Sheila Leigh Walsh Bellush, 35 and mother of six, was murdered on November 7, 1997, in her Sarasota, Florida home. The killing was carried out in front of her infant quadruplets after an intruder, Jose Luis Del Toro, shot her in the face with a .45 caliber gun and then slit her throat. Her 13-year-old daughter Stevie discovered the body after returning from school; investigators reported the quadruplets left small bloody footprints through the house.

Police say the attack was a planned murder-for-hire scheme allegedly arranged by Sheila’s ex-husband, Allen Blackthorne. He reportedly recruited Daniel Alex Rocha, who in turn hired Del Toro. Del Toro was arrested after a neighbor provided his license plate number, and later Rocha and Blackthorne were implicated. All three were convicted and received life sentences.

Sheila had remarried Jamie Bellush in 1993 and the family moved to Sarasota to escape Blackthorne’s harassment; the couple had divorced in 1987 following a bitter custody dispute. Who in the community remembers Sheila or saw suspicious activity near the Bellush home in the weeks before November 7, 1997?