Sarasota
A FRANTIC phone call to a police emergency number by a 13-year-old girl described the death of her mother, whose body was found in a pool of blood with her toddler quadruplets crawling unharmed nearby.
''My mom is dead,'' the sobbing girl told the dispatcher as one of the toddlers wailed in the background. ''There's blood from the laundry room all the way to . . . Oh my God, who would do this?''
Investigators had no suspects in the murder last Friday of 35-year-old Sheila Bellush, who had moved to Sarasota from Texas with her husband and children only a month ago.
She apparently knew her killer. There was no evidence of a break-in.
''It was a very bloody, horrendous scene, especially with those toddlers in there running around,'' said Sarasota sheriff's Lieutenant William Stookey.
The 23-month-old quadruplets were wearing life jackets, perhaps because their mother was preparing them for a swim in the backyard pool. Authorities said it also was possible the killer put the outfits on to make sure they didn't wander into trouble.
Detectives have interviewed Mrs Bellush's former husband, Allen Blackthorne, and released a composite sketch of a young man who had asked directions at a filling station to the street where the Bellush family lived.
Mrs Bellush, husband James, and the children moved to Florida from San Antonio, where the 1995 birth of the quadruplets turned them into celebrities.
Mrs Bellush's lawyer, Ken Nunley, said the family had moved to escape mounting pressures, including fighting allegations of child cruelty, raising the quadruplets, and coping with intense media scrutiny.
''They moved to Florida to get the hell out of San Antonio,'' said Nunley. ''Everyone thought it was a good idea for the children.''
Stevie, her 13-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, found her mother when she returned from school.
''The kitchen drawer is open,'' she said on the emergency call tape through hysterical sobs. ''There's blood all over the phone. This is my mom.''
The girl said her mother's throat had been cut. Mrs Bellush was last seen alive when her husband, a pharmaceutical representative, went to work and Stevie went to school.
Mrs Bellush had Stevie and another daughter, 12-year-old Daryl, with Blackthorne. After they divorced in 1988, she had custody. The abuse allegations, later dropped, came after Daryl said she had been hit with a belt.
The quads - Frankie, Timothy, Joseph, and Courtney - and the older girls were staying with members of their Baptist Church. ''They're struggling,'' said churchman Greg Lester.-AP
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