The brutal murder of young bride by her much older husband, who then killed himself, has sent shockwaves through Port St. Lucie, Fla. -- where many neighbors didn't even know the deceased were a couple.
The bloodshed began in the middle of the night last Saturday when a 78-year-old man apparently shot his wife, who was 21 years old. Before turning the pistol on himself, the husband called a neighbor to say he'd murdered his spouse. He asked her to pick up his dead wife's daughter because he was about to set the house on fire, according to TV station WPTV.
There were at least two 911 calls that night that have been released; one from the neighbor who ventured into the home around 1 a.m. to retrieve the 3-year-old girl, and the other from the husband, identified by some news outlets as Geunther Floerchinger, who told a dispatcher that he would allow someone to enter his home to pick up the toddler. Once the child was safe, he said he would end his own life.
When emergency responders arrived, the wife -- identified as Carhina Floerchinger -- was in a smokey bedroom that had been doused with gasoline. Police found her husband first behind the front door with burns on his body, according to TCPalm.com.
Some neighbors said they didn't know the couple was married because of the age gap between them. Others told TV station WPEC that they'd never seen the wife and her daughter at the house.
The Floerchingers' marriage was not a long one. Cachina was living in her native Philippines with her daughter when she met Geunther in an online dating website, according to WPTV. They lived in the Port St. Lucie home for about one year.