Backyard bodies identified as 70-year-old woman, 39-year-old man

Thomas Erichowsky, 39

San Carlos Park Double Homicide

San Carlos Park Double Homicide

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The bodies found in a San Carlos Park backyard have been identified as Janice Bianchi, 70, and Jason Thomas Erichowsky, 39.

Bianchi lived at 7321 Pebble Beach Road the site of the discovery. Erichowsky’s last known address is listed as 20670 Sandy Lane, Fort Myers.

No other details are being released at this time.

POSTED EARLIER

In February, a man broke into her Estero trailer and threatened her friend.

In March, she was a key witness to a violent beating that left a man dead on her kitchen floor.

On Wednesday afternoon, authorities dug up two bodies from the back yard of the San Carlos Park duplex that 70-year-old Janice Bianchi has rented since May.

Now Bianchi is nowhere to be found.

“I met her the day we signed the lease and one day when we had a refrigerator repairman out there,” said Mike Katulski, Bianchi’s landlord and the owner of the duplex at 7321 Pebble Beach Road. “She seemed like a very nice, quiet, ideal tenant type.”

Investigators from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office uncovered the bodies on Wednesday night, but the mystery actually began unfolding Tuesday morning when an unidentified man filed a missing person report for a woman, whose name was also not released. He hadn’t seen her since Friday.

The address listed on the report is Bianchi’s San Carlos home.

Deputies responded to the home and found a suspicious area in Bianchi’s backyard. On Wednesday morning, investigators wrapped the home with crime scene tape, and were seen coming and going from the backyard with shovels.

Late Wednesday, they rolled two stretchers into a van.

Authorities confirmed Thursday they had uncovered two bodies. The identities of the bodies were not released Thursday, and the causes of death were only listed as “not natural.” Neighbors said detectives were asking about an elderly woman when they canvassed the neighborhood Wednesday.

“This is not a random act,” Lee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman John Sheehan said. “The people in the community don’t have any reason to be worried.”

Bianchi moved to San Carlos Park in May from Covered Wagon Trailer Park, park manager Jack Putzer said.

At Covered Wagon, neighbors had described Bianchi’s trailer as a constant hangout for strange men, many of them drunk. Putzer said Bianchi left after he threatened eviction.

“That solved a lot of my troubles, man,” he said.

Those troubles included the February burglary and the grisly homicide in March — both in Bianchi’s trailer.

On Feb. 8, authorities say Brian Thomas Ebener, 37, of 20373 Sherrill Lane in Estero, cut a screen and was trying to pry open windows to Bianchi’s trailer, and ended up entering the home through an unlocked door. A Lee County Sheriff’s Office report said Ebener yelled at Bianchi’s friend, Jason Thomas Erichowsky, saying he “was going to (expletive) him up.” Bianchi told deputies that she believed Ebener was “acting crazy and high on crack cocaine and alcohol.”

Ebener fled when Bianchi called law enforcement, and was later arrested. He remains in custody.

On March 11, authorities say Mark Andrew Dennis, 49, beat and stomped to death Bianchi’s roommate, Felix Lozado, 49, after a drug-and-alcohol-fueled bender in her trailer. Dennis told Bianchi to blame “Hispanic men,” though authorities say she called the cops instead, and pinned Dennis to the crime.

Deputies located and arrested Dennis on a second-degree murder charge, but were forced to release him in April due to a lack of evidence.

By Florida law, prosecutors have 175 days in which they can file felony charges against someone arrested for a crime. The window through which they could charge Dennis is set to close in September.

Sheehan said he “can’t respond” to any links between the cases.

Dennis’s address is listed as 20164 Sherrill Lane in Estero, on his arrest report.

On July 17, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office released a missing person report for another man at that address, Charles Allen Mason, 55. Mason was last seen at the home on June 29, according to the release, but on Thursday afternoon he was napping on the couch.

Mason said he hasn’t seen Dennis since he was released from jail. He only knew Bianchi as an acquaintance, but described her as a tough lady who possessed a lot of prescription medications.

“She was just an old lady who likes to drink and party,” Mason said. “She always had a bunch of guys at her trailer park. That’s why she got kicked out of there.”

For 20 years, Dick Pribble, 61, has lived next door to the duplex where the bodies were found. Last Friday his grandson heard arguing next door, and his wife recently heard screaming.

Pribble said he regularly heard Bianchi’s two dogs barking outside.

“For the last couple of days the dogs were barking from the inside of the house,” Pribble said.

Some neighbors described the area near the intersection of Pebble Beach Road and Barbara Drive as a quiet place where not much ever happens. However, others said the neighborhood, marked with rental units, foreclosures and empty duplexes, has become a haven for drugs and transients.

Neighbor Candace McHale, 38, said her roommate was out walking his dog around 2 a.m. recently when he witnessed a man pull into Bianchi’s driveway for what he believed to be a drug deal.

Although Katulski said Bianchi was the only one on the lease, several neighbors said there were others living with her — including, possibly, a younger man — and many others regularly stopped by her home.

“Oh yeah, there’s a lot of cars coming in,” said 18-year-old Luisa Diaz, who lives across the street. “They would come in for a couple minutes, then come out and leave.”

Steve Welter, 43, who has lived in a home behind the duplex for 12 years, said he didn’t even realize Bianchi was living there until he saw her out at the mailbox recently. He said he doesn’t know anything about the homicides.

“I’d like to know who the hell did it, though,” Welter said. “It sucks. It’s right behind my home.”