The woman whose body was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean off Boca Raton once served prison time for killing her mother.
Boca Raton police identified the woman as Patricia Brennan, 63, of Fort Lauderdale. A boater discovered her body about two miles offshore on the morning of Aug. 4, and authorities have asked anyone with information about her or her recent whereabouts to contact detectives.
While investigators have released few details about Brennan's death, Broward County court records provide a glimpse into the last decade of her life.
Detectives said woman stabbed, beat mother during fight over father's death
Hollywood Police arrested Brennan in 2014 after her 76-year-old mother, Regina Suknaic, fled from their shared home and sought help from neighbors. Bloodied and bruised, Suknaic told them Brennan stabbed her twice
with a butcher knife and beat her with a vodka bottle, then held her captive for 13 hours.
Detectives arrived at the home and found a blood-stained knife wedged in a lounge chair and an empty vodka bottle with blood on it, according to her arrest report.
A neighbor told officers he'd heard Brennan yelling at her mother the night before, shouting and sobbing about her late father. The neighbor said he heard Brennan call Suknaic a "horrible mother" and scream that she hated and blamed her for not being there when her father died.
Brennan denied attacking Suknaic. She told detectives she had fallen asleep and didn't know who brutalized her mother, though she suggested it was two nameless men who, according to her, had broken in and stolen money two days earlier.
Brennan hadn't reported the burglary, and detectives found no evidence that it happened.
Patricia Brennan was released from prison four years before ocean discovery
Suknaic died nine days later, paving the way for Brennan's arrest on one count of first-degree murder. Brennan made a deal with prosecutors the following year and pleaded "no contest" to second-degree murder, meaning she didn't admit guilt but agreed not to fight the charge.
A judge sentenced her in 2016 to 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation. She remained in prison until November 2022 and, according to court records, became homeless in the wake of her release.
Less than a year later, in October 2023, employees at a hospital in Pensacola called 911 to report Brennan for refusing to leave the property. An Escambia County deputy told Brennan she needed to leave or else she'd go to jail. The deputy said she told him she'd prefer jail.
The deputy arrested Brennan for trespassing, triggering a probation violation. She was booked into the Escambia County Jail and held without bond, then driven back to Broward County in January 2024 to answer for the violation.
A judge declined to send Brennan back to prison and ordered her release from jail with 14 days' worth of medication. How she wound up in the ocean two years later, just shy of her 64th birthday, remains unclear.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. Reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Exclusive | Woman found off Boca coast was a convicted murderer
