MIAMI – Twenty-five years ago, famed Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot to death outside his South Beach mansion in a murder that shocked South Florida and the rest of the world.
A quarter of a century after that crime, tourists and residents continue to flock to the scene of the crime as we saw this Friday.
Devin Carbaugh, a tourist from Los Angeles, used his cell phone to capture footage at the site, telling CBS4’s Peter D’Oench: “We’re here for swim week. It feels a little surreal right now. In fact I googled it last night.” and he said that this is the 25th anniversary and that we have to go there. We are in the fashion industry and we have to come here and make an appearance.”
Andrea Bernholtz, another tourist, said: “It’s very sad. It was someone who worked very hard and we know what the struggle is and being brought down in such a cruel way. It says a lot. This is an iconic place and we were in Miami, we always we make it a point to visit. This is especially special. We had to come here for Gianni Versace’s 25th anniversary, definitely.”
It was July 15, 1997. The 50-year-old designer had just opened his front door after having breakfast at the News Café on Ocean Drive when a man in his 20s, serial killer Andrew Cunanan, pulled out a gun and he shot him twice. at the back of the head.
International media flooded South Beach to cover the sensational murder that took place outside Casa Casuarina, his elaborate and opulent 10-bedroom mansion on Ocean Drive.
Versace’s blood stained the coral front steps of the property after the shooting. The world-famous part-time resident lived in the house for five years before his murder.
The persecution of Cunanan, once a male prostitute, made international headlines in the days that followed.
He was a suspect in the murders of four other men and was already on the federal Ten Most Wanted list at the time he shot and killed Versace.
A little more than a week after Versace’s murder, Cunanan, 27, killed himself on a locked houseboat about 40 blocks north of the mansion as police closed in.
More than two decades later, investigators still don’t know why Cunanan killed Versace or his other victims in the deadly crime spree that stretched from Minneapolis to Chicago to South Beach.
Since the crime, Versace’s mansion at 11th Street and Ocean Drive has been converted into a boutique hotel and restaurant known as Villa Casa Casaurina.
Peter D’Oench
Source: www.cbsnews.com