Florida woman accused of fatally shooting both her ex-husbands in single-day rampage

A jilted Florida woman who owes thousands of dollars in child support was accused of fatally shooting both her ex-husbands in a single day last week.

Susan Erica Avalon, 51, left a bloody trail across three counties in Florida on Dec. 17, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office announced last Thursday.

Deputies first responded to reports of a shooting at a residential home around 3 p.m. Wednesday, Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said. The victim, a 54-year-old man who had been shot twice, managed to tell investigators that the shooter was “possibly my ex-wife” before he died.

The estranged couple’s 15-year-old daughter told authorities that she heard gunshots in their home after her father opened the front door.

She went to the window and said she saw a person in a gray sweatshirt and a mask flee in a silver Honda Odyssey, Wells said.

Authorities tracked the fleeing car to Avalon’s home in Citrus County the following day — and caught her while she was bleaching its interior.

When investigators said they wished to speak with her about her ex-husband, Avalon eerily replied, “Which one?”, Wells said.

Realizing that Avalon had a second ex living in Tampa, the sheriff’s department contacted the city’s police and rushed to conduct a wellness check at his home in Hillsborough County.

Inside, they found he had been shot and died long before their arrival.

An investigation is still ongoing, but authorities believe that Avalon left her home in Citrus County, killed her second ex-husband at his Hillsborough County home, then cruised to Manatee County and fatally shot her first ex-husband.

Officials didn’t reveal a specific motive, but noted that Avalon owes upwards of $4,000 in child support to her first ex-husband. The pair divorced 11 years ago. It’s unclear when she and her second ex-husband separated, Wells said.

“We believe this was premeditated. She knew what she was doing. It was planned. She came here to kill her ex-husband,” Wells said.

Avalon was charged with second-degree homicide for one of the killings, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities said that more charges are expected, including a first-degree murder charge that would carry a possible death penalty.

Avalon was previously arrested for child abuse in Virginia and has had related charges dropped in Tampa and Pasco County, Wells said.