ORLANDO, Fla. _ Calling from a Eustis, Fla., cemetery, Ian Anselmo gave the 911 dispatcher his name and a few horrifying details.
"I killed my mom, she's dead," he said on the recorded line. "I strangled her."
His stepmother, Sue Ellen Anselmo, 39, a pregnant mom of six children, was bleeding and unconscious, a cord taut around her neck, lying in the driver's seat of her red Chevrolet Trailblazer. Arriving police found Ian, 21, in the SUV's passenger side.
Prosecutors in Lake County have charged Ian Anselmo in the assault of his stepmother but offered no motive in a probable-cause affidavit, which noted that Ian complained of a panic attack while at the Eustis Police Department.
"This whole thing seems so weird," said John Anselmo, 41, Sue Ellen's husband and Ian's father, who aid he has no idea why why Ian would have attacked his wife. "We're just racking our brains trying to figure out what happened."
Ian Anselmo was booked into the Lake County Jail last week on charges of second-degree attempted murder and battery on a pregnant woman, but she later died and prosecutors are likely to upgrade the charges, police said.
According to the charging document, signed by Eustis police detective Chris Horst, "Ian was difficult to understand in the 911 recording but he mentioned something about being in an argument." Police disclosed few other details.
Police said Ian told officers at Greenwood Cemetery his dad was going to be very upset.
Through a spokesman for the Lake County Jail, Ian Anselmo declined a request for an interview.
John Anselmo said he spoke briefly on the phone with his jailed son but not about what happened in the cemetery on Haselton Street, which is about a mile from the family's home in Eustis.
Although Ian Anselmo believed he had killed his stepmother in the cemetery March 13, Lake EMS paramedics rushed her to the AdventHealth Waterman hospital in Tavares with a faint pulse. She died Monday at Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Authorities have not said what Sue Ellen and her stepson were doing in the cemetery about 4 p.m.
Medical examiners in Orange County refused to release her autopsy this week, citing the police investigation.
The day before she was strangled, Sue Ellen Anselmo hired a divorce lawyer, court documents show. She and John Anselmo were married for 13 years.
John Anselmo said he and his wife had separated about a week earlier, but he expected they would soon reconcile and resume their family life together.
"Because I love her, man, she was my everything," he said.
Sue Ellen's mother, Cynthia Miller, had a different view of the marriage, the second for both.
While her unconscious daughter was clinging to life in the Orlando hospital, Miller filed an emergency petition in Circuit Court in Lake County to become temporary guardian for Sue Ellen Anselmo's health-care decisions.
The petition, signed by Miller, described John Anselmo as "a person of interest in the investigation" and doubted he would "make decisions that are in (Sue Ellen Anselmo's) best interests ... "
John Anselmo denied his mother-in-law's allegations.
Neither Miller nor her lawyer, Ginger Lore, returned calls for comment.
Eustis police spokesman Jim Franquiz said he couldn't say if John Anselmo is or isn't a person of interest.
The petition for emergency temporary guardianship alleges Sue Ellen Anselmo moved out of the marital home with her minor children "due to fear for her own safety and the safety of her children."
John Anselmo said he never hit or threatened his wife or children but that she sometimes hit him _ a charge her daughter from a past marriage disputed.
The lone "domestic" police call to the family home in the past five years occurred Feb. 28 and was logged by police as "family fight, non-violent."
Anselmo said he never called police about other alleged incidents because "I loved her."
A former Lake County elementary school teacher, Anselmo said his wife worked for more than a decade as a hair-stylist at a Eustis salon while he was mostly a stay-at-home dad for eight children, including three from his previous marriage.
The couple together had five kids 10 or younger, including a boy with Down syndrome.
"My wife loved babies," he said when asked why they had so many.
Anselmo said they named some children after characters in books by science-fiction writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose best known work is the 1912 classic "Tarzan of the Apes." Their youngest was named Moog for the synthesizer, which Anselmo plays.
Anselmo also adopted Sue Ellen's daughter Chloe from a past marriage and renamed her Dejah-Thoris, a heroic Martian princess in Burroughs' tales of the red planet.
Dejah-Thoris Waite, who also uses her birth name, organized a memorial service for her mother that will be held today at 5 p.m. Thursday at First Baptist Church of Umatilla.
She declined to comment saying she preferred the spotlight shine for now on her mother's love and kindness.
John Anselmo said he didn't think he would be welcome at that service so he is planning a private Catholic funeral to celebrate his wife's life.
He has custody of the other children.
He described Ian as "brilliant," saying he graduated from Florida Virtual School, created a children's comic book and aspired to be an editor of textbooks and technical writing.
"He's a good kid," Anselmo said. "I just can't explain what happened."
A Gofundme account, titled "For the love of Sue Ellen," raised nearly $20,000 since it was created March 17 to help with "any expenses that arise for the children, medical or legal needs."
But the account, set up by the daughter of the salon owner, allows the funds to be tapped only by Miller or Dejah-Thoris.
"They have a long road ahead of them and will need all of the support that we can give. Please be generous in making sure that the thing that mattered to Sue Ellen the most, her children, are protected and safe," the fundraising appeal states.
Long-time customers and friends remembered Sue Ellen fondly on the crowd-funding site for her styling skill and bubbly personality.
"I donated because I loved Sue Ellen. Myself and my kids have been clients of hers for many years," wrote Sharon Bommarito of Mount Dora, a weekly customer for the past five years.
"She was more than just a stylist. She was a good friend and someone that always made you feel happy and comfortable. I will miss her so much."
