Joe and Serena Gomez

Ex-Ocean Ridge couple slain following dream By Sofia Santana
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

OCEAN RIDGE — Joe and Serena Gomez had grown tired of the crime and bustle of South Florida. They wanted a house they could call their own, someplace quiet and safe where they could raise their 5-year-old son and have more children.

They found Cassia, a rural community north of Orlando. They bought their first house there and settled into new jobs.

But it was in that town last weekend, inside their dream home, that Joe and Serena Gomez were murdered and their son orphaned.

"They moved to get away from the busy area," said Karen Hancsak, who met the couple when they came to work at Ocean Ridge, where she is town clerk. "They were just looking forward to starting a life up there."

In 2003, Joe Gomez, 34, became a police officer in the small, seaside town of Ocean Ridge. The town hired Serena Gomez as a police dispatcher in 2000, and she became deputy town clerk four years later.

With the police department and town hall in the same building, the couple often worked side-by-side.

Co-workers had overheard conversations in which Serena tried to persuade her husband to let her get a puppy. It took awhile, but Joe finally relented. The couple packed their things, and moved to Cassia with a new canine member of the family in tow.

For the close family of police officers and town hall staff that keep Ocean Ridge running, it was a bittersweet farewell. They were happy for the couple, Hanscak recalls, but "We begged them not to go."

In November, Joe Gomez became a police officer in the nearby small city of Eustis. Serena found a job in the planning and zoning department of Tavares, another nearby town.

The Gomezes befriended Eustis police Corp. Mike Mount and his wife, Kimberly, who is a dispatcher for the department. The Mounts were having marital problems, and Kimberly Mount and her two children went to stay at the Gomez home for the weekend, said Sgt. Christie Mysinger, spokeswoman for the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

"We were trying to be supportive of both of them as they tried to work through these problems," Eustis police Chief Fred A. M. Cobb said.

It remains unclear exactly what happened Sunday that led Mike Mount to force his way into the Gomez home.

Mike Mount first shot Joe Gomez in the head during a brief confrontation, Mysinger said. Serena Gomez and Kimberly Mount tried to hide, but Mount found them and shot both. He then turned his service revolver on himself and committed suicide, Mysinger said.

The Mounts' two young children, 5-year-old Justin Gomez and Serena Gomez's mother, Debra James, 48, hid in another room of the house during the horrifying ordeal, Mysinger said. All three were unharmed.

"It was over in minutes," she said.

Media reports have since depicted Eustis as a community paralyzed by the tragedy, especially its 54-member police department, which lost three employees in the incident.

The aftershocks are evident in Ocean Ridge, where town employees and the 20-member police force first learned what happened to the Gomezes when an Orlando newspaper reporter called the station Sunday, said Marcia Martin, a dispatcher who was a close friend of the Gomezes.

At a regularly scheduled meeting Monday evening, red-eyed town officials expressed their grief and discussed plans to establish a trust fund for Justin Gomez. Joe Gomez also had two young children from a previous marriage.

The Mounts' two young children were turned over to their biological father, Mysinger said.

Justin Gomez probably will be placed in the custody of his grandmother, Debra James, Mysinger said.

Echoing many who knew the Gomezes, Martin sums up the painful situation with tears and a deep breath: "It's devastating."