A crowd of 100 clutched candles in an evening vigil, as friends and family mourned the loss of Paula Witthaus, 54, and her roommate, James Edward Rapp, 67.
Witthaus, a USF St. Petersburg student and community activist, was found “brutally” murdered in her home at 2840 17th Ave. N. on Tuesday, Jan. 28.
A week prior, on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Witthaus worked with Mercy Keepers, a local nonprofit organization, to hand out food. She rallied fellow graduates of a leadership minor program to assist in grant writing and distributing food.
“She was amazing,” said Danny McDonald, a 2013 graduate of mass communications. “The first thing she always spoke about in class was the community, and most importantly, the nonprofits she associated herself with.”
McDonald recalls Witthaus’ work with Community Action Stops Abuse, another nonprofit, throughout her years at USFSP. Her friends note her aspiration to become a grant writer to aid more organizations. Her recent years were marked with community activism, particularly in her efforts to obtain a domestic registry for same-sex partners in St. Petersburg.
“We were both good friends,” said William Nicks, psychology graduate student. He recalls making trips to the grocery store with her. “We loved to have deep conversations. She was incredibly smart.”
According to the Tampa Bay Times, prior to her enrollment at USFSP, Witthaus struggled with drugs and homelessness, but something in her changed and she decided to study English.
“She wrote a grant and got the funding for the whole project on MLK Day,” McDonald said, “while the actual nonprofit didn’t even know such opportunities existed for them.”
She was three credits away from commencement prior to her death.
