Third arrest made in the killing of woman and 4-year-old daughter on Florida Turnpike, BSO says
FORT LAUDERDALE — A third arrest has been made in the double murder of a South Florida mother and her 4-year-old daughter on the Florida Turnpike from last summer, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said.
BSO announced Saturday that homicide detectives identified and arrested 20-year-old Kamarri Sanders as the third suspect in the fatal shooting of Beatrice Saintvil and her 4-year-old daughter Janelle Souffrant.
BSO said investigators with its Violence Intervention Proactive Enforcement Response (V.I.P.E.R.) team found and arrested Sanders on Friday in Miami Gardens. He was booked into BSO's Main Jail shortly after.
Sanders, along with the two other suspects — 28-year-old Antoine Harris and 29-year-old Jaquan Thomas — are facing two counts of first-degree murder.
The murder
In the late night hours on June 7, the Florida Highway Patrol advised BSO that they responded to a reported shooting on the northbound Turnpike near Mile Marker 49, just south of Hollywood Boulevard. The preliminary investigation revealed the shooting happened around 11:14 p.m., BSO said.
Upon arrival, FHP troopers found Saintvil and Souffrant injured with gunshot wounds inside a vehicle, which was parked in the left breakdown lane. Souffrant died at the scene and Hollywood Fire Rescue responded to the scene and took Saintvil to the hospital, where she died.
At FHP's request, BSO took over the investigation.
The investigation
Last June, the reward for information leading up to an arrest in Saintvil and Souffrant's murders was raised to $20,000. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) matched the initial reward with an additional $10,000, BSO said.
Following a months-long investigation, BSO V.I.P.E.R. investigators identified Harris and Thomas as suspects and arrested them in December.
Like Sanders, Harris was also arrested after he was found in Miami Gardens. Meanwhile, Thomas was found to be incarcerated in Georgia on unrelated charges and he's expected to be extradited to Broward County, BSO said.
