Robert Laird Made His Daughter Wait for the Mother Who Would Never Arrive

Lakeland, Florida A little after 3 pm on Monday, firefighters responded to a car fire on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida. They had no way of knowing that they were about to drive up on an arson, a homicide, and a suicide. Court records show that Robert Laird and his wife, Sheryl, were divorced and she was granted an injunction keeping him from having contact with her. All who had contact with Sheryl describe her as being a positive woman despite the past marital problems and despite having to share her daughter with the man she feared. None of that matters now. Robert drove to the top of that bridge, doused the car with gasoline and turned it into a torch with his dead wife in the trunk, and lept from the bridge as the firefighters worked to extinguish the flames. And at 6 pm, their 7-year-old daughter was still sitting patiently waiting to be picked up from Happy Days School. [Read more...]