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A dog's bark, a child's shriek, a car driving by late at night. These things will never be the same on several quiet, tree-laden streets in Largo.

Anthony Whitaker lives a mile from the home where Karen Lofton and her daughter, Karissa, were shot and killed in January, and one-tenth of a mile from the scene of another mother-daughter homicide seven weeks later.

"People must think this is a perfect place for crime … it's so dark," he said, sitting in the living room of his rancher-style home in the 1000 block of Trebing Lane.

It has been six months since Delores and Ebony Dewitt's deaths, but neighbors remain on edge.

"The change is for the stay, even if we caught the killers. We're looking out for one another," said Whitaker, 44.

Anthony Whitaker and his wife, Tonya, 40, are nervous about their children, ages 9 and 11, playing outside.

"We have to keep the curtains open to see [the kids] out there. We're still a little spooked," he said.

Neighbors said they have not gotten much information from police.

"We don't know what the police are doing. They came through here one time to see if we saw anything and they haven't come back since," Anthony Whitaker said.

"We just keep our eyes open," he said. "Hopefully God will take care of them if [the police] don't catch them."

A friend and neighbor of Ebony Dewitt, Rasheika Jones, 23, of New Orchard Drive in Largo said she and her family got an alarm system installed immediately after the homicides and she tries not to leave the house alone after dark.

She last saw Ebony on March 7 when Jones spent the night at the Dewitt home. Jones found out about the homicides a week later through family members while trying to get in touch with Ebony.

Jones, who lives on a neighboring street, said it's "terrifying" to live in the neighborhood.

"I didn't go in my kitchen at night for a long time because it's dark at night," she said. "It's still scary, even now."

As neighbors fret, the Dewitts' home sits empty.

On the stoop sits a stuffed plush cow, below a card and letter taped to the door from Delores Dewitt's second husband, from whom she was separated, expressing his deep love for Delores and Ebony.

The blinds remain shut and plywood covers some windows and a sliding glass door.

Kirkland Lofton Sr., 46, of Atlanta, who is Karissa's father and Karen Lofton's ex-husband, said the family will likely sell the home, but he is not sure when it will be put on the market.

Michelle Sigona, a national correspondent for the television show America's Most Wanted, has been inside the Lofton home.

"It's a very normal household, with bedrooms and pictures on the walls. There are plants, furniture — it seems to be well kept," Sigona said. "It's very sad and it's very heart wrenching to know something like that can happen to a mother and daughter and what they went through that night. It's very traumatic."

Sigona said the show has been working with investigators.

"We're trying to generate leads, rejuggle people's memories," Sigona said. "Hopefully something will come out of it."

Like the detectives working the case, Sigona believes someone saw something the night of the homicides that will aid the investigation.

"That neighborhood is a busy neighborhood — there are a lot of people, neighbors, eyes," she said. "Even if they know something, even if they don't think it's important, it could turn up something major."

E-mail Liz Skalski at eskalski@gazette.net and Megan McKeever at mmckeever@gazette.net.