March 8, 2021

This is Marcia Lane, your roving reporter.

What authorities believe began as a domestic violence in St. Johns County ended Sunday with the apparent suicide in Clay County of a man described as a person of interest in the St. Johns case. Authorities in St. Johns were notified by Clay County around 8:30 a.m. Sunday from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office asking for a welfare check of a woman in the northwest part of St. Johns County. When deputies went to the residence they found the body of a woman. Around 9 a.m. Sunday Clay County Sheriff’s Office responded to 9-1-1 calls from Fleming Island neighbors about a potential burglary in progress. Deputies arrived and found a car crashed through a house and the suspect running inside. That began a day-long situation involving a SWAT team and negotiators attempting to get the man to come out. Shortly before 5 p.m. shots were heard in the house and SWAT eventually entered and found he body of a man in the bathroom. The man was not the owner of the house, according to the sheriff’s office. The home owner reportedly was out of state. The investigation continues.

St. Johns County is gearing up for The Players Championship this week. Coronavirus led to the limiting of tickets to 20 percent of normal capacity and all those tickets have been sold. Good news is play will be carried Thursday and Friday on The Golf Channel and Saturday and Sunday on NBC. Practice rounds are Tuesday and Wednesday at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Florida Department of Health reported four coronavirus-related deaths in the three-county area over the weekend. In Putnam County a 72-year-old man and an 89-year-old man died, bring the total to 130 since counting began in March. Twenty-three new coronavirus cases were reported for a total of 5,897. Flagler County reported one new death, for a total of 93. Seventy-one new cases were reported for a total of 6,135. St. Johns County also reported one new coronavirus-related death for a total of 200. Between Friday and Sunday 95 new coronavirus cases were reported for a total of 20,334.

A Jacksonville man died Saturday in a single car-accident on Interstate 95 south. Florida Highway Patrol said the pickup truck driver lost control of the vehicle, veered back to the left lane and off the roadway, striking a guardrail. The truck overturned and the driver was ejected and died at the scene. A passenger was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

In Putnam County a Gainesville woman died in a single-car Thursday on County Road 309 near Georgetown, Florida Highway Patrol reports. Alissa Waters, 31, was driving a pickup truck south on CR 309 at 8:45 p.m. near Mockingbird Lane when the truck went onto the west shoulder, corrected back to the east shoulder and overturned. Waters was ejected. She was not wearing a seatbelt, according to FHP.

In Washington on Thursday Rep. Kat Cammack stood up for police. During debate before the U.S. House recently elected Cammack blasted House Bill 1280 to defund police. Cammack, a Republican, was former lead aide for Rep. Ted Yoho, who kept his campaign promise not to served more than eight year and didn’t seek re-election.

If someone offers you art work at a too-low-to-believe price, you might be looking at stolen goods. C-GypSea Art Studio on U.S. 17 South in San Mateo was broken into last week and art work stolen including beach, turtle and elephant paintings and other original art by local artists among them James Dean, a young disabled veteran from Crescent City. The studio owner, whose work was stolen also, is offering a $500 cash reward.