Sante Fe Community College Employee Dies In Stabbing Attack (Florida)

               
A mother of four was stabbed to death the morning of October 27 in broad daylight at her busy SFCC office. The suspect, her estranged husband, escaped the scene .

Denise White, 35, of 2930 SW 23rd Terrace, Apt. 1402, was stabbed in office No. 241 at the Employment Training Center on the second floor of Building R. Her husband, Samuel White, 36, entered her office in violation of a restraining order filed against him during their separation, said Jim Troiano, Alachua County Sheriff's Office spokesman.

In the office, Samuel White accosted his wife, and two of her coworkers tried to restrain him, Troiano said. Troiano said Samuel White then broke free and stabbed her an unknown number of times.

No other injuries were reported in the attack.

The husband, described as a black man with a muscular build, then fled from the office and was last seen driving away in a green 1992 two-door Toyota, license tag number A31-2DH. Police assume he fled with the bloody knife because they have yet to recover the weapon, Troiano said.

A 911 phone call alerted police to the crime at 10:18 a.m., and the victim was taken to Shands at AGH. She died there at 11:32 a.m., Troiano said.

SFCC police secured the crime scene and searched for evidence, but they called the sheriff's office to assist in forensics, SFCC spokesman Larry Keen said. All local law enforcement agencies are searching for the husband.

Keen said Denise White was a part-time employee of Temp Force, a temporary staffing service with a Gainesville office, but was placed at SFCC's Employment Training Center four months ago.

She worked as a job trainer with disadvantaged students, many on welfare, and helped them stay in college, Keen said. Her job was to regularly check how the students were doing and help find them jobs.

"Her role was to help people to a better life," Keen said. "That's what she did."

A trauma response team of professional counselors at SFCC is serving people who were disturbed by events they saw.

Keen estimated six or seven people met with the team, including the two who restrained Samuel White before he slipped from their grasp and stabbed his wife.

SFCC Police and ASO deputies combed bushes, lawns and ponds searching for the murder weapon or other evidence.

The U.S. flag nearby was lowered to half-staff.

Entrances to the second-floor offices, decorated for Halloween, were blocked off with yellow crime-scene tape and guarded by officers wearing dark sunglasses.

Mitch Clenney, an employee with Gay Construction working nearby, said he heard commotion at about 10:20 a.m.

"I heard yelling, hollering," he said. "I don't know what was going on."

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             Latest On Santa-Fe Murder 10/28/2004

Police have caught the husband suspected of killing his wife at Santa Fe Community College.

The man who allegedly stabbed his wife, Denise White, while she was working at Santa Fe Community College yesterday morning is now in custody. Police were able to catch and arrest Samuel White this morning. White was nearly 700 miles away from Gainesville, in Virginia, when police arrested him after responding to a call saying that one of two men who was traveling with White was acting erratically. Heroin was found in White's vehicle, which is the likely reason for the strange behavior of White's companion.


Alachua County Sheriff's Spokesman Jim Troiano says Samuel White allegedly stabbed his wife at Santa Fe Community College and then fled. Although White was arrested in the company of two other men, he is the only suspect in Denise White's murder.
     
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