Florida sprees halted?

When Jason Galehouse, 26, went missing from a gay nightclub in December 2003, he was finishing up his first semester studying interior design in Tampa, Fla. "He was a florist, he had a beautiful voice, sang really well, everybody liked him," says longtime best friend Tyler, who declined to give his full name.

Tyler says he and his friends were holding out hope that Galehouse was still alive until a Chicago man, Scott Schweickert, 39, was arrested on May 19. Schweickert has been charged in connection with the deaths of Galehouse and another Tampa gay man, Michael Wachholtz. According to police, he admitted his involvement in the crimes, in which the two men were allegedly drugged, raped, and murdered, and in the case of Galehouse, dismembered.

A second suspect in the case, Steven Lorenzo, has been in jail since November on charges he drugged and raped six men at his home. Lorenzo has not been charged in the deaths of Galehouse and Wachholtz, but blood found at his home this year could connect him to the crimes, police said. Lorenzo's attorney has admitted that his client is "promiscuous" but said he is not a murderer.

Concerned that police were not paying enough attention to Galehouse's disappearance, Tyler and other friends established a Web site early on to gather and disseminate information about the case. Thanks in part to their work, six of Lorenzo's alleged rape victims came forward. "These guys were drugged up in a gay bar, and they'd wake up in bondage. They were embarrassed about going to the police," Tyler says.

Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting the case, says, "Our office has taken this very seriously from the beginning. We continue to reach out to the community at large, and especially to the gay community, for more information concerning this case. We're more than willing to listen."

Schweickert is being charged as an accessory after the fact and, if convicted, could face 10 years in prison. Lorenzo is awaiting trial in October on federal drug charges. If convicted, he faces 20 years in prison on each count.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Liberation Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group