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Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mother had bad feeling about daughter’s suitor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Family photo
Amity Ruth Kozak, 29, formerly of Lawrenceville, was found dead on May 30 in her boyfriend's apartment in West Palm Beach, Fla. • Story
The family met the new boyfriend at a birthday party.
Two weeks ago, Amity Ruth Kozak and her mate drove to Lawrenceville from West Palm Beach, Fla., to attend a surprise celebration for her younger brother. John turned 26 on May 30.
Call it instinct, intuition, whatever — but relatives weren’t sold on Helder “Sonny” Peixoto. They didn’t think he was right for their Amity, 29.
At the party, he drank like a fish, said little to nothing, and when he did speak, looked right through you, recalled Pat Kozak, Amity’s mom.
“He looked like a mobster,” she told me.
Kozak, a 1996 Central Gwinnett High grad, was drop-dead gorgeous. Model material.
All her life she’d been an adventurer. She fed it by traveling, snorkeling, scuba diving. One time she caught an 80-pound tuna on a deep-sea fishing trip. She’d been to Belize and Mexico.
But Florida was the place she loved.
Growing up in Lawrenceville, the family often took trips to Daytona Beach to visit Pat Kozak’s parents. The sun, beach and glitz intrigued Kozak.
When she was 19, she and a friend moved to South Florida. Her parents didn’t dissuade her. It wouldn’t have made a difference, anyway.
“Like a butterfly, you have to let them go,” Pat Kozak told me. “We supported her in whatever she chose to do.”
Kozak settled into South Florida. She worked various jobs like modeling and, according to the Palm Beach Post, stripped about four years ago at Rachel’s on 45th Street. She earned her real estate license and recently worked as a marketing representative for Flagler Title Co. in Palm Beach County.
Lawza Glover recalled working with Kozak several years ago as a Century 21 agent.
“You could be intimidated by her because she was so beautiful,” said Glover of West Palm Beach. “But she was really sweet and very happy. People always took care of her.”
Ever lived in Florida? If you have, then you know how people can move there and reinvent themselves, sometimes with lies and half-truths.
Peixoto made the move from Boston to South Florida about four years ago.
According to the Palm Beach Post, he associated with the region’s high-society folk, bragged about his money, crashed parties and charities, and lived a con man’s life.
He revealed little about his past in Cambridge, where he’d been a cop with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. He left that job after pleading guilty to vehicular manslaughter in connection with a January 2003 traffic accident that killed a 79-year-old man, according to the Post.
He was investigated several times for excessive use of force and making false arrests, though the charges were dropped. He ran unsuccessfully — twice — for Cambridge City Council.
In mid-April, the 34-year-old ex-cop met Kozak in South Florida. He told her he was in the real estate business. The couple spent Memorial Day weekend visiting Peixoto’s family in Cambridge. After that trip, things changed.
Kozak wanted out. Peixoto apparently wouldn’t have it. The harassment began.
On May 30, the day Kozak’s brother turned 26, she called him and sang “Happy Birthday.”
That same day, Peixoto apparently leapt to his death from the 11th floor of a condo in downtown West Palm Beach. Hours later, Kozak’s bloody body was found inside his apartment by friends of Peixoto who were searching for a suicide note, according to the Post.
Authorities haven’t said if they have a murder-suicide on their hands. Autopsy results are pending.
Kozak’s funeral is set for 2 p.m. today in the Lawrenceville chapel of Tim Stewart Funeral Home. A memorial service will be held in Florida at a later date.
Instead of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (www.ncadv.org).
Pat Kozak says it’s a good thing the suspected killer took his life. “There literally would have been an army after him,” she told me.
“It’s the smartest thing he ever did.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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