http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/margate/sfl-flmcfmurder1008mcfoct08,0,5292679.story
Man faces murder charge after his lover's body is found in canal
Alexia Campbell and Erika Pesantes Forum Publishing Group
October 8, 2009
A Coconut Creek man was arrested Thursday morning after he confessed to dumping his dead lover's body in a canal, police said.
Peter Abitante, 24, is charged with the murder of Tina Moffitt, 40, of Boca Raton, police spokesman Tony Avello said.
Abitante went with his family to the police department on Sept. 30 and said a body was floating in a canal by his home on the 5500 block of Northwest 52nd Circle, according to an arrest report.
Soon after, police found Moffitt's body in the canal.
Abitante's family encouraged their son to talk to police about what happened and "do the right thing," the report said.
During a taped interview, Abitante told police he and Moffitt had an argument at his house about 3 a.m. Wednesday and she attacked him, according to police.
He tried to push her away, he said, but after the third attack he punched her in the face. She attacked him again and he punched her twice.
Moffitt fell to the ground. She wasn't breathing. Abitante said he thought she was dead, according to the report.
He told police he got scared, put Moffitt over his shoulder and carried her 185 feet to the canal next to his house, the report said.
He then tossed her into the water, police said.
He said he met Moffitt at a Cumberland Farms convenience store in Boca Raton about three months ago. They had a sexual relationship, he said.
Before his arrest, Abitante was taken to the hospital to treat his swollen hand. He had fractured his right wrist.
Moffitt was troubled and had a drug and drinking problem, "but when she was OK, she was OK," said Sylvia Hillebrand, who owned the mobile home that Moffitt once lived in on Anchorage Way, west of Boca Raton, "She was a good girl."
During the past two years, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office arrested Moffitt for criminal mischief; drug possession without a prescription, including Xanax and Oxycodone; trespassing and disorderly intoxication, records show.
Hillebrand last saw Moffitt just days ago when she helped clean out her son's Lake Worth apartment for a few dollars, she said.
"Oh, God, I don't believe it," said Hillebrand, who considered herself Moffitt's neighbor and friend. She said she did not know Abitante and that Moffitt lived with another boyfriend nearby.
Abitante, who has no previous criminal record in Florida, was arrested at 5:35 a.m. and taken to the Broward Main Jail. As of press time, he was being held without bail.