Sheriff's Office releases identities of 3 people found dead in Port St. Lucie Wednesday

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — St. Lucie County sheriff’s officials Monday identified a man and woman found dead last week in two nearby homes and their suspected killer, who appears to have died of natural causes.

The case began when investigators were called about 9:50 a.m. Feb. 28 to a car crash near Oleander and Beach avenues west of U.S. 1.

The driver of the white BMW was 61-year-old Melvin “Chip” Anderson, who investigators determined had been living in a home on Ash Street with his aunt by marriage, Gabriele Reusch Legg.

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Anderson was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Within minutes of the car crash, a landlord to the Ash Street home went to check the residence and noticed a foul smell.

Investigators found Reusch Legg, 56, wrapped in a carpet in the garage.

Investigators went to the home on Shelley Terrace where the white BMW was registered. Inside, Gary Boice, 70, was dead.

Sheriff Ken Mascara said Boice and Reusch Legg are homicide victims, and Anderson is the main suspect.

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Investigators declined to go into details about what points to Anderson.

Boice is retired and lived alone, Mascara said.

Detective Paul Taylor said Boice and Reusch Legg were thought to be romantically involved for about eight months.

Asked whether it was a love triangle, Taylor said, “We’re still trying to determine all of that. It’s still under investigation.”

Big heart

Reusch Legg’s brother, Wolfgang Reusch, said his sister had a “big heart, which makes it all the more tragic.”

“There’s the saying … the best persons are the first that are leaving us and that’s so true in this case,” Reusch said.

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He said he last spoke to his sister, a native of Germany, via Skype on her birthday Feb. 18.

Reusch, 45, said his sister met an American citizen in Europe about 15 years ago and they fell in love. They decided to move to Florida and got married.

Reusch, speaking Monday in a phone interview from Germany, said his sister’s husband died about three years ago.

“When he passed, we asked her, of course, are you coming back to Germany, and she said no this is my home now,” Reusch said.

Reusch said not long before her husband died, the nephew — Anderson — of her husband moved in.

“My sister was a painter and interior decorator so she took him in and the two of them painted, renovated, decorated homes in the neighborhood and in all of the Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce area,” Reusch said.

Reusch, who said he is a major in the German military, said about six to nine months ago, his sister met Boice.

“Although there was a fair age spread between the two of them … that’s how life goes,” Reusch said. “They fell in love and everything looked so good and we were so happy for her.”

Reusch said they decided they wanted to move in together in Boice’s house.

“She was actually supposed to be moved out of the house on Ash by the end of the month,” Taylor said. “That’s what made the landlord come over to check to see if they were out, kind of look at the property before he rented it out.”

Jealousy

Mascara declined to reveal the causes of death of Boice and Reusch Legg.

Investigators say Boice died shortly before the BMW crash. Mascara said Feb. 18 is the last time Reusch Legg is known to have been seen.

Mascara said it could be concluded that Anderson was living in the home with Reusch Legg’s body.

“We do have interviews from friends of Boice, who Chip told him a wide variety of reasons why (Reusch) Legg was not there,” Mascara said.

Reusch speculated about what happened, saying, “It’s jealousy related.”

“I think that Chip, this nephew of her late husband, I think that he, seeing that she … was starting a new life and had found love, he felt left out and I also think that he had a secret crush on my sister,” Reusch said.

“It’s possible that he had kind of confronted her with that and she had rejected him and that he just snapped. That would be the most logic explanation for me.”

Anderson’s death after the car crash, Reusch said, is “karma served.”

Mascara said Anderson’s preliminary cause of death is natural causes.

Investigators say before Reusch Legg’s body was found, Anderson was seen giving away and selling furniture and items from the Ash Street home.

Reusch set up a Fundly campaign to help with funeral costs at fundly.com/help-us-cope-with-disaster.