Police have made an arrest in the murder of a well-known doctor in his Tarpon Springs home last year.
Anton Stragaj, 34, of Palm Harbor has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Dr. Steven Schwartz, 74, last May 28.
Tarpon Springs Police Chief Robert Kochen said Stragaj and Schwartz were friends and Stragaj did some handyman and miscellaneous work for the doctor.
Detectives considered Stragaj a flight risk because he is a citizen of Albania who is in the United States on a work visa.
On the day Schwartz was slain, his wife, Rebecca Schwartz, returned to the couple's home on the 1300 block of Belcher Road and found the house in disarray. She called 911 to report a burglary, and police found Schwartz's body near the garage.
The medical examiner said Schwartz died from several gunshot and stab wounds to his head and neck.
Stragaj gave investigators an alibi for his whereabouts on the day of the murder, but detectives found evidence that contradicted his story. Kochen did not say why police believe Stragaj killed Schwartz, only that development of the case information came through "excellent investigative work."
"We can't imagine why anyone would want to do this," said Dr. Robert Patton, a friend of the Schwartz family. "And the fact that someone has been arrested, I feel a great sense of relief. We may get some closure to this."
Police have not released a motive in Schwartz's murder.
"I feel fairly confident he was doing this at the behest of someone else," Patton said.
Police aren't ruling that out as a possibility, saying there could be other suspects.
According to a s Tampa Bay Times story in January, Schwartz himself killed someone as a young man. He was convicted of fatally shooting a New Mexico dentist about 50 years ago and was pardoned in 1977. He went on to attend medical school and later built a successful Dunedin practice.