Left to right: Matthew Waggle and Dawn Kriskewic (Indian River Sheriff's Office).
A 33-year-old Florida man accused of shooting a woman outside her Vero Beach home was arrested at a West Virginia motel after allegedly fleeing across several states in the days following the killing.
Matthew Allen Waggle was arrested Wednesday night at a Super 8 in Dunbar by members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force and charged with one count of first-degree murder in the slaying of 52-year-old Dawn Kriskewic, authorities announced.
According to the Indian River County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to the 500 block of First Street regarding a call about a woman lying in a roadway near her home at 8:41 a.m. on Aug. 16. Upon arriving, first responders found a woman, later identified as Kriskewic, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. Emergency medical personnel transported her to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Investigators quickly identified Waggle as a person of interest, obtaining a warrant for his arrest on Aug. 19. A nationwide alert was issued as authorities searched for the suspected killer.
During a Thursday news conference, Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said Waggle and Kriskewic had been in an on-and-off romantic relationship that Kriskewic had recently ended.
"She had actually told her co-workers, 'If he calls, if he shows up, I want nothing to do with him. Tell him, I'm not here,'" Flowers said. "She had broken things off with him, he had moved away and somehow she knew that he could potentially be coming to the area."
Despite that, investigators say Waggle traveled from West Virginia to Florida by Greyhound bus, then took a rideshare to Kriskewic's Vero Beach home Sunday morning.
"You see that video of him walking, he was dropped off around the corner, he made his way in, we've got him on video, on Ring doorbells, on a variety of different security cameras," Flowers said.
Waggle was at the home for only a few minutes, according to investigators. Surveillance footage captured him approaching the residence, briefly interacting with Kriskewic and then allegedly shooting her before leaving the area.
"He was there for 10, 15 minutes tops. He murdered her in cold blood in the street," the sheriff said.
He then took an Uber back to Orlando, boarded a Greyhound bus to North Carolina and eventually traveled to West Virginia, according to investigators.
Authorities learned that Waggle's ex-wife had been making calls to the Super 8 motel in West Virginia. Marshals located Waggle at the motel Wednesday evening and took him into custody.
His ex-wife was also taken into custody and was cooperating with investigators, Flowers said. Authorities said they recovered a firearm near the scene of the shooting that was traced back to Waggle's ex-wife.
"At this moment, we don't have charges on her, but we are actively speaking with her," the sheriff said.
Flowers credited the department's Real Time Crime Center, surveillance technology and license plate readers with helping investigators track Waggle's movements and locate him hundreds of miles from Florida.
"I'm not standing here four days later telling you about this guy being in custody in West Virginia," Flowers said. "So, for everybody who wants to talk about how bad this system is, we got a murderer behind bars because of this."
Waggle remains in detention at the South Central Regional Jail in West Virginia pending extradition to Florida. It was not immediately clear when he was scheduled to appear in court.
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