A woman was thrown behind bars after allegedly fatally shooting both of her ex-husbands in separate broad-daylight shootings on the same day, police said.
Susan Avalon, 48, was arrested on Wednesday, Dec. 17, and slapped with murder charges after blasting one ex-hubby with bullets in Tampa, then traveling more than 50 miles to Manatee County to fatally shoot the other later that day around 3 p.m., according to Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells.
Investigators said Avalon was embroiled in bitter custody battles with her former spouses, which they believe may have sparked the cold-blooded killings.
“It doesn’t get anymore brazen than this,” Wells told reporters at a press conference Thursday, Dec. 18.
“We believe this was premeditated. She knew what she was doing, it was planned and she came here to kill her ex-husband.”
Police said Avalon targeted her first husband — a 54-year-old man she divorced roughly 11 years ago — at his Manatee County home around 2:55 p.m., luring him to open his front door with stolen food from a Panera Bread before shooting him twice.
The unidentified man was rushed to a nearby hospital, but succumbed to his injuries later that day.
Surveillance footage captured Avalon walking into the nearby bread eatery and stealing food from the delivery pickup shelf without paying before heading to her ex-husband’s home, authorities said.
Her live-in boyfriend allegedly told police she had recently tracked down her ex-husband’s address.
The exes reportedly had ongoing custody disputes and about $4,000 in unpaid child support, with Avalon facing a looming deadline to pay $200 or lose her driver’s license.
Investigators tracked her silver Honda Odyssey back to her Citrus County home after the shooting and found her scrubbing the minivan with bleach and rags. But when asked by police about her ex-husband, she chillingly replied, “Which one?”
“We only know of one,” Wells said.
“We start to dig into this second ex-husband that we know nothing about, and we find she was married again after the marriage to our victim, and that this ex-husband lives in Tampa.”
Wells said investigators alerted Tampa authorities, who conducted a welfare check at the second husband’s Frierson Avenue home and found him dead inside with multiple gunshot wounds. The back door was also damaged, suggesting forced entry, he added.
Officials have not disclosed the second victim’s name or age, but believe Avalon allegedly killed him first.
Avalon, who was previously arrested on child abuse charges in Virginia in 2004, was charged with second-degree homicide in Manatee County. Wells said he is working with prosecutors to have that charge upgraded to first-degree murder and the death penalty.
Avalon, who reportedly has five children between both slain ex-husband’s, also faced two other child abuse cases in Tampa and Pasco County that were later dropped.
She has not yet been charged in the Tampa shooting as police continue their investigation.
Avalon is currently being held at Citrus County Detention Facility in Lecanto.
