Murder comes to Celebration

FURTHER UPDATE: As the national press responds to Celebration's first homicide, The New York Times uses the event to offer a somewhat wider look at what life is like in "this neo-traditional town of 10,000 people and miles of white rail fencing." The Times describes the killing as "a crack in the facade of this community," though the paper presents no evidence that Celebration ever in fact pretended to be immune from serious problems. The town's first serious crime, the paper says, occurred in 1998, when someone claiming to have a gun robbed a family in their home. 

Celebration has certainly not been exempt from the difficulties afflicting the state and national economy. The movie theater went out of business at Thanksgiving, and home prices are about half what they were at their peak, according to the Times article, available here. As might be expected, The Times finds one visitor who calls Celebration a "'Stepford Wives' community."

UPDATE: Just days after reporting its first homicide, the town Disney built is investigating another death. This time, a man killed himself after shooting at deputies, the Associated Press reports.

"Craig Foushee, 52, barricaded himself in a home Thursday for more than 14 hours, according to an Osceola County Sheriff's Office report. He shot at deputies several times, but deputies never returned fire because they couldn't get a clear shot. No deputies were injured."

One December 2, the Associated Press had reported Celebration's first homicide in its 14-year existence.

"The community's famous friendliness is what brought investigators to Matteo Giovanditto's body: Neighbors hadn't seen him for days, so they filed a missing person's report, then went into his condo a day later and found him.

"A few years ago, a resident joked with a reporter that Celebration would feel like a real town when a bike was stolen. Now, it has an unsolved killing on its hands.

"With 11,000 residents, Celebration is something of an anomaly in Central Florida. There's no suburban sprawl — the entire place is reminiscent of a quaint New England village."