{"id":362299,"date":"2026-08-04T08:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T08:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/362299\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T08:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T08:24:09","slug":"victim-in-port-st-lucie-murder-suicide-identified-as-palm-beach-county-sheriffs-office-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/362299\/","title":{"rendered":"Victim in Port St. Lucie murder-suicide identified as Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office employee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victim in Port St. Lucie murder-suicide identified as Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office employee<\/p>\n

\"Ari<\/a>PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n

The victim in a weekend murder-suicide in Port St. Lucie has been identified as a communications officer with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n

Fifty-year-old Elizabeth Ortega had been employed at PBSO for the last ten years.<\/p>\n

The shooting happened Saturday night both inside and outside a home in the 2000 block of Southeast Oxmoor Terrace.<\/p>\n

In a video statement released Monday, police said a man began shooting at the woman inside their home, chased her outside, and continued firing, hitting her multiple times. <\/p>\n

“One of the neighbors actually located that victim after they observed her lying in the front yard unresponsive,” Officer Brittany McNally of the Port St. Lucie Police Department said. <\/p>\n

On Monday afternoon, PBSO posted about Ortega on social media, saying, in part, “She was a respected and cherished part of our PBSO family, known for her kindness, compassion, and a warm smile that could brighten any room.” <\/p>\n

Police said the shooter was Ortega\u2019s longtime boyfriend, 50-year-old Ralph Varela Jr. <\/p>\n

After killing Ortega, Varela went back inside the home and killed himself. <\/p>\n

McNally said Ortega and Varela had been together for about 30 years, but Ortega had recently ended the relationship. <\/p>\n

“Although the relationship had ended, it appears the two had agreed to live together until Ralph could find other living arrangements,” McNally said. <\/p>\n

Investigators are working to determine what led to the violence. <\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s son had left the home just minutes before the shooting and told police everything seemed fine. <\/p>\n

“There\u2019s no evidence to suggest that there was a disagreement, a disturbance or an argument that occurred directly prior to the shooting,” McNally said. <\/p>\n

The Palm Beach County Sheriff\u2019s Office has provided therapy dogs to help Ortega\u2019s co-workers cope with the loss.<\/p>\n

Stay up to date: The latest headlines and weather from WPBF 25<\/a><\/p>\n

Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Your neighborhood: Local coverage from WPBF 25 News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victim in Port St. Lucie murder-suicide identified as Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office employee PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-362299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362299","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=362299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}