Thursday, 4:30 PM
Hammer eyed as weapon in Fla. murder-suicide involving former MBTA cop
By Globe Staff
Investigators in West Palm Beach, Fla., believe that a former MBTA police officer may have used a hammer to kill his girlfriend in an apparent murder-suicide last week.
A hammer was found at the crime scene at the couple’s apartment in West Palm Beach Wednesday, and investigators are waiting for the results of forensics tests to confirm whether it was the weapon used to kill 29-year-old Amity Kozak, according to a statement issued today by West Palm Beach Police.
Police are treating the deaths of Kozak and the former police officer, Helder "Sonny" Peixoto, 34, as a murder-suicide. Police found her body in their apartment Wednesday after Peixoto leapt to his death from the 11th floor of a condominium high-rise in West Palm Beach. The medical examiner in Florida has not yet ruled on Kozak's official cause of death.
The medical examiner did confirm with fingerprints today that Peixoto was the man who jumped to his death.
