the nearby South Fork Middle River hoping a body or other evidence would surface, but their efforts were fruitless.
Law enforcement from North Carolina and the Chicago area have also investigated Lorenzo, trying unsuccessfully to link him to missing-persons cases involving young gay men.
Lorenzo and Schweickert: online friends
Lorenzo met Schweickert—who maintained duel residency in both Peru, Ill., and Orlando—in an online chat room in 2003. There, authorities say, the two men discussed plans to use drugs to force "boys" to submit to rough sex.
"Tell them we are going to party and invite them along," Schweickert wrote using his screen name, "MstrScott." "Tell them we need to stop off at one of our places, drug them and then that is it for them."
According to chat room transcripts, Lorenzo responded to Schweickert's ideas using the screen name "Domdudeforsub," writing, "Easy to make them vanish with no link to us in the least."
Schweickert later told police it was all "fantasy" talk until he hooked up with Lorenzo in Tampa. In an affidavit, Schweickert described how Lorenzo smothered and killed Galehouse and Wachholtz, and offered gruesome details as to how the two men dismembered Galehouse's body. Schweickert reportedly told authorities he helped wrap Wachholtz's body in a sheet and put it in the back of the young man's Jeep Cherokee. He also told authorities Lorenzo "got a kick" out of placing some of Galehouse's body parts in a Dumpster located behind a Tampa church.
Disturbing testimony
Three years after the murders, jurors at Lorenzo and Schweickert's drug and conspiracy trials viewed disturbing photos of several men—some appearing lifeless—involved in sadomasochistic acts. Many were bruised, and there was evidence that some had been raped.
Prosecutor Anthony E. Porcelli also presented video of torturous acts filmed in the dungeon Lorenzo built in his Seminole Heights bungalow. Throughout the trial, jurors reacted to evidence with visible disgust. Several clasped their hands over their mouths.
But the most compelling testimony came from some of Lorenzo's surviving victims. Six men took the stand and candidly outlined their disturbing encounters with Lorenzo. Each described how they met Lorenzo at a nearby bar or online and then went to his home. All believed they had been drugged before sadomasochistic sex began. They later awoke groggy and bound in various ways.
One bartender from Massachusetts said he had been told there would be a party at Lorenzo's home. Once there, he felt groggy, fell asleep and awoke naked with a tourniquet around his neck and testicles. His eyes and mouth had been taped shut. When the bartender didn't pass out, he said Lorenzo removed the duct tape and began beating him—and masturbating. His struggle, the victim testified, only excited Lorenzo more.
"That's when I realized I needed to remain calm," the man told the jury. His tactic worked, and Lorenzo eventually released him.
Lorenzo's defense attorney, Donald Harrison, argued that the victims knew what they were getting into and that the experiences "are just part of the bondage culture." While the prosecution pointed to explicit Internet chats between Lorenzo and the victims as proof of a crime, Harrison used the the same evidence to say the victims were eager to be dominated and tortured.
But Porcelli argued that fantasy became a frightening, unanticipated nightmare at Lorenzo's home, where victims were drugged and bound against their will. Many were injured and raped. Two died.
At trial, Lorenzo whispered into his attorney's ear during testimony. When the jury returned the guilty verdict, Lorenzo patted his attorney on the back and smiled at his crying family.
A community needing closure
Call it coincidence or cause-effect, but since Lorenzo and Schweickert have been incarcerated, there have been no ominous local reports of missing gay men.
"I think that says a lot right there," says Andy Doublegate, a St. Petersburg resident who was acquainted with Lorenzo when they were neighbors in Seminole Heights. "I never knew Scott, but Steve's trial pointed directly to them as murderers. I don't know why the state doesn't just charge them."
Doublegate says he never considered Lorenzo a threat, but he knew his neighbor "was into kinky stuff."
"I don't think anyone expects to learn that someone they know is capable of drugging and murdering people," Doublegate says. "But I have no doubt Steve murdered [Galehouse and Wachholtz] and probably others."
Lorenzo's attorney stands by his client. Harrison has said that Lorenzo is promiscuous but not a murderer. When contacted he wouldn't elaborate, and a spokeswoman said that since Lorenzo could still face murder charges, it would be inappropriate to comment further.
For her part, Williams is frustrated and at times furious.
"I've waited almost five years to get some justice for Jason," Williams says, adding that she believes Ober is dragging his feet because the murder is a "gay issue." "I want to mobilize the gay community and our governor to charge Lorenzo with murdering my son. It's time."
But Gov. Charlie Crist believes the case should proceed through normal channels. He wrote to Williams, explaining that the investigation is still ongoing and under the jurisdiction of the State Attorney's office.
Winfield says Equality Florida stood by Williams' side throughout the investigation and is hopeful murder charges will come in 2009.
"We really believe that we owe it to the families and the community to pursue murder charges now," Winfield says. "Ober does seem committed to prosecuting this to the fullest extent of the law, but there's a huge loophole because he gets to decide what that means. We feel, based on the information that's been shared with us, that the Tampa Police Department has done an excellent job investigating this murder and turned up some strong evidence. I just can't imagine what more they would want to at least move forward with murder charges."
Winfield says that the Tampa Bay community can help convince the State Attorney's office to pursue murder charges by contacting Gov. Christ's office, the State Attorney General's office, or the State Attorney's office (see sidebar).
"Every state attorney reports to the Attorney General's office, and he reports to the Governor," Winfield says. "Pressure from the Tampa community will remind them that we haven't forgotten about this case."
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