Holiday, FL: Local woman raped, killed in Fla

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by From staff reports

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Charleston woman was raped and killed in her Florida home, a murder that deputies there described as a particularly brutal.

Officials in Pasco County found the body of Sarah Ann Capps, 22, about 1:30 p.m. Friday in her Holiday, Fla., apartment. Capps originally is from the Charleston area.

Her alleged attacker and estranged boyfriend, Thomas Cacacie, 26, was arrested shortly after Capps' body was found.

The St. Petersburg Times reported Sunday that he strangled Capps to death, later telling detectives that he had fantasized for years about killing her and then having sex with her body.

After the alleged murder, Cacacie went outside Capps' apartment, sat in a plastic chair and smoked a cigar while drinking a Coke, neighbors told the newspaper.

Doug Tobin, a public information officer for the Pasco Sheriff's Department, said officers were following up on a tip concerning a separate incident at Capps' home Friday when they discovered her body.

Deputies had not released a definitive cause of death as of Sunday afternoon. Tobin said Capps' body was taken to the office of the state Medical Examiner for autopsy, the results of which were expected back today .

Pasco Sheriff Bob White was at Capps' home Friday. Tobin said he described the apartment as a "brutal scene."

Deputies and U.S. Marshals canvassed the area Friday before finding Cacacie across the street from Capps' home on Golden Nugget Drive. Tobin said the man had been roaming around the area and asked a neighbor if he could come inside.

The neighbor refused and instead called police.

Cacacie is described as a transient who was born in El Salvador. Tobin said the man returned to Florida last Wednesday from New York. He said Cacacie and Capps had at least one child together.

That child was removed from Capps' home earlier this year, deputies said.

Cacacie was taken into custody and interviewed. Tobin said deputies had evidence linking him to the scene.

The St. Petersburg Times also reported that Friday's arrest was Cacacie's 26th, though Tobin said he did not have a record in Pasco County.

Capps had been arrested twice in 2008 for burglary, according to county documents, and had been placed on probation.

Cacacie has been charged with first-degree murder and sexual battery. He is being held without bond at Land O'Lakes Detention Center.