As autopsies were being performed Thursday on a man and a woman found shot dead at their home, friends said they were baffled about what happened.
Police identified the two as Jackline Fromin, 54, and Michael Savino, 60, who co-workers said lived together for the past decade in a house Savino owned on the 18000 block of Johnson Street.
The couple had met at Rickey’s Sports Bar & Grill , the neighborhood restaurant where Fromin worked for the past 15 years. Co-workers are planning a memorial for them.
Pembroke Pines police say that at 8 p.m. Wednesday, a 911 call reported a domestic disturbance at the address, shots were fired, and two victims were hit. Police said an officer fired his weapon during the incident but was not harmed.
Who fired the shots that killed Fromin and Savino was still under investigation late Thursday.
Just 90 minutes before the 911 call, Savino was at Rickey’s on nearby Pines Boulevard to get chicken wings to bring home to Fromin, who was assistant manager at the restaurant. Savino was a candy salesman who filed for bankruptcy last year, according to court records.
On Wednesday, while waiting for his takeout order, Savino had his usual two or three beers and played video trivia with other regulars, Rickey’s owner Karen Harrington said.
She said Savino described the couple’s plans for Thanksgiving – serving a turducken and having one of the bar’s patrons as a guest for the holiday dinner.
Fromin was going to spend part of her regular Wednesday off at a job interview with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. She hoped to moonlight to earn extra money, the restaurant owner said.
Harrington struggled to talk, describing her “bubbly” friend as someone who remembered everything that was happening in customers’ lives. She was a loyal and trusted employee who opened up the place every morning.
Her high energy and strong work ethic earned her the nickname “Taz” after the frantic Tasmanian devil Looney Tunes character, her boss and friend said.
“She was the perennial restaurant person,” Harrington said. “She typified Rickey’s.”
Fromin had two children: a son, Kyle, a graduate student at the University of Florida, and a daughter, Lauren, a junior at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Harrington said.
She had divorced her husband, their father, and raised them on her own, colleagues said.
In financial and emotional ways, she was still supporting them while they were in college, according to co-workers.
“She needed to hear their voices every day, to make sure they were OK,” Harrington said.
Rickey’s employees said Savino and Fromin would argue, but their conflicts didn’t seem any worse than other couples’.
The two met at the restaurant and became close as they separately worked through their divorces. Savino was remembered as a jovial regular who never showed any signs of violence.
“Jackie was like my sister, and we shared everything,” co-worker Heather Coleman said as she wept and smoked during a break in the bar’s parking lot Thursday. “Nothing here is making any sense.”
At the couple’s house, where Savino would smoke cigarettes on the patio, crime scene tape outlined the property and two Pembroke Pines police cars stood guard. Identical “his and hers” blue BMW sedans were parked side-by-side in the driveway.
Police said they were not going to release more information until the autopsies were completed.
Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report. Linda Trischitta can be reached at or 954-356-4233.
