On March 1, the suspect in the horrifying shooting that shocked both investigators and neighbors was apprehended. He is the biological father of one of the four victims discovered dead in an apartment in Canaveral Groves in Florida.
Sheriff Wayne Ivey called the incident “horrific.” Deputies from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office were called to the single-story home around 2 a.m., where they discovered the bodies of two women, a teenager, and a man. All four were pronounced dead at the scene, and two children, ages 6 and 9, were discovered unharmed in the house.
Sheriff Ivey stated that the bodies were discovered after a child used FaceTime or a similar app to report an incident. The suspect was arrested 12 hours later.
Domenico Gigante, 36, murdered his daughter Kiarra, her mother, her grandmother, and a man who had two younger kids with Kiarra’s mother. Gigante was arrested in Rockledge and charged with four counts of premeditated murder in connection with the deaths of Glenda Terwilliger, 63, Michael Andrew Watson, 36, Constance Terwilliger, 35, and Kiarra Terwilliger, 15.
Gigante was expected to be taken into custody at the Brevard County Detention Complex and to make his first court appearance on Thursday morning.
The suspect’s criminal history includes battery and domestic abuse charges in 2005, numerous animal cruelty charges in 2008, and aggravated assault and battery with a lethal weapon in 2012. Sheriff Ivey claimed that Gigante stabbed a dog before killing another by smashing its head on a table and breaking its neck. He claimed that he was a violent individual who should have been imprisoned much sooner.
A roommate later reported that Gigante had threatened to murder them all on Tuesday because of his strained relationship with his daughter. This account was supported by court documents. It was unclear right away whether the roommate contacted anyone about the claim and whether the horrific event could have been avoided.
The recent four fatalities mark the bloodiest single homicide case in Brevard County, Florida, following the May 2012 case in which a mother shot and murdered her four children before killing herself.