{"id":220107,"date":"2026-04-06T03:39:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/220107\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T03:39:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:39:18","slug":"fatal-martin-county-stabbing-highlights-string-of-random-killings-over-the-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/220107\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatal Martin County stabbing highlights string of random killings over the years"},"content":{"rendered":"

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The random killing of a woman in her 70s<\/a> who was walking her dog in Martin County on Thursday is the latest in a series of unprovoked attacks in the area. Over the past two years, at least five people have been murdered by strangers.<\/p>\n

“It’s crazy,” Juliana Ballow said.<\/p>\n

WATCH BELOW: ‘You need a way to protect yourself,’ Matthew Olivo tells WPTV’s <\/p>\n

Fatal Martin County stabbing highlights string of random killings over the years<\/p>\n

The Treasure Coast down to the bottom of Palm Beach County has seen a number of similar crimes over the past decade. In 2016, Austin Haroff killed two strangers<\/a> in a garage in Stuart and began to eat one of their faces.<\/p>\n

“I hate you, I hate you all, I hate what you did,” Cindy Mishcon, the sister of a victim, said.<\/p>\n

Five years later, a homeless drifter<\/a> stabbed 14-year-old Ryan Rogers to death while he was riding his bike in Palm Beach Gardens. <\/p>\n

“This defendant violently and viciously attacked him,” Assistant State Attorney Jo Wilensky said.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Port St. Lucie police said an 18-year-old man knocked on a 67-year-old man’s door, hit him with a hammer, and stabbed him<\/a> 45 times. <\/p>\n

“We may have had an undetected serial killer in the works,” Police Chief Leo Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n

Two months later<\/a>, a man was beaten and drowned while playing golf in Palm Beach Gardens. <\/p>\n

“Boucher used the victim’s golf clubs as weapons,” Police Chief Dominick Pape said.<\/p>\n

Two weeks after that, a bicyclist was stabbed to death<\/a> in Riviera Beach. Police said a man got mad at his mother and took his anger out on the first person he saw.<\/p>\n

Around Christmas time last year, a complete stranger stabbed a woman<\/a> in the back while she was browsing at a Barnes and Noble in Palm Beach Gardens.<\/p>\n

Suspect in court to face murder charge after woman fatally stabbed at random<\/p>\n

All of the unpredictable killings have left people not only heartbroken, but scared. <\/p>\n

“They miss that big jovial spirit,” Dina Lauro, girlfriend of Brian Hiltebeitel, who was killed on the golf course said.<\/p>\n

“I feel my house is safest right now,” Joey Bui had to say followign the bookstore killing.<\/p>\n

The fear has prompted some residents to consider arming themselves. “I’m thinking about maybe carrying,” Ballow said.<\/p>\n

Gun shop owners are hearing more from customers. Matthew Olivo, owner of Continental Shooting Center, called the attacks “brutal, senseless acts.”<\/p>\n

“People realize evil walks among us,” Olivo said. “You need a way to protect yourself.”<\/p>\n

Olivo said he expects a pretty big increase in customers as people learn about Thursday’s stabbing death<\/a>, which happened just minutes away from his shop.<\/p>\n

He plans to increase the number of free gun training classes he offers following the attack. For those who are scared but do not want to carry a firearm, Olivo said pepper spray or stun guns are other options.<\/p>\n

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The random killing of a woman in her 70s who was walking her dog…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[265,28,78171,1160,171,173,172,99790,99194,179,12758],"class_list":{"0":"post-220107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-killings","11":"tag-martin-county","12":"tag-port-st-lucie","13":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","14":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","15":"tag-random","16":"tag-stabbings","17":"tag-treasure-coast","18":"tag-wptv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}