Punta Gorda News

SUN PHOTO BY GREG MARTIN, gmartin@sun-herald.com Tammy Sperrazza, left, and Tiffany Meyer of Team Charlotte Crossing Apartments serve a customer at one of 20 booths competing in a chili cook-off Saturday in Laishley Park in Punta Gorda.

MELLINGER John Wildemann, president of the Gulf Coast Banjo Society, with the handmade banjo he'll be playing at Banjo Bash Friday and Saturday at the Charlotte Harbor Event and Conference Center in Punta Gorda.

Walter F. Parenteau, 80, of Punta Gorda, Fla., passed away Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, at Peace River Regional Medical Center in Port Charlotte, Fla.

PUNTA GORDA, Fla.- Charlotte County Sheriff's detectives arrested a Deep Creek man Thursday for Lewd or Lascivious Molestation of an 8-year-old boy.

Riviera Beach-based food distributor Cheney Brothers Inc. has announced plans to begin construction in 2012-13 on a 250,000-square-feet distribution center in Charlotte County.

John Frederick Boldt, 72, of Punta Gorda, Fla., passed away Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012.

SUN PHOTO BY PATTIE MIHALIK Ilyssa Mensing, 8, and Emily Mensing, 6, of Punta Gorda were the youngest people to attend a High Tea and Hats fundraiser Saturday to raise money for working women to gain higher education.

The State Attorney's Office is satisfied with the Charlotte County Medical Examiner's report that determined the dead infant found in the freezer of a Punta Gorda home last week was stillborn.

A 30-second walk from The Franklin Shops two doors down, The Nest is a slim slipper of a space with... The dead baby found in a Punta Gorda freezer last month is believed to have been stillborn, according to a state attorney's office report filed Monday.

Punta Gorda resident Ted Goodwin praised the Georgia Supreme Court for its decision to strike down the state's assisted suicide law this week, a decision that effectively clears Goodwin of any charges and allows him to resume working with the Final Exit Network, a right-to-die nonprofit organization.

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla.- New information is surfacing in the case of the infant who was found in a freezer in a Punta Gorda home.

PORT CHARLOTTE Fla.- Dwight Eaglin was sentenced to death in 2006 for killing prison guard Darla Lathrem and inmate Charles Fuston in an attempted escape.

SUN PHOTO BY SANDY PRAY Regine Peterson, 7, of Punta Gorda rolls on the water at one of the attractions at the Charlotte County Fair.

With its contests for critters from rabbits to roosters and rides that vary from a Ferris wheel to the infamous Nitro, the 2012 Charlotte County Fair hasn't changed much since it was started 24 years ago.

Richard M. DeSanto, 94, of Punta Gorda, Fla., passed away Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012.

Robert R. "Bob" Gill, 75, of Punta Gorda, Fla., died Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012, at his residence in Punta Gorda.

SUN PHOTO BY KARIN LILLIS Peace River Regional Medical Center's Joyce Harrynarine, RN, left, checks Janine Salvo's blood glucose level.

Inmates in one southwest Florida county picked 6,400 pounds of free oranges for their jail and local homeless shelters.

PHOTO PROVIDED The Burnt Store Haiti Mission Team is pictured Jan.29 at its mission trip commissioning ceremony during a church service.

Realtor.com, an online real estate magazine, put the Punta Gorda metropolitan area - which includes all of Charlotte County - back on its Top Ten Turnaround Town List this month.