On January 25, 2018, Jamie Ivancic spoke to her sister, Karma Stewart, for the last time.
The 21-year-old mum-of-two lived her husband, Shelby Svensen, in Port Richey, Florida.
While the two sisters Face-timed, Jamie told Karma she planned to take her two young children and leave her husband as soon as possible.
It was the last time anyone would hear her voice.
For the next 12 months, Karma and the rest of Jamie’s family would receive sporadic text messages from the young mum.
The text messages contained small updates about her life and the occasional photo of her two young children.
While Jamie’s family thought her behaviour was odd, they didn’t suspect that foul play was involved.
When Svensen returned to his hometown of Ohio just days before Christmas last year, his friends immediately noticed his odd behaviour.
The 25-year-old was driving an SUV they had never seen before. He was wearing flashy jewellery and talking about all the money he had. He started to refer to himself as a “sugar daddy” and “God”.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Svensen told his friend, Oscar Marcano, he had inherited $25,000 and was planning on moving back to Ohio and “living it up” with his two young children.
He put a whole year’s deposit down on a house and spent thousands of dollars at the local Walmart.
“He was power tripping,” Marcano told the Tampa Bay Times. “Like tripping hard.”
Svensen’s friends described him as an “oddball” who had violent tendencies. But they had no idea they were seeing the young father just days after he had committed a triple homicide.
On New Year’s Day, three members of Jamie’s family were found dead in their Tarpon Springs home.
Jamie’s father Richard Ivancic, 71, and her mother Laura, 59, as well as their adopted 25-year-old son, Nicholas, had been murdered. It’s believed they were killed on December 19 or 20, just before Svensen traveled to Ohio.
They were beaten to death. The killer took jewellery, heirlooms and video games from the house before driving off in Laura’s SUV, the Washington Post reports.
Police immediately honed in on Svensen as a suspect. He was quickly arrested while driving the SUV in Ohio, and charged with the murder of Richard, Laura, and Nicholas.
During questioning the father-of-two admitted he also killed his young wife in January of last year.
With information they gleaned from Svensen during questioning, police found Jamie’s body buried in the garden of a property where the young couple used to live.
It soon became apparent that it was Svensen who had been sending the text messages to Jamie’s family, in an attempt to cover up her murder.
Karma had no idea she had been communicating with her sister’s killer for almost a year.
“I feel betrayed and that I was played,” she told the Tampa Bay Times. “I didn’t expect the worst when I probably should have.”
Top Comments
That is so so sad. I hope they have the death penalty where this scum will be tried and convicted. Why? Why kill his wife then almost a year later kill her parents and brother? Where are the children from his dead wife and him? Her sister must be shattered, as will any other family members and friends.