Florida realtor found dead in home, sister arrested for second-degree murder

A Florida community is devastated after well-respected realtor was found dead in her home and police charged her younger sister with second-degree murder.

According to the St. Petersburg Police Department, 54-year-old Sherry Lynn Howard was found dead in her home on in St. Petersburg, Florida on Tuesday.

Police said Charee Howard, a licensed osteopathic physician, called 911 at about 3:30 p.m. saying that she had choked her to death. The sisters lived together at a home and no one else was home at the time.

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Officers found Sherry Lynn’s body just inside the front door. Police said the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s Office was working to determine her official cause of death.

Investigators arrested Charee and charged her with second-degree murder.

Sonja Brookins, who is in a run-off election for Tampa City Council, said she’s still in disbelief. She is now dedicating her campaign to Sherry Howard, who Brookins said inspired her to run. 

“I’m shocked, because she was the type that pushed sisterhood and for her to leave this way, by the hands of her sister. I mean, I send my prayers to the whole family, but it’s just tragic for her to leave this way,” Brookins told FOX 13.

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Family members of the two sisters shared that they are heartbroken, saying that the sisters were like “two-peas in a pod.”

“I know my nieces are good nieces, I know how their mother raised them, they were like two peas in a pod, so what triggered this off, I don’t know,” Debborah Howard, the sisters’ aunt, told local station WFLA. 

“She’s a good kid, I know she’s in heaven,” Debborah added, discussing her niece Sherry.