Man Charged With Killing Fla. Field Adjuster

By Michael Ha

NU Online News Service, Nov. 22, 1:52 p.m. EST?An unemployed motorcycle mechanic is being held without bail in Tampa, Fla., for killing a 25-year-old claims adjuster inside a Tampa house where she was assessing hurricane damage.[@@]

A Tampa police spokesman said Jason Matthew Funk, 27, has been charged with first-degree murder of Katrina Froeschle, an adjuster for Farm Bureau Insurance who was killed Nov. 12.

Mr. Funk is currently being held at Tampa's Hillsborough County jail, the spokesman said.

Commenting on Ms. Froeschle's death, one professional in the adjusting field said that such incidents happen very rarely, but noted that the event highlights inherent dangers involved for field adjusters.

According to the Tampa police reports, Ms. Froeschle, who worked for Gainesville, Fla.-based Farm Bureau Insurance, was clubbed in the back of the head and killed in a house where she had gone to assess hurricane roof damage.

Police said Mr. Funk had been renting the house. In addition to murder he was hit with a felony drug charge.

Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin told National Underwriter, "We can't make any sense of why he would attack her. There is no motivation that we know of right now. He was also charged with cultivation of marijuana?marijuana plants were found in his home."

"It was a criminal act, a terrible tragedy," Florida Farm Bureau spokesman Rade Musulin told NU. "We are always concerned about the safety of our adjusters as with all of our employees," Mr. Musulin said.

But one regional manager for an insurance adjusters firm in the Tampa area, who declined to be identified because he did not want his company linked to such a volatile case, said the incident underscores some of the occupational dangers involved, especially for female field adjusters who have to go out alone on inspections.

"I've always had concerns specifically for women adjusters who go in and inspect homeowners' losses," he said. "Field adjusters develop an inherent trust over time because people are calling you out for legitimate reasons. But when you go into somebody's home, you are pretty much at the mercy of that person. And female adjusters are more susceptible to becoming prey than men."

And while there are more male field adjusters than there are females, "there are still quite a few female field adjusters working."

He also noted, "I don't think these things happen very often. But it doesn't surprise me that they do happen once in a while.

"Should female field adjusters go out in teams?" he asked. "It makes sense, but is it cost-effective? It would be cost-prohibitive. Companies wouldn't hire female adjusters if they had to send them out in groups to every loss."

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Man Charged With Killing Fla. Field Adjuster

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