Saturday August 30th, 2025 3:14PM

West Florida man faces murder charges in grandmother's stabbing death

By The Associated Press
<p>A West Florida man will be extradited to Georgia after his arrest Sunday on charges he stabbed his grandmother and aunt to death.</p><p>Joshua James Engel, 27, told Henry County Magistrate Robert Godwin on Monday he had no questions about extradition. Engel was wearing handcuffs and ankle shackles.</p><p>Engel is charged with two counts of murder for the deaths of his grandmother, Dorothy Mae Thompson, and his aunt, Debra Thompson. The women were stabbed multiple times, and his grandmother was nearly decapitated.</p><p>"The guy went nuts," said Pasco County, Fla., Sheriff's Detective Pete Weekes, who drove from Florida to arrest Engel.</p><p>Weekes said Engel lived in New Port Richey, 30 miles north of Tampa, Fla., with the victims and his legally blind wife, who is not implicated in the killings.</p><p>Engel was arrested at a Budget Inn in McDonough after Engel's mother-in-law tipped off police to his whereabouts.</p><p>Authorities found no weapons in the room, but a loaded 12-gauge shotgun was in Engel's van.</p>
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