Pastor and Wife Murdered One Week After Their Wedding
A Florida man is behind bars after investigators say he shot and killed a newly married pastor and his wife Saturday morning inside their Palm Beach County home.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office first alerted the public of the double murder in a Facebook post just hours after the couple was found dead.
“Today, at 8:36 am, deputies responded to a shooting that occurred in the 12000 block of Summit Run Circle, West Palm Beach,” the department said.
The sheriff’s office added that inside the home, a man and a woman had both been found shot to death and that a “person of interest” had been identified.
Neither of the victims was identified while the PBSO also said there was no reason to believe there was any threat to the public.
“Detectives from the Violent Crimes Division are on scene investigating this double shooting as a double homicide,” the sheriff’s office added. “Detectives are in the process of getting a search warrant to investigate further.”
On Sunday, WPTV-TV reported the victims were a pastor and his wife of one week — a nurse practitioner who was originally from Haiti.
The couple had married the Saturday before.
On Monday, the sheriff’s office announced that the “person of interest” in the killings had been arrested on two counts of first-degree murder.
“After a thorough investigation into this weekend’s double homicide, our Detectives have interviewed and arrested the ‘person of interest,’ Sony Josaphat, on two counts of First Degree Murder,” the PCSO said.
Josaphat is being held without bond while the victims of the deceased invoked “Marsy’s Law for both victims,” the sheriff’s department said.
The sheriff’s office asked for prayers for both victims and those who knew and loved them.
Marsy’s Law for Florida says the amendment cited by the families is to protect crime victims in death just as it would have in life, particularly regarding privacy.
But WPTV spoke to people who knew the victims on Sunday morning as members of their church gathered outside of the home they shared.
One of those people was a woman who identified herself as the sister of the female victim in Saturday’s double murder.
“She has never been as happy as she was now,” the woman said while sharing a wedding photo from last week of her sister’s wedding day.
The woman also said that her sister’s three children were inside the couple’s home, one of whom is an adult that witnessed her murder.
One of the couple’s neighbors who spoke to WPTV said she heard the gunshots.
“I heard what sounded like gunshots, but I thought people were just working on someone’s roof, so I ignored it and went into the house, and then later when I went back outside, that’s when I saw all the police activity out here,” the neighbor said.
Another neighbor called the incident “horrific.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
