Authorities have not said which of the 3 men -- a consultant, an attorney and a veteran -- was the killer.

Ralph Gonzalez (right) worked as campaign manager for the '03 Orlando mayoral campaign of advertising executive Pete Barr (left). (JULIE FLETCHER, ORLANDO SENTINEL / February 4, 2003)

Investigators spent Friday interviewing relatives and associates of the three men found dead in a political consultant's home to try to determine what led to the murders and suicide.

The bodies of Ralph Gonzalez, 36; David Abrami, 36; and Robert Jason Drake, 30, were discovered Thursday, about two days after the men are believed to have died. Authorities determined they perished in a double-murder and suicide but would not say which man was the killer.

Gonzalez and Abrami were longtime friends and conservative Republican allies who lived at the house on Hickory Oak Boulevard. Drake was a St. Cloud High School graduate and former Marine who was once featured in newspapers across the country during his service in Kosovo.
 

 A photo of Drake was published on the front page of The New York Times and the cover of Newsweek magazine in 1999. It showed an Albanian toddler in a refugee camp rubbing his shaved head.

Investigators called in the sheriff's bomb squad when they spotted a backpack next to his body, fearing it might contain explosives, records show.

"The backpack was not a danger," stated a sheriff's release.

Deputies say the three died Tuesday, probably about the time a neighbor heard what he thought were firecrackers going off inside the Union Park home.

Gonzalez and Abrami, both 36, shared a longtime passion for conservative Republican politics.

Gonzalez, a former head of the Republican Party in Georgia, ran the Strategum Group in Orlando. His clients included U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney.

Abrami, an attorney, drew Secret Service scrutiny in 1992 while still a student at the University of Central Florida.

As vice president of the Central Florida Young Republican Club, the 22-year-old senior announced a Turkey Shoot fundraiser where members could pay $2 to fire a shotgun at enlarged photos of then-President Clinton.

"This will be fun for the entire family," Abrami told the Orlando Sentinel before the Secret Service persuaded him to raise money some other way. "They came down hard on us, saying we threatened the president, things like that."

Abrami's conservatism goes back to his teenage years as a member of Dr. Phillips High School's Class of 1988.

"David and the group of guys he hung out with were looking for a conservative teacher, and I was the only one there was," said Lt. Col. Robert A. Lynn of the Florida National Guard, who continues to teach social studies. "They were looking for an oasis, and I offered a traditional conservative perspective, not neo-con."

Lynn said he would don a military uniform when wakes to the three are held. Despite academic and professional accomplishments, Abrami had set his goals on serving in Afghanistan or Iraq as an Army infantry officer.

"Come hell or high water, he was going to join up," Lynn said, referring to his last telephone conversation with Abrami on Monday afternoon.

Abrami and seven or eight friends took a night class Lynn taught at Dr. Phillips about the Vietnam War.

"It's just really terrible, because he had not hit his stride yet," Lynn said. "After the last election in November 2006, he wanted to do something for the country. He didn't think being an attorney was enough. He wanted to get combat time."

The Sheriff's Office awaits autopsy results before releasing more information, including a reconstruction of what investigators think happened.

The Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner's Office completed the autopsies Friday. Burial plans had not been announced.

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