Iraq Veteran Third Suicide in Palm Coast Within 5 Days

A 26-Year-Old Iraq War Veteran In 3rd Suicide in 5 Days in Palm Coast
FLAGLERLIVE
JUNE 13, 2017

Justus Albert Leach, A 26-year-old Army veteran of the Iraq war, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his backyard at 71 Ft. Caroline Lane Sunday. It was the third suicide by gunshot in five days in Palm Coast.

Justus Leach in one of the images he frequently reposted on his Facebook page.

A roommate of Leach’s found him Sunday morning in a corner of the backyard, on a bench. “A tactical shotgun was also observed” near Leach, according to a Flagler County Sheriff’s Office report. The gun had been moved by another roommate after he had been advised by a 911 dispatcher to attempt CPR.

But a deputy reported that by then Leach appeared to have been dead “for some time,” according to the report. Leach was pronounced dead by a paramedic at 8:57 a.m. Sunday (June 11). It isn’t clear how long he had lived on Ft. Caroline, where four other residents also live.

Neighbors did not report hearing any gunshots, according to the deputy.

On June 8, a 92-year-old Palm Coast resident took his life after driving to the old Players Club tennis court, and leaving a note and instructions behind for his family. He had been depressed and battling cancer. Two days earlier, a 49-year-old resident of Plantation Bay took his own life at his home. Both men died of gunshot wounds.
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Marine Vietnam Veterans Step Into 50 Year Old Looking Glass

Vietnam vet Marines recreate beach photo after 50 years
WFAA
Jacob Carpenter, Naples (Fla.) Daily News
April 25, 2016

Re-creating a moment from 1966:

Dennis Puleo, from left, Tom Hanks, Bob DeVenezia (kneeling), and Bob Falk met on Cinnamon Beach April 23, 2016, in Palm Coast, Fla.

(Photo: Luke Franke, Naples (Fla.) Daily News)

PALM COAST, Fla. — They wanted the picture to be just right, to look as close as possible to the one they'd taken together 50 years ago, back when their memories hadn't yet been clouded by the images of war.

So Saturday morning, on the sun-drenched Atlantic shore of Cinnamon Beach on Florida's northeast coast, four U.S. Marine veterans gathered around a yellow longboard turned upright, trying to re-create a moment from five decades earlier.

Bob Falk, 71, wearing a mirror-image blue-and-white striped shirt, leaned against the longboard's left side, resting his spare hand on his hip.

Dennis Puleo, 69, removed his shoes, revealing the feet scarred by shrapnel, and pulled off his shirt, flanking the longboard on the right, mugging a wide smile for the camera with his arms extended.

Tom Hanks (not that one), 69, stepped in front of the board and took in a long, deep breath, flexing his still-thick upper chest and sucking in his now-paunchy belly.

Finally, Bob DeVenezia, 70, crouched down in front of Hanks, resting his elbows on his knobby knees, feeling Hanks' hands placed on his back.
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Domestic fight ends with estranged couple dead

And a nine year old daughter left behind. A stranger tied into all of this who tried to help and a community shaken where all of this happened.

Domestic fight ends with estranged couple dead

By MARK I. JOHNSON, HEATHER SCOFIELD and KARI COBHAM
Staff Writers

PALM COAST— A domestic disturbance escalated into gunfire as a man chased his wife through a Palm Coast neighborhood this morning, eventually shooting and killing her before he died of a gunshot wound himself.

Officials are calling it “an apparent murder-suicide,” but they acknowledge the fatal shot that killed the husband may have come from a neighbor’s gun. The wife sought shelter at a nearby home and the homeowner returned fire at the husband.

Flagler County sheriff’s investigators are trying to untangle the incident, which began just after 7:00 a.m. in front of a house on Reynolds Place, with the first 9-1-1 calls coming in to Sheriff’s dispatchers at approximately 7:15 a.m.

“We’re still trying to put all the pieces together,” said Sheriff’s Maj. David O’Brien.

So far, investigators said they believe the couple was estranged, living in separate houses
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Domestic fight ends with estranged couple dead