Police Believe Accused Triple Murderer Spent Week At Crime Scene

TARPON SPRINGS, FL -- A man that Tarpon Springs Police say killed three family members to cover up the murder of his wife is back in Tampa Bay.

Shelby John Nealy, 25, arrested in the murders of his former in-laws and his former brother-in-law, was extradited back to Tampa Bay on Saturday, Feb. 2, after being held in a Lakewood, Ohio, jail since Jan. 3.

Nealy is accused of killing Jamie Ivancic, 21, at her rental house at 10930 Norwood Ave. in Port Richey a year ago and then burying her body in the back yard of the home. Nealy refers to Jamie Ivancic as his wife but police believe the couple were either not married or divorced. However, no divorce record was found for either Ivancic or Nealy.

Police said he then attempted to conceal his wife's death from her parents, Richard and Laura Ivancic, and her brother, Nicholas Ivancic, who lived a few miles away in Tarpon Springs, by sending fake text messages from her cell phone and making up excuses why she couldn't speak to them when they called.

When they became suspicious after not speaking with Jamie Ivancic for a number of months, police believe Nealy planned and carried out the murders of all three as well as the family's dogs in their mobile home in The Meadows mobile home community on Dec. 15.

Police say Nealy then stole Laura Ivancic's car and fled to Lakewood, Ohio, with he and Jamie Ivancic's two children, ages 2 and 3. The family lived in Lakewood before moving to Florida about five years ago.

Acting on a tip from Tarpon Springs Police, Lakewood Police arrested Nealy and took the two children, a boy and a girl, into protective custody.

Nealy was arraigned in Pinellas County on Sunday morning on three charges of first-degree murder, three charges of aggravated animal cruelty and one charge of grand theft auto. The judge denied Nealy bond and he was appointed a public defender. Pasco County murder charges in the death of his wife are still pending.

The bodies of Richard, 71, Laura, 59, and Nicholas, 25. were discovered on New Year's Day after Richard Ivancic's son from a previous marriage, also named Richard, who lives in Palm Beach County, called Tarpon Springs Police when he hadn't heard from the family over the holidays.

Court records paint a gruesome picture of the scene that greeted Tarpon Springs Police when they entered the Ivancics' mobile home on Juanita Way through an unlocked sliding glass door two weeks after their deaths. Police describe flies swarming and the sickening stench of decaying bodies upon opening the door of the mobile home. The bodies of Richard and Laura Ivancic had been rolled up in rugs and placed in their bedroom, Nearby, police found the body of Nicholas Ivancic wrapped in a painter's drop cloth as well as the bodies of the family's three small dogs.

Nealy told detectives that he used a hammer to bludgeon the family members and their dogs to death. Police have a surveillance video showing him purchasing painter's drop cloths, tape and packages of rope at a Home Depot prior to the murders. All of the items were found in the mobile home.

Nealy said Richard Ivancic was the first to die. He told police that they were alone in the mobile home when he hit Richard Ivancic in the back of the head with the hammer. Ivancic fell to the floor. Nealy said he then struck Ivancic multiple times "to make sure that he received a quick death."

He then killed Laura Ivancic when she returned home later that day. He struck her in the back of the head with the hammer while they were in the kitchen and then struck her in the head multiple times when she fell to the floor.

After wrapping the bodies in area rugs, he placed them in the couple's bedroom and waited for Nicholas Ivancic to return home.

According to court records, Nealy said he killed Nicholas Ivancic with the hammer when he came home that evening and fell asleep on the sofa during the early-morning hours of Dec. 16. The records don't elaborate on when the dogs were killed or if Nealy's two children were with him when police say he murdered the family.

Neighbors, however, told police, during the week before New Year's Day, they saw a man in his 20s digging a ditch in the yard of the mobile home with a young child at his side.

Evidence indicates that Nealy might have stayed at the crime scene six days after the murders. On Dec. 21, Nealy made a call to Domino's Pizza from his cell phone ordering a pizza for delivery. Police say Nealy also ransacked the home, stealing video games, jewelry, a coin collection and the couples' wallets. Police discovered receipts and surveillance videos showing Nealy selling the video games at a Game Stop store and pawning the jewelry at local pawn shops in the days after the family's deaths.

He then stole Laura Ivancic's purple 2013 KIA Sorento, leaving behind the car belonging to Jamie Ivancic that he drove to the mobile home, which had expired tags. Traffic surveillance cameras show Laura Ivancic's car on a road in Parma, Ohio, on Dec. 24 at 8:43 p.m.

The medical examiner believes Jamie Ivancic was killed and buried in January 2018. Two of Richard Ivancic's brothers who were interviewed said Jamie Ivancic, Nealy and the two children last visited her parents during the 2017 Christmas holiday.

Nealy told police that he moved to Texas, a state where he previously lived, after killing his wife. He continued to use Jamie Ivancic's cell phone to maintain contact with her parents and keep up the ruse that she was still alive.

See related stories:

3 People, 3 Dogs Found Dead In Homicide In Tarpon Springs Home

Tarpon Springs Triple Homicide: Son-In-Law Admits Role, Cops Say

Body Could Be Wife Of Accused In Tarpon Springs Triple Homicide

Authorities Say Wife Of Accused Murderer Possibly Buried Year Ago

Images via Pinellas County

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