MARGATE, Fla. – Detectives determined Evan Rosenthal used a round wooden cutting board to kill his neighbor on Saturday during an argument over prescription pills, according to the Margate Police Department.
A resident of the Viewpointe gated community at 5510 Lakeside Dr., in Margate, told officers he heard a woman screaming — “Hit me! Hit me, Evan! Hit me!” — at about 7:30 p.m.
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Detective Michael Berryman suspects Rosenthal used the cutting board to strike Laurie Bellesheim “numerous times on her head” and “throughout her body,” according to his report.
“She was fighting me for pills that are for my mom,” Rosenthal later told a detective, according to the arrest report.
Officers found Bellesheim, 69, dead inside Rosenthal’s second-floor apartment. Her roommate, Joseph Misiti, said the grandmother who survived cancer considered Rosenthal, 48, a friend.
Berryman put together a timeline to show Rosenthal allegedly called his friend, his son, and his aunt before he decided to call the department’s non-emergency number at about 8:54 p.m.
“If I were you, I would send an ambulance over,” Rosenthal said during the call, according to the report.
Rosenthal’s son said his father was incoherent and appeared to be delirious and his aunt described him as loopy and stressed, according to the report.
He told his friend he had a body in his apartment and he had a “disposal” problem, police said. His friend quickly showed up at the police station to report the call.
Rosenthal called police nearly an hour after he allegedly told his roommate to not come in and to return in 30 minutes, according to the report. The roommate later told police Rosenthal was sweaty and wearing only his boxers, according to the report.
While at the police station, Rosenthal’s hands were swollen and he had blood on his clothes, legs, and feet, according to the report. During questioning, he allegedly said Bellesheim was “nice” and he had no recollection of what happened.
The medical examiner reported Bellesheim had a major skull fracture on the right side of her head and that the back of her right ear was detached. Bellesheim’s son Keith Dori, who lives in New York, said a detective told him she had died from a blow to the head.
“I don’t know what could have happened that caused him to hit her so hard or hit her at all ... She was just a very likable, lovable person,” Doris said. “She would always help anybody — even though I think that she was the one who probably could use the help a lot of the time.”
Read the arrest form’s narrative
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