On November 26, 2009, a man killed four members of his family in Jupiter, Florida. [1] [2] [3]
Paul Michael Merhige waited three hours before opening fire at his family's Thanksgiving Day dinner, shooting multiple family members. [4] [5] His aunt, Raymonde Joseph, his twin sisters, Carla Merhige and Lisa Knight, as well as his 6-year-old cousin, Makayla, were killed in the shooting. Lisa Knight was pregnant at the time of the shooting. [6] [7] Her husband, Patrick Knight, was severely injured and spent three months in a coma. [8]
The family had a troubled past. In 1973, Paul Merhige's aunt, Salwa Merrige-Abrams, murdered her ex-husband and two children before committing suicide by taking barbiturates. [9]
A manhunt for Merhige followed, with a $25,000 reward offered for information leading to his arrest. [10]
On January 2, 2010, Merhige was arrested. [11] [12] On October 27, 2011, Paul Merhige pleaded guilty to all charges, and was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences without parole. [13] [14]
The same year, on September 15, Jim and Muriel Sitton sued Paul's parents, with their reasoning being that they could have prevented the murders. [15] [16] In 2014, 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that Merhige's parents could not be held liable for the massacre. [17] [18]
Palm Beach International Airport is a public airport in Palm Beach County, Florida, located just west of the city of West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, for which it serves as the primary airport. It is also the primary airport for most of Palm Beach County, serving the suburbs and cities of Boca Raton, Wellington, Boynton Beach, Jupiter, and Palm Beach Gardens. It is the third busiest airport in the Miami metropolitan area after Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport. The airport is operated by Palm Beach County's Department of Airports. Road access to the airport is direct from I-95, Southern Boulevard, and Congress Avenue. The airport is bordered on the west by Military Trail.
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The Northwest Correctional Complex is a state prison located in Tiptonville, Lake County, Tennessee. It is owned and operated by the Tennessee Department of Correction. The facility can hold 2,391 inmates at a range of security levels. It has the second largest capacity of any state prison in Tennessee after the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center. As of May 31, 2020, there were 1,958 in the facility. It is the primary educational prison in the state system. In addition, inmates provide more than 100,000 hours of community service to state and local governments, and non-profit agencies annually.
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