Northampton County Man, Shaun Runyon, Charged With Killing 3 Coworkers While On Work Trip Claimed He Was Raped
POLK COUNTY, Fla. (CBS/AP) -- A Nazareth man faces murder and aggravated battery charges after authorities in Florida say he beat and stabbed three of his coworkers to death while on a work trip. The man would later claim to authorities one of those coworkers raped him.
Shaun Runyon, 39, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery.
According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, he was arrested Saturday after a two-hour manhunt.
The sheriff's office said Runyon and the victims worked at JNB Electric and went to Florida for contract work for Publix Headquarters. The four stayed at a rental home with another coworker.
The three coworkers who traveled with Runyon were identified as:
- Kevin Lanusse, 41, from Pennsylvania;
- Dewlon Donell, 46, from Maryland; and
- Gregory Dolezal, 41, from Ohio.
Authorities said Runyon and Lanusse, his supervisor, got into an argument at work Friday, ending with Runyon punching him and then leaving the job site. While his coworkers assumed he traveled back to Pennsylvania, deputies said Runyon drove to Georgia and bought a crossbow. He planned to kill his coworkers with the bow, he told authorities.
Runyon then drove to Tampa, left his work car at the airport, and then rented a different car from Enterprise. He bought a baseball bat in Tampa, which he told authorities he decided to use instead of the crossbow.
Around 9:45 a.m. Saturday, Runyon returned to where he and his coworkers were staying and beat Lanusse and Donell to death as they slept. When Dolezal woke up and tried to escape, the department said Runyon stabbed him.
Runyon confessed multiple times to the murders during interviews with detectives, telling them that the co-workers had raped him, and "he hated all three of them," but a sexual battery test failed to confirm the allegation, said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd during a news conference.
The sheriff used hand air quotes when saying the word "raped."
"I want to underscore there is absolutely unequivocally zero evidence," said Judd, whose county is located between Tampa and Orlando.
Deputies later arrested Runyon at the Lake Wales Medical Center after running up to a home in bloody clothing.
"He showed up at a random house on a quiet street in Lake Wales bloody, telling the people he was raped," Sheriff Judd said.
His prior criminal history includes a May 21 arrest in Nazareth, with charges including strangulation, endangering the welfare of a child, assault, and terroristic threats. He was released on bail a week later. Prior arrests include theft, theft of lost property, DUI, and careless driving.
CBS3 spoke with Northampton County Prosecutor Terence Houck, who said none of Runyon's previous offenses involved anything violence.
"As far as I know this was the first incident like this of the violence that occurred. The one in Northampton obviously I'm referring to," he said.
Runyon is being held in the Polk County Jail without bond.
CBS3's Howard Monroe contributed to this report.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
