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Effort resident killed in Florida

Donations have poured in for a Monroe County electrician killed by his co-worker near their job site in Florida.

Kevin Lanusse, 41, of Effort, was one of three victims who were killed in what police called a cold-blooded, violent homicide.

Relatives have created a fundraiser to benefit Lanusse’s fiancee and four children. As of Wednesday afternoon, donations had reached over $24,000. The fundraiser is available at https://gofund.me/4fdd3466.

A Nazareth resident, 39-year-old Shaun Runyon, reportedly confessed to fatally attacking Lanusse and two other co-workers Friday morning as they slept inside a rental home they shared.

Lanusse and another co-worker were reportedly killed with a baseball bat, while a third victim who fought back against Runyon was stabbed to death. While the two other co-workers were pronounced dead at the scene, Lanusse died at a nearby hospital. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said he was asleep while he was attacked and likely never woke.

“Thank God he wasn’t aware of what happened to him,” Judd said.

The four men were working for a contractor based out of Effort, JNB Electric, which had been hired to work on a Publix grocery store in Lakeland, Florida, which is located between Tampa and Orlando.

The murders occurred in nearby Davenport, Florida. Runyon reportedly told police that he planned to kill Lanusse and two other co-workers.

The night before, Runyon had reportedly left the job site in a work truck after he punched Lanusse, his supervisor, in the face during an argument about Runyon’s work performance.

Judd said that Runyon was instructed by his half-brother, the company’s owner, to return to Pennsylvania. Instead, he returned to the rental home with a baseball bat.

“This is a cold blooded, calculated, violent murdering beast,” Judd said.

Runyon was arrested in May in Northampton County on charges of strangulation and endangering the welfare of a child. He was out on $75,000 bail while awaiting trial on the charges.