Lara Kuchar and Tommy Skeens
Arrest made in slayings of homeless couple; deaths shock friends, family
By Keith Morelli
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA — In the shadow of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, friends and family of a homeless couple forced themselves Monday to look at the dark bloodstains on the pavement of a decrepit carwash, a stark reminder of loved ones lost in a weekend double homicide.
Tommy Skeens, 52, and Lara Kuchar, 45, were found beaten to death early Saturday near the abandoned carwash just east of a vacant convenience store on East Hillsborough Avenue, directly north of the casino.
Late Monday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced it had arrested a 46-year-old homeless man who had been staying in the carwash with the couple. Ricky Hathorn faces one charge of first-degree murder, one charge of second-degree murder and one charge of sexual battery with a deadly weapon.
Skeens and Kuchar had runs of good and bad luck over the weeks leading up to their deaths, said Roxanne Haynes, 44, and Erik Northrup, 35, who had befriended the homeless couple. Haynes and Northrup were with Skeens and Kuchar late Friday night just before they were killed.
“I’ve known Tommy and ‘Little Bit’ for a long time,” said Haynes. “I’m sorry, I call her ‘Little Bit.’ They were on hard times. They’ve been together for years.”
Northrup said the victims had been living out of a U-Haul trailer just west of the carwash behind a vacant building. A few weeks ago, though, someone took the trailer, along with all the homeless couple’s belongings.
The nearby automatic carwash doesn’t work and the couple had permission to stay there, out of the weather, Northrup said.
Then, the couple got lucky. About 10 days ago, they won nearly $1,200 in the nearby casino, Haynes said. With their windfall, they headed to the Red Roof Inn on U.S. 301 and spent four nights there until their money ran out, Haynes said.
Haynes and Northrup, who panhandle occasionally on that corner to pay for cigarettes and other small expenses, got to know Skeens and Kuchar over the past three months.
“They weren’t like ordinary homeless people,” said Northrup, who shares a small house with Haynes a short distance away. “They were the type of people that if you needed something and they had it, you had it too.”
Northrup said the last he and Haynes had seen Skeens and Kuchar was about 2 a.m. Saturday. They were in the carwash with Hathorn, he said.
Hathorn, they said, wasn’t the type to “fly” a sign soliciting cash on the street corner, preferring to approach people and ask for handouts.
Northrup said Hathorn had been attracted to Kuchar and had propositioned her repeatedly.
“He had been trying to get Lara to do something with him sexually,” Northrup said.
A few days before the slayings, the owner of the carwash told Skeens he didn’t want Hathorn around. Skeens told Northrup that he was going to have to “kick (Hathorn’s) ass and run him out of here.”
Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies caught up with Hathorn, 46, Monday morning and charged him later in the evening after questioning him.
On the night Skeens and Kuchar were killed, Haynes and Northrup were headed to the carwash when they were spotted by a chef at the Hard Rock, Northrup said. The chef gave them a steak and french fries dinner, which they brought to their friends.
When they left around 2 a.m. Saturday, Hathorn was there, Northrup said.
“When we left, Tommy and Lara and Rickey were all alive,” Northrup said.
Northrup said the owner of the carwash told him he would have a carwash and donate proceeds to help with funeral costs.
Philana Marie Skeens has been separated from Tommy Skeens for years but remained legally married to him.
“Eighteen years,” she said while standing in the parking lot of the carwash Monday morning, moments before she made the emotional walk to the scene of the homicides to see for herself what it was like.
She was warned by Northrup not to go over there because “they didn’t do a good job of cleaning it up.’’
“I want to know,” Philana Skeens said, tears welling up in her eyes. “All I can do is think about him and what happened.”
She said that though the two were estranged, they got along well. Together, they have two children, Annie and Timothy, both in their 20s.
“He was outgoing,” she said. “He wasn’t a hell-raiser. He was going through a hard time.”
Roger Skeens came to Tampa from Georgia on Sunday to claim his brother’s remains.
“I’m going to take him home with me,” he said.
The brothers grew up in the Tampa Bay area, first near Palm River and then in Manatee County.
“We were close,” Roger Skeens said. “He was my only brother. I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. I knew he was living on the street. I tried to send him money. He said he didn’t want help. He has always been that way.”
Roger Skeens struggled Monday to come to terms with what happened.
“I want to wish evil on the man who did this,” he said, “but the Lord won’t let me. Tommy wasn’t perfect, but he didn’t deserve to go the way he did. Neither one of them deserved what they got.”
He said he visited family in Tampa on Monday morning, including his brother’s 8-year-old granddaughter, Dixie.
“She counted up all her $1 bills and gave them to me to help pay for the funeral,” Roger Skeens said in a voice choked with emotion. “$20.”
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