POMPANO BEACH, Fla. – A 28-year-old man is facing murder charges in the deaths of an elderly Canadian couple in Pompano Beach.
Quinton Johnson was already being held this week in the main Broward County jail in connection with the shooting and robbery of a 67-year-old man at a Pompano Beach ATM.
Investigators believe Johnson is also responsible for the beating deaths of Marc Gagne, 80, and Rita Gagne, 78, at their home at 770 Birdie Lane.
Residents of the Golf View Estates Mobile Home Park said they conducted a welfare check on the couple March 22 after they hadn't heard or seen them in days. That's when residents discovered the couple's bodies.
The French-Canadian couple were friendly snowbirds but quietly kept to themselves, neighbors said.
Needless to say, residents of the mobile home park were shocked and concerned about the double slayings and have been on edge ever since.
They now feel a sense of relief knowing the couple's alleged killer is behind bars.
"It's been taped off -- I don't know -- a month or more, and everybody in here is wondering who would do that and why," Lori Miller said. "I was so happy they found who did it, who bludgeoned them, because it was a sickening crime that happened here."
According to an arrest warrant, Johnson confessed to someone about the killings and said he was in the process of committing a burglary when it occurred.
Authorities said Johnson told the person that Marc Gagne refused to give something up, which led to him killing the elderly couple.
He told the person he committed the crimes by himself "because when you do stuff like that, nobody can tell on you," the warrant stated.
According to the warrant, Johnson later looked up a news article on his cellphone regarding the killings.
Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Keyla Concepción said in a news release that Johnson has a long criminal history of occupied burglaries and grand theft and had been released from prison in February after serving a seven-year sentence.
Anyone with further information about the case is asked to call Detective Barbara Dyer at 954-321-4262 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.