Portrait of a troubled man
Police identify victims of shooting
Note: See related story, here.
By SUZETTE PORTER and THOMAS MICHALSKI
| Article published on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007 |
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| This is the photo Oliver Thomas Bernsdorff posted on his My Space page. |
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PINELLAS COUNTY – Officials released the names of two children and two women who were killed in a Friday morning shooting spree in Largo and Clearwater.
Largo police responded to a call of gunshots fired at Monterey Lakes Apartments, 7501 Ulmerton Road, about 6:50 a.m. on Dec. 14. Inside they found the bodies of Jennifer Davis, 27, and Andrea Pisanello, 53.
Magnus Bernsdorff, 2, and Olivia Bernsdorff, 4, were found shot dead in their Clearwater home on Powderhorn Drive Friday by Clearwater Police doing a welfare check.
The suspected killer is Oliver Thomas Bernsdorff, 36, the children’s father. Davis was his ex-wife and the children’s mother. The couple divorced in October of 2007. The husband was given residential custody of the children.
Lt. Michael Loux, commander of Largo Police Investigations Division, said a Florida Highway Patrol trooper spotted a car being driven erratically on the Manatee County side of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge Friday morning. Loux said the trooper was in the process of conducting a traffic stop when the driver of the car began slowing down as if to stop.
The driver then shot himself and the car continued moving through bushes and ended up in the water, police said.
Police believe that the driver was Oliver Bernsdorff.
Police were still piecing together the set of circumstances that triggered the tragic chain of events over the weekend. No motive has been released.
Bernsdorff had a master’s degree in education and was working on his doctorate.
He describes himself on his My Space page as an “Instructor at SPC, Hippyish Spirit (you might have seen my multi-colored "happy bus" around town), lover of the ocean, laughter, cooking, and intellectual (and other types of) stimulation, SCUBA Diver, Writer, and stand-up philosopher. Single Custodial Dad of two great kids, (ages 2 & 4) who are simply amazing little human beings. Live in N. Clearwater, swim in my pool or the ocean every day, and am trying to get the hang of one day at a time.”
Local media reports point to a possible abusive marital relationship and one report said that Bernsdorff had blamed his wife for his problems. The couple’s divorce papers also show a history of financial problems.
Portrait of a troubled man
In a sermon delivered to the congregation at the Unitarian Universalists of Clearwater on June 17, Bernsdorff spoke of his early life and his relationship with his parents, particularly his father.
He was born Oliver Basil Schkolnik. His father was an international businessman, who had fled the Nazi persecution in Danzig and moved to New York. He was an international businessman. His mother was a native of Berlin Germany. They met in Columbia where his father ran a foam and rubber factory.
At age 1, his family fled from Columbia to the United States. He grew up in Omaha, Neb., and south Florida.
Bernsdorff told the congregation that he “never quite felt like an American,” during his youth. He said he had no sub-group to identify with and that his house was a “gumbo of art, music and philosophy from around the world.
“American culture was viewed as too materialistic and shallow. The message was there – ‘We’re not like them.’ OK, fine but then who the hell were we? And why were my parents raising me here if this wasn’t what it was all about? If I was to reject American culture, what was I to replace it with?”
According to the sermon, his father was away from home much of the time, and Bernsdorff described him as more of a “houseguest than family member.” Bernsdorff said he resented the time his father was away from home.
His parents divorced amiably “at some time, but I hardly noticed, as the amount of his presence in my life seemed unchanged,” Bernsdorff said.
His father died when he was 14 and he dropped his father’s name of Schkolnik and Basil from his own shortly after.
“My father was dead. I had actually hardly known him. What did it matter? I was angry … I rejected him and his name.”
When Bernsdorff delivered his Father’s Day sermon, his father had been dead for 22 years, yet he spoke of how his spirit still haunted him.
“This past year his ghost kept bumping into me,” he said.
He had recently read a letter from his father that his mother had shared with him years before but he “had made some excuse not to see it.” He said after reading the letter he was able to “accept his father’s humanity. Is it possible that for over two decades, I have seen my father through the eyes of that 13 year old boy?”
In high school, he rejected his first name of Oliver and tried several others before deciding he would go by Thomas, the name he had chosen to replace Basil when he was 14. He said he did not use Oliver again until 15 years later, when he met his wife, “and then at first only with her.
“She would be allowed to see the real me, even when the world out there and even I, could have “Tom.”
He said his relationship with his father haunted him as he became a father himself. He said he had decided that being a father would be the most important role in his life.
“I will not have my son and daughter try to piece together who I was through artifacts,” he said.
He said he wanted to give his children strong roots and heritage.
“Roots without wings tether a child to the ways of the parents. Wings without roots can often lead to freefall,” he said.
He gave his son the name of Schkolnik “an acknowledgement that has come almost 20 years after my rejection of it,” he said.
He ended his sermon that day, just about a month before he filed for a divorce from his wife, that he was content with his name of Oliver, which he said meant bringer of peace.
“May I do this not only in the world around me, but in my family and in my own heart and mind. May I always live up to this name, may my life reflect it, and I implore each of you, my brothers and sisters, to help me do just that.”
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Article published on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007
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