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Stranger turns couple's night into nightmare

A woman is accused of entering a home, putting a couple in their 60s through a traumatic ordeal, and leading authorities on a chase.

By JACOB H. FRIES
Published December 24, 2005

LARGO - In a neighborhood not her own, the troubled woman randomly chose a mobile home early Friday morning, entered through an unlocked door, grabbed a kitchen knife and walked to the bedroom, sheriff's officials said.

Inside, two people slept.

Gail Duhaime, 62, awoke around midnight to find Senada Harbinja, 39, in the room, sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen said. Harbinja then slashed Duhaime's throat. For the next hour, Harbinja kept Duhaime and her husband, Andre, in the bedroom, McMullen said. The couple were visiting from South Carolina. "During the encounter, she made statements that she was looking for food and having family problems," he said.

Harbinja, whose last known address was on Seminole Boulevard, demanded the keys to the couple's 1998 Chrysler van and forced Andre Duhaime, 67, to come along, McMullen said. She had Duhaime show her the way out of the Oak Crest mobile home park at 9925 Ulmerton Road and then drove back to the mobile home, he said.

Before leaving, Harbinja bound the couple with telephone cords. They could not be reached for comment Friday. At 2:04 a.m., Andre Duhaime partly freed himself and called 911, McMullen said. An ambulance arrived moments later, taking Gail Duhaime to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg with injuries that weren't considered life threatening.

Harbinja, meanwhile, was miles away, headed north on U.S. 19, McMullen said.

A sheriff's sergeant in an unmarked car saw the van at 2:40 a.m. near the intersection of U.S. 19 and Tampa Road in Palm Harbor, McMullen said. The sergeant radioed for help and followed the van to a gas station.

The sergeant got out and walked toward Harbinja, who then sped away, McMullen said. Other cruisers pulled up just then and the van raced toward one before careening back onto U.S. 19, he said.

The ensuing car chase north reached speeds of 110 mph.

Deputies called Pasco County authorities, who then put "stop sticks," or spikes, in the road to puncture and deflate the tires, at Ridge Road and Embassy Boulevard, McMullen said.

The van was disabled and Harbinja drove it into a ditch, McMullen said. She was then taken to the Land O'Lakes detention center on charges of attempted murder, home invasion robbery, two counts of false imprisonment, felony fleeing and eluding, and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer with a motor vehicle.

Harbinja has no criminal record in Florida. Asked why she cut Duhaime's throat, she replied, "Because my family disappeared today," McMullen said. She would not elaborate, he said.

[Last modified December 24, 2005, 01:10:16]