Member-only story
Donal O’Sullivan’s kindness and friendship with the band of skateboarders cost him his life.
The unlikely friendship
An unlikely friendship developed between the 42-year-old and a group of young skateboarders in Melbourne, Florida in 1998. Donal, or Dee as everyone called him, had sold a software product for a lot of money which enabled him to retire young. He settled in Melbourne, a quiet coastal town on Florida’s Space Coast. One of those was Daniel Tennity who was 26 at the time; another was Durke Schmidt, a friend of Tennity’s.
O’Sullivan was generous to his new friends. When he found out they were living in a filthy shack, he rented a house for them, which none of them could have qualified for. He even paid the rent.
Where’s Dee?
By September 1998, Dee seemed to have cut off all social contacts, even with his friends. No one had seen or spoken with him in a while. His brother, Dennis, worried that Dee was suffering from depression, and asked the police to do a wellness check. That’s when it was discovered there was more to Dee’s silence than a case of depression.
Who is Eric Marshall?
The police discovered that Dee’s son, Eric Marshall, had cashed several checks on his account at a local bank. But Dee…
