Authorities say a sibling alerted an older child before deputies found David Wroblewski shot in a bedroom and arrested his girlfriend.

STARKE, Fla. — An early-morning chain of calls among children led Bradford County deputies to a Starke home where they found 41-year-old David James Wroblewski fatally shot in a bedroom and detained his live-in girlfriend, Stephanie Michelle Johnson, according to authorities. Johnson, 42, was later charged with second-degree murder.

The emergency response began about 5:30 a.m. Aug. 31, when one of Johnson’s children contacted an older sibling and reported that their mother had said she killed Wroblewski, the Bradford County Sheriff’s Office said. Local reports said the older child, who was away from the home, contacted authorities. The call was transferred to Bradford County dispatchers, sending deputies to the Meadows Drive residence while other children remained at the house. The sequence put the family’s children at the center of the first moments of the investigation, even though authorities have not publicly identified them by name.

When deputies arrived, Johnson was outside the residence and cooperated with investigators, Sheriff Gordon Smith said. The sheriff’s office reported that Johnson immediately linked the situation to a prolonged dispute, telling a deputy that she and Wroblewski had been fighting for days. Officers entered the home and found Wroblewski on a bed with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. Deputies began lifesaving measures before emergency medical personnel took over, but Wroblewski died. Investigators recovered the firearm and said the relevant crime scene appeared to be confined to the master bedroom.

The children’s involvement did not end with the emergency call. Smith said authorities made their welfare an immediate priority as detectives began securing the scene. Action News Jax reported that two teenagers and a younger child lived at the residence. Because the children were outside in early-morning clothing while investigators worked inside, a victim advocate helped retrieve clothing without interfering with the active crime scene. The sheriff said officials were working to place the children with relatives or other family members who could care for them. Authorities have not released additional identifying information about the children.

What deputies later said Johnson told detectives shifted the investigation from the initial family report to a detailed account of the couple’s relationship and the moments before the shooting. According to a probable cause affidavit cited by Law&Crime, Johnson said she and Wroblewski had been together for about four years. She described the relationship as having begun well before deteriorating more recently. Investigators wrote that she described arguments over several days but was unable to give them a clear chronology of everything that had happened.

Johnson told investigators that Wroblewski had screamed at her during one of the nights leading up to the shooting and that another argument followed, according to the affidavit. During the fatal encounter, she said, the two were in bed when she took a gun from a nightstand. The affidavit says Wroblewski then challenged her to shoot him. Authorities allege Johnson pulled the trigger. Johnson also told detectives she had not feared for her life at the time and that Wroblewski had not previously been physically violent toward her, according to the report. Those statements are allegations contained in the police account and have not been tested at trial.

The affidavit also describes Johnson’s actions immediately afterward. Detectives wrote that she recalled hearing the shot and noticing a burning odor. She said her anxiety increased and that she took a diazepam pill and smoked part of a marijuana joint that belonged to Wroblewski. Johnson also told investigators that she and Wroblewski had been unclothed because they had been intimate earlier and that she put underwear on him after the shooting. Those details were included by investigators as part of her reported account of what happened inside the bedroom, not as independent findings about her state of mind.

Outside the home, the first public picture of the family looked very different from the violence deputies said they found inside. Smith said neighbors described the household as unremarkable and told investigators they had not regularly heard the couple arguing. Neighbors interviewed by local television stations said the children played with others in the neighborhood and that the family had appeared happy during ordinary interactions. Smith also said law enforcement did not have a known history of responding to the residence for domestic disputes. Those observations, however, do not establish what occurred privately between Johnson and Wroblewski before the shooting.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement assisted Bradford County investigators with processing the scene. Smith said detectives would examine available surveillance footage and await findings from the medical examiner. Investigators also interviewed witnesses as they worked to establish a timeline. Early in the day, the sheriff’s office said the exact charge would depend on the investigation. By later reports, jail records showed Johnson had been booked on a second-degree murder charge without bond. A criminal charge is an accusation, and Johnson is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Smith characterized the shooting as an isolated domestic incident and said authorities did not believe there was an ongoing danger to the surrounding community. His public comments repeatedly returned to the children, whose calls helped bring deputies to the scene and who were left to deal with the immediate consequences of the death and arrest. The sheriff said his office wanted to make sure they were placed with people who could care for them while investigators continued gathering evidence in the homicide case.

Public reports reviewed through Oct. 19 did not identify a later court date or report a final resolution of the second-degree murder charge. Johnson’s statements described by investigators remain part of the prosecution’s allegation, and the complete circumstances surrounding Wroblewski’s death will be subject to the criminal court process.

Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.