Love Triangle Blamed In Man’s Slaying

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — An arrest has been made in the November 2015 death of a 24-year-old man found shot outside his home in unincorporated Seminole. Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputies say the shooter was in an intimate relationship with the man’s long-term girlfriend.

The investigation into Christopher Wayne Rotenberger’s death began just after 8 a.m. Nov. 11, 2015, when deputies responded to a call about a deceased person. When they arrived on the scene, deputies found Rotenberger on the ground outside his Flamevine Avenue home, suffering from a gunshot wound.

Rotenberger was pronounced dead on the scene.

The investigation into the case lasted more than 15 months with an arrest announced Thursday night.

Detectives who worked the case say that Rotenberger’s long-term girlfriend Stephanie Dalrymple, 24, was “also having an intimate relationship with 38-year-old Priscilla ‘Dawn’ Houck.”

Dalrymple was pregnant with Rotenberger’s child at the time of his death, an email from the sheriff’s office said.

“Detectives discovered that Houck obtained a gun after she found out about Dalrymple's pregnancy and she began planning Rotenberger's murder days prior to his death,” the email said.

Houck was brought into custody just before 1 p.m. March 2. She was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on one count of first-degree murder. Houck was being held without bond Friday afternoon. Jail records indicate one other prior arrest in Pinellas County on fraudulent use of a credit card charges.

Further information in the case is not being released at this time.

Booking photo courtesy of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office