DeLand man who committed suicide identified; woman who lived with him is missing

PHOTO COURTESY SERGIO HEVIA
Missing — Jacqueline DelRey, 42, has been missing for about a week. She lived at the house on Old New York Avenue, just west of DeLand, where Gerry Wendell Orr shot himself July 26.

PHOTO COURTESY SERGIO HEVIA
Missing — Another image of Jacqueline DelRey.

PHOTO COURTESY FDLE
Dead — The Volusia County Sheriff's Office reports that Gerry Wendell Orr, 40, shot himself as Sheriff's deputies approached the house on Old New York Avenue where he lived, just west of DeLand. A woman told deputies Orr had held her against her will at the house, and sexually battered her.

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jul 27, 2010 - 5:18:40pm

A convicted sex offender who shot himself as Volusia County Sheriff's deputies approached with a search warrant was identified as 40-year-old Gerry Wendell Orr. The incident occurred July 26, as deputies attempted to investigate a report of sexual battery by Orr on a 23-year-old woman.

Read the initial report here.

Orr was a registered sex offender, with a 1989 conviction for a lewd and lascivious act on a child under the age of 16, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Sexual Offenders and Predators website.

Now deputies are searching for another woman — the woman who lived with Orr at the house at 2504 Old New York Ave., 42-year-old Jacqueline DelRey. She has disappeared.

Neighbors say they haven’t seen her in about a week, and family members have gone even longer without seeing her, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office reported.

Alarmed friends in the Miami area are also concerned about DelRey's well-being.

Sergio Hevia said he and his wife, Arline, "are the oldest and best friends of Jacqueline DelRey."

The Hevias are godparents to DelRey's two daughters, who are now 18 and 20 years old. The daughters are in South Florida.

"The last my wife spoke with her was on the 13th," Sergio Hevia said. "We don't know what freaking happened."

Jacqueline DelRey was renting a house in DeLand, and Orr moved in with her a little while back, Sergio Hevia said.

DelRey and Orr visited the Hevias a couple of months ago, and everything seemed all right, Sergio Hevia said.

Still, the Hevias urged DelRey to check Orr's background.

She told them she did, Sergio Hevia said. He now believes DelRey never did run a background check.

After Orr shot himself, DelRey's dog was found still inside the house. Her car was found at an impound lot, Sergio Hevia said, towed there from the side of the road.

On July 27, one of DelRey's daughters was en route to DeLand to retrieve the dog and look for information on her mother.

The Sheriff's Office was not able to confirm if DelRey's was the car Orr used during events leading to his death.

Here's what happened, a Sheriff's Office release stated:

An investigation began last week, after a 23-year-old woman told investigators Orr had held her at the house on Old New York Avenue against her will and sexually battered her repeatedly over a three-day period.

The young woman knew Orr and went to the house voluntarily, she told investigators. The two "hung out" and used Oxycodone and crack cocaine.

Then, things began to get strange, the young woman said, and she wanted to leave. Orr wouldn't let her, and threatened her with guns to make her stay. He forced her to have sex with him against her will over the next three days.

The two went to Sanford to buy crack, with the young woman hoping for an opportunity to escape, she told investigators.

The vehicle broke down. The young woman told Orr she was going for help, but instead, she got a ride from a passing motorist and eventually reported the assaults to the Sanford Police Department, whose investigators turned over the case to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.

That's when Volusia County investigators got a warrant to search the house where Orr was living. Before investigators got inside, "Orr put a gun to his head and killed himself," Sheriff's Office spokesman Gary Davidson said.

When deputies searched the home, they found two additional guns. They haven't found DelRey, and want to make sure she's OK, Davidson said.

Anyone with any information about DelRey should call the Sheriff's Office at 386-736-5999.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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