Couple Shot To Death By Woman's Ex-Boyfriend, 51 yr. old Johnnie Burke. 46-year-old Robin Whitaker & 48-year-old Charles (Chuck) Whitaker. The Ex then turns the gun on himself.

Posted: 4:33 pm EDT June 8, 2010Updated: 6:37 pm EDT June 8, 2010

DELTONA, Fla. -- A Deltona couple, who recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary, was shot to death by the woman’s ex-boyfriend early Tuesday morning. The shooter, 51-year-old Johnnie Burke, then shot himself. Burke was transported to a hospital where he died.

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The sad scene turned chaotic Tuesday afternoon when a bomb squad had to go into Burke’s house, just a block away from the murdered couple’s home on Otis Avenue (see map).

Investigators said the woman, 46-year-old Robin Whitaker was in her car in the driveway, ready to go to work, when she was shot to death by Burke. Then, her husband, 48-year-old Charles (Chuck) Whitaker, was gunned down in his doorway, and Burke shot himself in front of the house.

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From Left: Johnnie Burke, Robin Whitaker, Charles Whitaker

Sudden, rapid gunfire jolted neighbors out of their homes early Tuesday morning.

"I heard some shots, ‘Pow pow pow pow pow!’ six or seven shots," neighbor Jose Corrales said.

Corrales was the first one on scene. He saw Johnnie Burke first, squirming on the ground and choking on his own blood. Then he saw his two friends, Robin and Chuck Whitaker.

Robin was slumped over, locked in her car, and bullet holes in the windshield. Chuck Whitaker lay dead by the front door.

"I went over and saw Whitaker, my friend for 24 years. I took his pulse, no pulse," Corrales said.

According to neighbors, Burke and Robin dated for nine years, and he apparently never got over it when Chuck and Robin married last April.

Chuck's brother, Fred said Burke threatened to kill his brother as recently as last week.

"My brother just kind of brushed him off," said Fred Whitaker. "Just a lunatic, shouldn't have happened, Chuck was too nice a guy."

WFTV obtained the 911 calls a neighbor made right after the shootings (listen to calls).

"It appears somebody was shot in the head. Another guy that's about maybe 15-feet away from him has two pistols on the floor. He's breathing but he's been shot in the head too. There's another person in the car, she's been shot," the caller told the operator.

Burke’s future roommate, Robert Johnston, told WFTV that Burke watched the couple through a hunting scope to peer in on Robin and her new husband.

Johnston was planning to move in with Burke, but he realized Burke had a bizarre dark side that may have led up to the double murder-suicide.

"He had a spotter scope, scoped up on their house. He wanted me to look through it," Johnston said.

Johnston said Burke used the scope to spy on them from his home, and even hinted at violence toward the new couple.

"He made the statement that a bag of lye, a shotgun, and shovel could make anyone disappear," he said.

It's a crime that's devastated neighbors who say Chuck and Robin were nice people, always willing to help everyone.

Now they're gone, and Fred Whitaker didn't just lose a brother and sister-in-law, he said he lost the friends who were helping him deal with pancreatic cancer.

"Hurts, hurts bad. I mean, I’m dying too. I'm supposed to go before him," said Fred.

The Volusia County Medical Examiner’s Office has taken possession of the bodies and is scheduled to conduct autopsies on Wednesday to confirm the cause of death.

There have been several murder-suicides in Central Florida this year.

Last month, a Seminole County woman and her husband were also murdered by her ex. John Marshall shot and killed Dale and Orval Burkhart, and then killed himself.

In March, Andreau Yankton killed his wife Anicia, at an Orange County Publix before shooting himself.

Also, in February, Roger Troy shot Alissa Blanton and then himself, outside her work near UCF. He had been stalking the woman for months.

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