David Tronnes, after purchasing a house in the upscale neighborhood of Delaney Park in Orlando, became fixated on transforming it into his dream home – and his obsession ended in murder. The expansive 19th-century property, which spanned over 4,000 sq ft and boasted a pool, a separate flat, and even a few gargoyles, was bought by Tronnes for cash, convinced of its immense potential.

Tronnes had relocated from Minnesota to Florida after connecting with Shanti Cooper online in 2013. Recently divorced and mother to an eight-year-old son she cherished, Cooper was a savvy businesswoman with a profitable software company.

Tronnes, who was 11 years her senior, seemed to provide the stability she sought. Tronnes confided in Shanti that he had inherited more than $4 million. Having recently undergone a divorce himself, it appeared to be a new beginning for both of them.

In 2015, Tronnes purchased the property for just over $600,000 and embarked on extensive renovations. By 2017, he and Shanti were married and residing in the house, despite ongoing construction, reports the Mirror.

David Tronnes was found guilty of murdering his wife Shanti Cooper ( 

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While Tronnes oversaw the project, Shanti worked from a home office. Despite his claims of wealth, Shanti found herself footing the bill for everything, from their wedding to the property’s renovation costs.

The house was held in a trust fund for Tronnes and his mother, and even after their marriage, Shanti’s name was not included in the documents. Regardless, she invested approximately $250,000 into the project.

Contractors had begun demolition on the site, but the project quickly spiraled into a costly disaster. Tronnes had insisted on removing most of the internal walls, presumably to create an open-plan space, but this left the building as an unsafe shell.

By 2018, Shanti was living and working in the flat while Tronnes resorted to living in the garage due to the main part of the house being too dangerous. In desperation, Tronnes reached out to a property renovator who had previously appeared on Zombie House Flipping, a US reality TV show that features homes in need of revival. Upon seeing the house, the developer recognized it as a complete disaster and managed to get the producers to agree to feature it on the show.

With filming set to begin in May 2018, Tronnes thought this would solve all his problems. However, there was a hitch. The show’s producers needed Shanti’s participation, but they sensed her reluctance. Was it because she wasn’t named in the house’s trust fund despite investing a quarter of a million dollars, or were there deeper issues in their marriage?

On the fateful afternoon of 24 April, Tronnes made a desperate call to 911. “My wife… I found my wife, she’s not breathing,” he sobbed into the phone. He told the operator that after walking the dogs, he came home to a horrifying scene: his wife floating face down in a partially filled bathtub. Despite his attempts at CPR, it was too late.

When emergency responders arrived, they pronounced 39-year-old Shanti deceased. Initially, Tronnes claimed it was an accidental death, but the scene told a different story. Officers noted signs of a severe beating on Shanti and found the bathtub dry, contradicting Tronnes’ account of pulling her from the water. The lack of splash marks on the floor raised further suspicions.

Tronnes insisted he called 911 within five minutes of discovering his wife, yet the dry state of the bathroom and Shanti herself suggested otherwise. From the outset, Tronnes was a prime suspect and was brought in for hours of interrogation. He maintained that he had been busy with chores and then took the dogs out, returning around 3 pm to find Shanti submerged.

He painted a picture of a possible accident, speculating she might have slipped or fainted. However, the evidence of blunt force trauma to her head and bruises on her face indicated a more sinister cause.

The autopsy confirmed she had suffered beatings and strangulation. Moreover, blood discovered on the bed hinted that the assault began there. Throughout the questioning, Tronnes seemed to be in tears, but officers noted that he didn’t actually shed any. He was accused of feigning his sorrow.

He was eventually let go while police conducted further investigations. Tronnes suggested that Shanti might have been murdered by a burglar. He reported $5,000 in cash and his wife’s engagement ring, valued at $15,000, missing. However, the supposedly missing ring was later found among his belongings.

There were no signs of forced entry at the house, and many other valuables remained untouched. Investigators found out that Tronnes was a member of a gay bathhouse where men met for anonymous sex with strangers. He had visited the place the day after his wedding and two weeks before Shanti’s murder.

Finally, on August 29, 2018, four months after the murder, Tronnes was arrested and charged with first-degree murder of his wife, Shanti Cooper-Tronnes. During Tronnes’ trial in October 2023, a Florida court heard that just days before her death, Shanti had stormed out of a meeting with producers of Zombie House Flipping.

The prosecution argued that this had infuriated Tronnes, who believed the reality show was the solution to their problems after the house he’d purchased had become a financial burden. Shanti uncovered not only the lies about her husband’s alleged fortune but also his secret liaisons with other men. Frequenting a bathhouse approximately 70 times, witnesses there affirmed witnessing him in the act.

During the trial, the prosecution portrayed Tronnes as a man who assaulted and strangled his wife, cleaned up the murder scene, and then tried to falsify the cause of death suggesting she had an accident in the bath. The defense insisted that it was plausible an intruder was responsible for Shanti’s murder.

However, after six days of intense scrutiny, the jury condemned Tronnes, aged 55, convicting him of first-degree murder and sentencing him to life behind bars. After the verdict, Shanti’s teenage son heartbreakingly recalled his mother as “the best person I ever knew”, delivering a poignant statement during the court proceedings, saying, “Early 2018, she was taken from me and my family. It’s like a hole in my heart that I can’t fill or fix. She didn’t die peacefully. She did not deserve anything that happened to her that night.”