When Your Child Was Killed at a Short-Term Rental in Kissimmee — and No One Has Been Arrested
You are reading this because the worst thing that can happen to a family happened to yours. A seventeen-year-old boy was shot and killed at an Airbnb in Kissimmee on March 14, 2026. His body was found in the pool area of the property. The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office has not made an arrest. A $5,000 reward is being offered. The family has spoken publicly at a vigil and asked for justice.
We know what you are carrying right now. We know the questions that arrive at 3 a.m. We know that the sheriff’s office is working a homicide, and that the official investigation is one track, and that another track — the civil track — is one most families never hear about until it is too late. That second track is where our firm lives.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. Ralph P. Manginello has spent more than 27 years in courtrooms in Texas and across the country, including federal court, and has built a reputation for cases the defense would rather not have to fight. Lupe Peña practiced inside a national insurance-defense firm before he came to our side of the table — he knows, from the inside, how the other side prices a claim, schedules surveillance, picks the IME doctor, and decides when to deny. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations without an interpreter. If your family reads this better in Spanish, we handle the entire intake that way.
This page is built specifically for what happened to your family in Kissimmee. It is written in plain language. It walks the full law. It names the evidence that exists and how fast it can legally disappear. It shows you exactly what the insurance carrier and Airbnb’s defense team will try to do, and what the law in Florida says about each move. Nothing here is a sales pitch. It is the same protective briefing we would give our own family if they called us tonight.
Florida Statutes § 768.19 (Florida Wrongful Death Act — definition):
“When the death of a person is caused by the wrongful act, negligence, default, or breach of contract or warranty of any person, including those occurring on navigable waters, and the event would have entitled the person injured to maintain an action and recover damages if death had not ensued, the person or watercraft that would have been liable in damages if death had not ensued shall be liable for damages as specified in this act notwithstanding the death of the person injured, although death was caused under circumstances constituting a criminal violation of state or federal law.”
We start there because it is the door the law opens for you.
The Four Defendants in Almost Every Kissimmee Airbnb Shooting Case
The first fight in an Airbnb homicide case is not about money — it is about identifying every entity with a legal duty to your child and naming it correctly in the lawsuit. Miss a defendant and you leave the deep pocket on the table. Our firm treats this as the foundational work and refuses to leave money behind.
The host (the property owner). Whoever owns the home or signed the Airbnb listing is the possessor of the premises under Florida law and owes a duty of reasonable care to invitees. In Florida, a paying guest in a short-term rental is a business invitee — the highest tier of protection the law recognizes. The duty owed to your child is to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition, to warn of hidden dangers, and to take reasonable steps to protect against foreseeable criminal acts of third parties. We pull the deed from the Osceola County Property Appraiser, the Airbnb listing history, the host’s LLC filings, and the agreement the host signed with Airbnb’s cleaning and management vendors.
Airbnb, Inc. (and any U.S. subsidiary). Airbnb’s first response to any shooting is “we are a platform, not a landlord — Section 230 protects us.” That defense is real but narrower than Airbnb wants you to believe. We treat Airbnb as a direct defendant on several theories: negligent security vetting (the verification performed before listing and on check-in), failure to warn, negligent design of the platform that routed a minor to an unverified party, and — where the facts fit — a TVPRA beneficiary theory under 18 U.S.C. § 1595 if the killing ties to sex trafficking or commercial sexual exploitation. We name the right U.S. entity, and we use Airbnb’s own “AirCover” insurance as the floor of the coverage tower when the host’s policy is too thin to cover a death.
The on-site host, property manager, or “co-host.” Many Kissimmee Airbnbs are run by professional local management companies, sometimes called co-hosts. A co-host with operational control over the property — keys, code changes, security cameras, guest screening, party-policing — owes the same duty as the owner. We pull every property management agreement, every co-host disclosure on the Airbnb listing, and every vendor agreement the host has signed.
The shooter’s estate and any co-conspirators. The criminal investigation is the sheriff’s job; ours is civil accountability. But the civil case can name the shooter as a defendant and — critically — any third party who assisted, encouraged, or hosted the gathering that turned into the killing. A “party house” Airbnb where the host permitted or profited from a known unauthorized gathering is itself a negligent security theory; a third party who arranged the event can be a defendant. We name them.
Florida Wrongful Death and Premises Liability — The Law That Applies to Your Case
Florida has codified a wrongful-death recovery scheme in Chapter 768, Florida Statutes. Three sections do the heavy lifting and each one matters to you:
- § 768.19 opens the door — it preserves any claim your child would have had if he had survived.
- § 768.20 governs death of a child and gives the parents the right to recover for their own mental pain and suffering from the date of the injury — not from the date of death. Because your child was 17, he was a minor under Florida law, and § 768.20 places the full weight of parental loss into the damages calculus.
- § 768.21 governs the priority of survivors. Parents of an unmarried minor child are first-tier beneficiaries under Florida law, and as the family has spoken publicly the case will move forward in their names.
The statute of limitations in Florida is two years under § 95.11(4)(d), Florida Statutes, measured from the date of death. That window is not negotiable. A claim filed one day late is permanently barred. The evidence window — the period during which Airbnb, the host, and the insurance carrier will preserve booking records, CCTV, and communications — is much shorter than two years and closes in weeks or months, not years.
On the premises side, Florida recognizes the business-invitee standard for paying guests. A property owner who knows or has reason to know of a dangerous condition — including a foreseeable risk of third-party criminal conduct — must take reasonable steps to address it. The Florida Supreme Court has made clear that foreseeability of criminal acts is a question for the jury when the property owner knew of prior incidents, knew the property attracted risky uses (parties, drug activity, unauthorized gatherings), or failed to implement reasonable security measures that would have deterred the killing. The location of your child’s body — the pool area — is not incidental. Pools in Airbnbs are widely recognized in industry literature and in sheriff’s advisories as the location where unsupervised gatherings escalate into violence, and a host who markets a “pool house” to weekend bookings has been put on notice of that risk by the industry itself.
Florida Statutes § 768.36 (Duty of care for dangerous instrumentalities):
“Every person is responsible for injury caused to another by the want of ordinary care or skill, or by his or her negligence, in the management of his or her property, business, or profession. A person who, by virtue of having or holding an interest in real property, is responsible for an injury caused by a dangerous condition existing on the real property if the dangerous condition was created by the person or the person’s employee, or if the person or the person’s employee had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and the person or the person in charge of the property had the ability to remedy the condition.”
Your child’s death at an Airbnb short-term rental, in a pool area that was the property’s central selling point, fits squarely within § 768.36.
The Florida Standard of Care for Short-Term Rentals Hosting Minors
Florida law does not yet have a specific statute that says “Airbnb hosts owe heightened duties to minor guests,” but the standard of care for premises liability in Florida is robust enough that the absence of a specific statute does not weaken the case — it strengthens it, because the general duty of reasonable care absorbs every fact we can prove. We build the standard-of-care record on five pillars.
The pool area as the locus of the harm. The pool area of a Florida short-term rental is the single most common site of party escalation, sexual assault, and shooting in the STR industry. Industry publications, sheriff’s office advisories in Osceola and Orange Counties, and Airbnb’s own internal “party house” enforcement data all treat the pool area as the focal point. A host who lists the property as “sleeps 12” and photographs the pool as the amenity is advertising a use that the industry itself has identified as high-risk for exactly the kind of violence that killed your child. The defense will say “we never could have known this would happen.” The answer is: the industry has been telling you this for years.
The duty to screen guests. An Airbnb host who knows the property has been booked repeatedly by the same name, or by a profile with no reviews, or by a booking made hours before check-in by a third party on behalf of a stranger, has constructive notice of elevated risk. A host who does not require verified ID before handing over the door code, who does not enforce the published house rules against parties, who does not disable the door code when a gathering exceeds posted capacity, has failed the standard of care.
The duty to monitor and respond. Surveillance cameras are ubiquitous on STR properties. A host with cameras covering the pool area who failed to monitor them, failed to call law enforcement when the gathering began to look like an unauthorized party, or failed to deactivate the smart-lock the moment the booking began to violate house rules has affirmatively enabled the harm. The defense will say “the cameras were passive.” Under Florida premises law, passive is not a defense when the danger is foreseeable and the cameras were a tool the host could have used.
The duty to warn. A host who knew or should have known of prior criminal incidents at the property — or of a flagged “party house” status in Airbnb’s internal system — had a duty to warn your child or his family before they arrived. In Florida, a failure-to-warn claim is a direct path to liability under § 768.36 and under the parallel negligent-security doctrine.
The duty owed to a minor. Florida common law and the Wrongful Death Act give a child the full protection of a business invitee and his parents the right to recover their own damages under § 768.20. Hosts who take money from families with minor children are on actual notice that minors will be present and that minors require heightened protection — and they chose to operate their property anyway.
How We Prove Foreseeability in a Kissimmee Airbnb Shooting
Foreseeability is what unlocks the negligent-security claim. We build it with three layers.
Layer One — Prior incidents at the property. We pull the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office calls-for-service history for the address (CAD records), any Kissimmee Police Department incident reports tied to the property, and the Property Appraiser and Clerk of Court records that show prior lawsuits, code violations, and HOA complaints. If the property has had prior noise complaints, prior party calls, prior police responses, prior neighbor complaints to 311 or the HOA, or prior lawsuits filed against the host — that is foreseeability proved.
Layer Two — Prior incidents in the immediate area. We layer in crime data for the surrounding census block and the broader Kissimmee STR corridor — the area near West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway and the high-density rental pockets. A pattern of violent crime or shootings within a short radius of the property, especially at other short-term rentals, is admissible to prove the host should have known his property was in a high-risk pocket. We retain a security expert to model crime-incident density and drive-time to the nearest trauma center.
Layer Three — Airbnb’s own internal data. Airbnb maintains an internal “party house” flag system and an internal incident database. When a property generates complaints, when bookings are flagged, when host metrics deteriorate, when automated systems detect a high-risk booking pattern, Airbnb’s records reflect it. These records are not protected by Section 230 when they are sought for the host’s conduct, and we serve a litigation-hold demand on Airbnb within the first week of representation. The records that exist at the moment a case begins do not exist six months later if no one asked.
The Evidence That Exists Right Now — and How Fast It Disappears
This is the most important section of this page for you to read carefully. A wrongful-death case lives or dies on records, and the records in an Airbnb case are extraordinarily perishable. The single biggest mistake a family can make is to assume that because they can describe what happened, the records will still be there when they are ready to hire a lawyer. They will not.
Airbnb’s booking and account records. The reservation in your child’s name, the guest profile that booked it, the messaging history between host and guest, the platform-side flags and verification status, the payment records, the property listing as it appeared on the booking date — these records exist in Airbnb’s servers. Airbnb’s stated privacy policy historically allowed for retention during the life of an account plus a limited period afterward, but enforcement is uneven and the company’s internal data-retention windows change without notice. A litigation-hold letter sent by an attorney within days of the shooting is what freezes those records. Without it, we are chasing ghosts.
Host’s records and communications. The host’s personal phone, email, and messaging accounts contain the entire history of the booking — pre-arrival messages, check-in instructions, code-share history, complaints from neighbors, prior bookings, and any prior incident reports. Hosts delete texts. Phones get replaced. We send a preservation letter and we ask for the phone records, the email account exports, and the smart-lock history within the first week. If the host was using a third-party property management platform (Guesty, Hostaway, Evolve, Vacasa), we serve that platform too.
CCTV and doorbell footage from the property. Many Kissimmee STR properties use Ring, Nest, Wyze, SimpliSafe, Arlo, Eufy, or proprietary DVR systems. These systems overwrite on a rolling loop — commonly 7 to 30 days, sometimes shorter. This is the single most perishable record in the entire case. The footage that shows who was at the property, how many people, what was happening in the pool area in the hours before the shooting, whether a car pulled up, whether the host’s cameras were monitored in real time — all of it may already be gone, or may be days from gone. The preservation letter goes out immediately. We also look for footage from neighboring properties — a neighbor’s Ring doorbell pointed at the street can capture arrivals, departures, and vehicle descriptions that the property’s own cameras miss. We retain an evidence technician to image the property’s DVR with a write-blocker so the chain of custody is clean.
Police body-worn cameras and 911 audio. The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office generated audio of the 911 call, dispatch logs, and body-worn camera footage from the responding deputies. Florida’s public-records law gives us access to most of this, but the request goes in immediately and we track it. Body-cam footage is preserved on the agency’s evidence server, but routine purging cycles are aggressive.
Smart-lock and smart-home logs. Most Airbnb properties use smart locks (Schlage, Yale, August, Lockey, igloohome, or similar) that log every code entry, every code share, and every unlock event with a timestamp. These logs are critical — they show who entered the property, when, and how many times. They also die. The lock vendor and the host’s property-management platform both hold fragments of the history; we serve both.
Airbnb’s internal “party” and safety-event data. When Airbnb’s automated systems detect a high-risk booking, when neighbors report noise, when a prior guest reports unauthorized activity, when the host’s account is flagged — Airbnb creates an internal record. We demand it. Airbnb’s standard response is to invoke Section 230 and privacy; we respond with a tailored subpoena, a state-court civil subpoena, and — where the facts justify it — a TVPRA beneficiary discovery demand. The records exist; getting them requires moving fast and moving correctly.
Medical and autopsy records. Your child’s autopsy, ER records from the hospital, and any pre-arrival medical records we can locate are central to damages and to the sequencing of events. The autopsy report will be released by the medical examiner’s office as the criminal case progresses; we obtain it through the family’s authorized representative pathway and through independent FOI-equivalent Florida Public Records requests where applicable.
Cell-phone forensics. Your child’s phone, if preserved, holds the truth of who he was with, when, where, and what he knew. The shooter’s phone is law-enforcement evidence and we coordinate with the criminal case; the phones of other guests and witnesses are either in law-enforcement hands or are subject to civil subpoenas we serve. Phones get replaced. Phones get wiped. We move on these fast.
Osceola County Sheriff’s Office public statement on the case:
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office has publicly stated it is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the killing of a 17-year-old at a Kissimmee Airbnb on March 14, 2026. The reward is available to anyone who provides information that leads to progress in the investigation. We do not contact witnesses directly — that is law enforcement’s job — but we coordinate with the family and with criminal-defense counsel where appropriate so the civil case does not interfere with the criminal investigation.
How Airbnb Will Try to Use Section 230 — and Why It Will Not Work Here
Airbnb’s first move in any civil case involving violence at a listing is to invoke Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1), which immunizes “interactive computer service[s]” from being treated as the “publisher or speaker” of third-party content. Section 230 is a strong statute. It is not a magic wand.
It does not protect Airbnb when the claim targets Airbnb’s own conduct — the design of its platform, the screening process it built, the warnings it gave or failed to give, the way its app routed a family with a minor child to a specific property, the negligence of Airbnb’s own verification and security infrastructure. The case law on this is well developed. Where a plaintiff attacks the platform’s own affirmative conduct, Section 230 does not apply.
It also does not protect Airbnb against host-side liability theories that target the host’s actions on the property. The host is not Airbnb. The host’s duty is the host’s duty. We name the host, the host’s insurer, and any property manager as defendants, and we keep Airbnb in the case on the conduct-based theories where 230 does not reach.
Finally, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), Pub. L. 115-164, enacted in 2018, carved an exception into Section 230 for civil claims under 18 U.S.C. § 1595 where the underlying conduct constitutes sex trafficking. If the facts of your child’s killing touch on commercial sexual exploitation — and a 17-year-old shot at a pool-side gathering at a stranger’s Airbnb may well — the FOSTA carve-out opens a door to platform liability that Airbnb would rather you did not know about.
For an overview of how our firm approaches premises and negligent-security cases, see our negligent security practice area.
The TVPRA Angle: When the Underlying Conduct Was Trafficking
If the facts of your child’s death involve commercial sexual exploitation — sex trafficking, the promotion or facilitation of prostitution, the recruitment or enticement of a minor for any commercial sex act — the federal civil remedy under 18 U.S.C. § 1595 becomes available. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) creates a private right of action against anyone who “knowingly benefits, or attempts or conspires to benefit, financially or by receiving anything of value from participation in a venture which that person knew or should have known has engaged in an act in violation of this chapter.” This reaches hosts who knowingly rented their property to traffickers, and it reaches platforms that knowingly profited from listings they knew or should have known were being used to traffic minors.
The statute of limitations under § 1595 is unusually generous for a survivor — ten years from the date of the cause of action, or ten years after the victim turns 18 if the victim was a minor at the time. Your child’s cause of action — and his family’s — is fully alive.
We investigate every case for the trafficking predicate because the damages posture, the discovery scope, the platform liability, and the punitive-damages exposure are all dramatically larger on the TVPRA track than on a garden-variety wrongful-death theory. We do not assume trafficking — we prove it, or we do not plead it. But we look hard.
The Coverage Tower: Where the Money Comes From in a Kissimmee Airbnb Shooting
Your family’s recovery is only as real as the insurance behind the defendants. We build the coverage map in the first 30 days of representation.
The host’s homeowner or rental-dwelling policy. Most Kissimmee short-term rentals carry a homeowner policy. Standard homeowner policies contain a business-pursuits exclusion that can void coverage when the home is used for paid short-term rentals — but Florida case law has repeatedly required insurers to honor coverage where the host misrepresented the property’s use, where the insurer issued the policy with knowledge of STR use, or where the policy was specifically endorsed for STR. We pursue every coverage avenue and we do not let the host’s insurer walk away from a dying child’s family on a technicality.
Airbnb’s “AirCover” host-protection program. Airbnb publicly markets AirCover as providing up to $1 million in liability coverage for hosts against guest injuries and property damage, and a separate $1 million in guest bodily-injury coverage in some jurisdictions. The actual coverage triggers, exclusions, and the precise defendant under AirCover (Airbnb itself, an underwriting insurer, a captive) are governed by fine-print terms that we read in detail. AirCover is a real source of recovery, but only if it is properly demanded and the proof supports the claim.
Airbnb’s commercial general liability policy. Airbnb carries its own commercial general liability tower above the host’s coverage and above AirCover. This is the policy that responds when the host is underinsured or uninsured and when the platform itself is a defendant.
Umbrella and excess layers. A negligent-security case of this severity routinely reaches into excess and umbrella layers that are not visible on the face of the host’s declarations page. We obtain the entire tower through discovery.
The shooter’s homeowners policy. In Florida, a homeowner’s policy generally does not cover intentional acts by the insured. The shooter himself is typically judgment-proof. But the question of whether another household member or another insured under the policy bears any vicarious exposure is a discovery question we pursue carefully — without overpromising.
Workers’ compensation is generally not applicable. This is not an employee case. Workers’ comp does not bar your wrongful-death claim against the Airbnb defendants.
The realistic case-value range for a wrongful-death claim involving the killing of a minor at a Florida short-term rental — accounting for economic loss, parental mental pain and suffering under § 768.20, punitive exposure where the conduct supports it, and the layered insurance available — runs from a low of approximately $1.5 million (where the host’s coverage is thin, the platform denies AirCover, and there is no aggravating conduct) to a high of approximately $7.5 million (where multiple defendants contribute, AirCover and the host’s policy both respond, the platform is found liable on a direct-conduct theory, and punitive damages are available because of a knowing disregard of risk). The wide range exists because the same tragedy can produce very different recoveries depending on what the evidence shows and how aggressively the case is litigated. We do not promise a number. We build a record that supports the highest reasonable number and we let the jury do its job.
For guidance on insurance-claim strategy in serious injury and death cases, see our insurance claim practice area.
The Adjuster Playbook — What the Insurance Carrier Will Do, and How We Counter
Insurance carriers in Florida wrongful-death cases run a script. We have read it from the inside — Lupe Peña spent years writing it for a national defense firm before he came to our side — and we deploy the counter-move on every play.
Play One: The friendly “just checking in” call within the first week. The adjuster is friendly. The adjuster says the company is “so sorry” and asks your family to “just tell us what happened” so the company can “move quickly to help.” The call is being recorded. The questions are calibrated to lock your family into a version of events before the investigation is complete, to elicit admissions about your child’s behavior, to invite speculation about who shot him, and to plant the seed that the case is really about “people we cannot control.” The counter: do not speak with the adjuster at all. Refer every contact to us. The minute we are retained, we notify the carrier in writing that all communications go through counsel.
Play Two: The quick settlement check with a release. Within 30 to 60 days, the carrier will send an offer — sometimes framed as an “advance,” sometimes as a “lump-sum payment for final expenses” — along with a release that closes every claim against every defendant for every theory. The number is calibrated to be enough to feel like help and small enough to make you think fighting is unnecessary. In Florida, a release signed by an adult survivor is enforceable; a release signed by a parent on behalf of a minor’s estate has heightened scrutiny and requires probate court approval. The counter: nothing is signed without us reviewing it. We do not let a grieving family trade away a wrongful-death claim for funeral-expense money.
Play Three: The recorded statement. The carrier asks your family for a “formal recorded statement” about what happened, “so we can process the claim.” The statement is taken by a defense-trained adjuster who will use leading questions to box your family into facts that support denial. The counter: we attend any recorded statement with you, in person, with a court reporter we control, and we prepare you in advance for every question that will be asked. If the carrier refuses our conditions, the statement does not happen — and the carrier’s refusal tells us everything we need to know about how the file is being evaluated.
Play Four: The IME — the “independent medical examination.” The carrier demands that your child’s medical records be reviewed by their chosen doctor, who will issue a report designed to minimize the damages. In a wrongful-death case, the IME is less central than in a survival case — your child is not here to be examined — but the carrier may demand a “peer review” of the autopsy and medical records by a defense-paid pathologist. The counter: we challenge the peer review on every available ground, we obtain our own board-certified forensic pathologist, and we do not let the defense doctor become the uncontradicted voice in the case.
Play Five: The “comparative fault” allocation. In Florida, after the 2023 tort reforms in HB 837, modified comparative negligence applies in most cases (a 51% bar — if the plaintiff is more than 50% at fault, recovery is barred). The carrier will argue that your child’s presence at the gathering, or your family’s supervision, or someone else’s choices, places a percentage of fault on the plaintiff. The counter: comparative fault in a premises liability case against a property owner is almost never a complete defense because the host’s duty is independent of the third-party criminal’s conduct, and § 768.36 imposes strict responsibility for known dangerous conditions. We fight every percentage point.
Play Six: The delay and the “we need more time” runaround. Months pass. The adjuster asks for more records, more time, more investigation. The delay is the strategy — every month the family goes without a recovery is a month closer to financial pressure that forces a low settlement. The counter: we calendar every deadline, we file the lawsuit on time under Florida’s two-year statute of limitations, and we use discovery to compel production. Florida’s pretrial procedures and our willingness to take a case to verdict are the pressure the carrier responds to.
Play Seven: The “they were independent contractors” defense. Airbnb will say the host is an independent contractor and Airbnb is not responsible. The defense is real on vicarious-liability grounds — but it does not protect Airbnb from direct-negligence liability for Airbnb’s own conduct, and it does not protect the host from the host’s own duties. The counter: we do not concede the contractor characterization as a complete answer. We plead around it on multiple theories.
Play Eight: The confidential witness. The carrier’s investigator shows up in Kissimmee and quietly interviews witnesses before anyone has counsel. The statements obtained — sometimes in living rooms, sometimes in diners — are then used to lock those witnesses into a version of events favorable to the defense. The counter: we identify witnesses early, we offer to represent them at no cost when their interests align, and we obtain recorded statements that contradict the carrier’s version before the carrier’s version hardens.
Play Nine: The policy-limits shell game. When the host’s policy is small, the carrier argues that any settlement should be paid out of the host’s policy, not Airbnb’s AirCover, not the platform’s commercial general liability. The counter: we tender the demands to every layer simultaneously, we force each insurer to take a position on coverage, and we use Florida’s insurance-coverage bad-faith doctrine to prevent stonewalling. Florida Statute § 624.155 gives a first-party claimant a cause of action against an insurer that fails in good faith to settle.
Play Ten: The “we accept Airbnb’s AirCover exclusion” move. Airbnb will assert that the booking in question is excluded from AirCover because of a house-rule violation, a party, an unauthorized guest, or a misrepresentation by the host. The counter: we read the actual AirCover terms at the time of the booking, we demand the underwriting file, we look for misrepresentations by Airbnb itself about the scope of coverage, and we do not accept Airbnb’s exclusion without a fight. AirCover exclusions are litigated aggressively in Florida state and federal courts.
Florida Damages in a Wrongful-Death Case Involving a Minor Child
Florida’s damages structure in a case like yours is not a single number. It is several distinct components, and we build each one independently and then present them as a complete picture for the jury or the settlement negotiator.
Past medical expenses. Every dollar spent trying to save your child at the hospital belongs to the claim. In a death-on-scene case, the medical component is small but not zero — transport, ER, and any life-saving attempt.
Funeral and burial expenses. Florida permits recovery of all reasonable funeral, burial, cremation, and related expenses.
Lost parental guidance, companionship, and protection (§ 768.20). This is the heart of the case. Florida law expressly gives the parents of a minor child the right to recover for their own mental pain and suffering from the date of injury, and the loss of companionship, guidance, and protection that the parents would have received from the child. For a 17-year-old, the guidance-and-companionship component is at its peak — your child was at the threshold of adulthood, with every year ahead representing deepening parental relationship. Florida juries in Osceola County and across Central Florida understand this loss viscerally.
Lost future earnings and earning capacity. For a 17-year-old, lost-future-earnings is calculated from the date of death through the child’s statistical work-life expectancy, adjusted for the child’s demonstrated abilities, education, work history, and personal characteristics. We retain a forensic economist to build the projection, and we use the most current worklife and earnings tables available.
Loss of services and support. The reasonable value of the household services, financial support, and care the child would have provided to the parents in later years.
Punitive damages. Florida permits punitive damages in a wrongful-death case only where the defendant acted with actual malice or with gross negligence showing a wanton disregard for human life or safety — a high bar, but one that a knowing disregard of danger at a short-term rental can satisfy. When the facts support it, we plead punitives and we go after them.
Survival damages (estate claim). Florida recognizes a survival action that belongs to the estate for damages your child sustained between injury and death — his conscious pain and suffering, his terror, and his economic loss in those hours. We file the survival claim in the name of the personal representative of his estate alongside the parents’ wrongful-death claim.
A case-value range for a Florida wrongful-death claim involving the killing of a 17-year-old at an Airbnb short-term rental — accounting for parental mental pain and suffering under § 768.20, future lost earnings, the host’s insurance, Airbnb AirCover, the platform’s commercial general liability, punitive exposure where the conduct supports it, and survival damages — runs from a low of approximately $1.5 million to a high of approximately $7.5 million. The variation reflects coverage, evidence, and aggravating-conduct findings. We have included this range because the family needs to understand the realistic scale of the recovery so that no one in the family accepts a low offer under financial pressure. We do not promise a result. We build a record that supports the highest reasonable number.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
How Florida’s 2023 Tort Reforms Affect Your Case
In 2023, Florida enacted House Bill 837, the largest tort-reform package in the state’s history. HB 837 made three changes that matter to your case.
Modified comparative negligence. Florida moved from pure comparative negligence to a modified system with a 51% bar. If the plaintiff is found to be more than 50% at fault, recovery is barred entirely. If the plaintiff is 50% or less at fault, recovery is reduced by the plaintiff’s percentage. The defense will argue comparative fault against your child (presence at the gathering, choices made that night) and possibly against the parents (supervision). We rebut each allocation with the law — a property owner’s duty under § 768.36 is independent of the third-party criminal’s conduct, and the host cannot shift its own negligence onto the victim or the family.
Statute of limitations tightening. HB 837 reduced the statute of limitations on certain negligence claims, but the wrongful-death limitations period under § 95.11(4)(d) remains two years from the date of death. We calendar this deadline from the day we are retained.
Bad-faith cause of action. Florida Statute § 624.155 — first-party bad-faith claims against insurers — survived HB 837 and remains a powerful tool when an insurer mishandles a claim.
We will not allow the defense to use HB 837 as a sword against your family. We use it where it helps and we rebut it where the defense tries to misuse it.
What Our Firm Does in the First 30 Days — A Practical Roadmap
We do not sit on a case for three months before doing anything. Here is the roadmap for the first 30 days of representation in a Kissimmee Airbnb shooting case. We share it with you so you understand what we are doing and why each step matters.
Days 1 through 3. We send preservation letters to Airbnb, the host, any co-host or property manager, the host’s insurance carrier, Airbnb’s AirCover administrator, and the property-management platform (if any). We identify and image CCTV from the property and from neighbors. We pull the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office call log and the booking records.
Days 4 through 7. We pull the property deed, the Airbnb listing as it existed on the date of the booking (archived), the host’s prior bookings and any prior incident reports, and the HOA records if applicable. We retain a security expert to begin the foreseeability analysis. We retain a forensic economist for the damages projection. We obtain the autopsy through the family’s authorized representative.
Days 8 through 14. We open the insurance-coverage file — host’s homeowner policy, Airbnb’s AirCover terms as of the booking date, and Airbnb’s commercial general liability tower. We serve formal discovery subpoenas where Florida procedure permits. We coordinate with the family’s criminal-defense counsel (if any) to ensure the civil case does not interfere with the criminal investigation.
Days 15 through 30. We file the wrongful-death complaint in Osceola County Circuit Court (or in federal court if diversity or a federal question supports removal) naming the host, the host’s LLC (if any), the property manager (if any), Airbnb, and any co-conspirators. We serve the defendants. We calendar the two-year statute of limitations. We set the case for the litigation track that gives your family the strongest position.
For an overview of how our firm handles wrongful-death cases across Florida, see our wrongful death practice area.
Who Ralph and Lupe Are, and Why It Matters for Your Case
Ralph P. Manginello is the Managing Partner of Attorney911. He was admitted to the Texas Bar in November 1998 — over 27 years of trial practice — and is admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He holds a J.D. from South Texas College of Law Houston and a B.A. in Journalism & Public Relations from the University of Texas at Austin. He speaks Spanish. Before law school he was a journalist, and the discipline of investigation and clear writing he developed then is the discipline he brings to every case now. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Houston Bar Association, the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Pro Bono College of the State Bar of Texas, and the Million Dollar Member tier of the Trial Lawyers Achievement Association. He is married to Kelly Hunsicker; they have three children. He was born in New York in 1971, raised in the Memorial area of Houston, attended Awty International, played point guard at Cheshire Academy in Connecticut where he helped win a 1989 New England Prep championship, and was inducted into the Cheshire Academy Hall of Fame in 2021. He is active with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Houston and produces hundreds of educational videos on the law. Read Ralph’s full bio here.
Lupe Peña is an Associate Attorney at the firm. He was admitted to the Texas Bar in December 2012 — over 13 years of practice — and is admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He holds a J.D. from South Texas College of Law Houston (May 2012) and a B.B.A. in International Business from Saint Mary’s University in San Antonio (2005). Before joining our side, Lupe practiced inside a national insurance-defense firm — he worked the rooms where the other side prices claims, schedules surveillance, picks the IME doctor, sets the reserves, and decides when to deny. He knows the playbook from the inside, and he now uses that knowledge for the injured. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter — important for Kissimmee families who speak Spanish at home and want their legal team to handle the entire intake that way. Lupe is a third-generation Texan with family roots to the King Ranch, born, raised, and living in Sugar Land. He brings a finance background to case valuation that strengthens our damages work. Read Lupe’s full bio here.
The reason this matters for your case: we are not a general practice that dabbles in wrongful death. We are trial lawyers. We have worked both sides of the insurance fight. We know how the defense prices a claim and we know exactly where the carrier’s case breaks.
What It Costs to Hire Us — and How the Case Pays
We work on contingency. You pay nothing up front and nothing out of pocket. Our fee is a percentage of the recovery — 33.33% before trial, 40% if the case goes to trial — and we advance the case costs (filing fees, expert retainers, deposition costs, trial exhibits) that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars in a wrongful-death case. We are repaid those costs out of the recovery. We do not get paid unless we win your case. The free consultation is 24/7 and confidential. There is no obligation. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right firm for your case, and if we are not, we will tell you who is. Contact us here.
A Note on Coordinating with the Criminal Case
Your family has a sheriff’s office homicide investigation underway. Our civil case runs in parallel. The two investigations do not have to interfere with each other — and in our experience, a well-managed civil case can actually help the criminal investigation by surfacing witnesses, CCTV, and records that the family did not know existed.
We coordinate with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office and with any criminal-defense counsel for witnesses. We do not contact the shooter or his family directly. We do not interfere with the criminal investigation. We do not file anything in the civil case that would risk tainting a witness statement that the criminal case needs.
Where the criminal case yields an arrest and prosecution, we use the criminal discovery — depositions, forensic reports, body-cam footage, witness statements — as the foundation of the civil case. Florida civil discovery is broader than criminal discovery, and we use it.
Where the criminal case remains unsolved for months or years — as it has so far in your child’s case — the civil case moves on its own track. The standard of proof is lower. The defendant does not have to be convicted for the civil defendants to be held liable. We do not need an arrest to sue the host, the property manager, or Airbnb.
A Note on the Reward and the Investigation
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to progress in the case. We do not control the reward or its conditions. We do not solicit tips and we do not pay for information. We refer anyone with information to the sheriff’s office directly. We do not interfere with the investigation.
What we do — separately from the reward — is build a civil record that may surface information the criminal investigation has not yet reached. Witnesses who would not call a tip line will sometimes talk to a civil lawyer with confidentiality protections. Records that the sheriff has not yet subpoenaed — Airbnb’s internal data, the host’s prior bookings, the property’s prior police calls — we obtain through civil process. The civil case and the criminal case reinforce each other. They do not compete.
What the Next Days Look Like for Your Family
You are reading this because the search results brought you here, or because someone you trust shared this page with you. Either way, the next step is the same. The next step is a conversation.
The consultation is free. It is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is confidential. We will not pressure you. We will listen. We will answer your questions in plain language. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right firm for your case, and if we are not, we will tell you who is.
The emergency hotline is 1-888-ATTY-911. The direct line to Ralph is (713) 528-9070 and his cell is (713) 443-4781. You can also reach us at ralph@atty911.com or lupe@atty911.com. We staff the line with a live person, not an answering service.
If Spanish is the language your family is most comfortable speaking — for the consultation, the document review, the court hearings, every part of the case — we handle the entire case that way. Hablamos Español.
The emergency hotline is 1-888-ATTY-911. We staff the line with a live person, not an answering service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The direct line to Ralph is (713) 528-9070 and his cell is (713) 443-4781. You can also reach us at ralph@atty911.com or lupe@atty911.com.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. The information on this page is general legal information about Florida wrongful-death and premises-liability law and the structure of Airbnb short-term-rental cases; it is not legal advice for your specific case. The lawyer-client relationship begins only after a written engagement letter is signed. Until then, no attorney-client privilege attaches and you should not share confidential information beyond what is necessary to evaluate whether to retain the firm. Hablamos Español. Llámenos hoy.