Florida

An elderly woman’s grandson was found dead — and a Florida deputy is a suspect, cops say

Cape Coral police are investigating after a Lee County deputy’s son was found dead Tuesday afternoon.
Cape Coral police are investigating after a Lee County deputy’s son was found dead Tuesday afternoon. Cape Coral Police Department

An elderly woman’s grandson was found dead earlier this week. Her deputy son is a suspect, according to police.

The off-duty Lee County deputy went to visit his mother at her Cape Coral home Tuesday afternoon. He then started arguing with her grandson, according to the Cape Coral Police Department, the investigating agency.

The deputy was the boy’s father, Fox 4 reports.

The argument escalated and the grandmother went to a neighbor’s home to call police. By the time officers arrived, they found her grandson “unresponsive” and not breathing. All lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful and the boy was pronounced dead at scene, according to an agency news release.

The deputy, his father, was then taken to the Cape Coral Police Station to be interviewed. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office was also notified about the death investigation.

The son was taken to the medical examiner’s office.

“This is an ongoing investigation pending an autopsy, toxicology report and forensic evidence,” according to a news release.

It’s still unclear how old the son was, how long it took police to respond or if the deputy is still in custody.

The Cape Coral Police Department did not immediately respond for comment.

Michelle Marchante
Miami Herald
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.  Support my work with a digital subscription
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