Since someone murdered a mother and daughter and left their bodies outside a Boca Raton, Fla., mall, Coral Springs Police Chief Duncan Foster repeatedly tried to talk to the owners of Coral Square Mall about hiring off-duty officers to increase security.

But Foster tells the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper that his requests went unanswered by mall managers for Simon Property Group, owner also of the Town Center at Boca Raton, where the bodies were found.

Now Foster has written the Indianapolis-based owner of the malls, asking for a sit-down meeting.

"No one has contacted our department to discuss any security arrangements at the Coral Square Mall with regards to the recent tragedy at the Town Center or to discuss any potential partnership to alleviate future security concerns," Foster wrote in the letter mailed to John Petruzzi, vice president of corporate security for Simon, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Petruzzi, reached by telephone by the newspaper, said he would respond quickly to the chief's concerns. He said a new mall manager, who starts soon, "will reach out to the police."

"We take these things very seriously," Petruzzi says. "Let's face facts: Florida is an increasingly violent area."

At about midnight on Dec. 13, the bodies of Nancy Bochicchio, 47, and her daughter Joey, 7, were discovered in an idling SUV outside Sears at Town Center. After a surveillance camera recorded them leaving the mall the day before, someone abducted and shot them to death.

And just nine months earlier, Randi Gorenberg, 52, was killed and left at Gov. Lawton Chiles Memorial Park west of Delray Beach. About 40 minutes before that, surveillance cameras had shown her leaving the Town Center mall. Both crimes are unsolved.

The newspaper reported that Simon is spending just under $1 million at the Town Center on security technology including cameras that can focus in on license plates and faces. Other area malls use motorized scooters, patrol cars, police cruisers and plainclothes security.


Wardy Landrau
Badge@11509