Arrest made in fatal August home invasion

Monday, January 12, 2009

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Bobbe and Joe Wido would be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this year if he was still alive.

PASCO COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- Five months after a fatal home invasion, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office announced an arrest Monday.

Joseph Wido, 82, a World War II veteran and Bronze Star recipient, was killed during the early morning hours of August 28. His wife, Bobbe, was tied up.

Francis Sicola, 26, is charged with first-degree murder. Pasco County Sheriff Bob White said he was arrested, interestingly, on the victim's birthday.

Detectives say Sicola got into the Widos' Timber Oaks home through an unlocked screen door. He was looking for prescription drugs.

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Upon entering the couple's bedroom, detectives say Sicola was challenged by Wido and shot him once, killing him.

"I said to him 'you killed him,'" said 79-year-old Bobbe Wido in her first television interview. "And he said, 'I did not. I shot him in the stomach.' So, I pulled up my husband's night shirt and the bullet was right there and I said, 'does that look like his stomach?'"

Sicola is accused of then tying up Bobbe, leaving her on the floor next to her dead husband for 10 hours until neighbors heard her cries for help.

"I could touch his hand and that's about all I could do," Bobbe said.

Detectives say Sicola continued to search the house for prescription drugs, found none, but did steal jewelry and cash.

Bobbe says if her husband hadn't been murdered the couple would be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this year.

She says she's happy about the arrest but "they can't possibly do enough to him to make up for this," she said. "He took my life away from me. Joe was my life."

Sicola is in North Carolina awaiting extradition, which could take weeks.

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