The Florida real estate agent gunned down outside a house she was showing was targeted by a renter who mistook her for the building’s landlord, according to a neighbor.
“There was a disgruntled tenant who was evicted,” Donna Smith, who lives in the area, told Local News 10. “He thought that the realtor, who was showing the home … was the owner of the house” when he ambushed her in her car.
Raymond Wesley Reese, 50, was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Sara-Michelle Trost on Thursday, Coral Springs Police said.
Trost, 40, was shot multiple times while she sat in the driver’s seat of her Jeep outside the home where Reese had previously lived. Paramedics called to the scene were unable to save her.
Reese, 51, was booked Thursday evening and is being held without bond, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
“At this time there are no additional suspects being sought, nor is there a threat to the community,” Coral Springs Police said.
Trost owned and operated 1% Lists SoFlo, a discount real estate brokerage in Coral Springs. The single mom was enjoying success in the hot Florida real estate market.
“Is it a crazy time for real estate? YES!,” she posted on her business’s Facebook page on Thursday morning, hours before she was killed. “But even so, just when you think it will ‘slow down for the holidays’… errrrm… NO!”
She went on to describe a property she listed on Monday “thinking it will be so quiet…. totally wrong!” she wrote. “Just goes to show… never underestimate the power of a gorgeous home in a low-supply and high-demand area! Congrats to the lucky buyer!
Trost was also a volunteer for the Paw Patrol Animal Rescue & Sanctuary. She fostered many dogs over the years, sharing images on her personal Facebook page as recently as October of a pooch she was caring for.
“Our heart goes out to Sara Michelle, her daughter, her husband Jason, and her whole family, her fur children, as well as her human child,” said Rachel Lucuara, of the Paw Patrol Animal Rescue & Sanctuary.