Florida’s ‘hiccup girl’ faces murder charge

Published 5:00 am Tuesday, October 26, 2010

MIAMI — Jennifer Mee, the “hiccup girl” of 2007 — the teenager from Tampa whose nonstop hiccups, up to 50 times a minute for six weeks, caught the attention of the nation — is back in the spotlight, facing murder charges.

Police in St. Petersburg say Mee, 19, lured Shannon Griffin, 22, to a home Saturday where two male accomplices — Laron Raiford, 20, and Lamont Newton, 22 — tried to rob him. When Griffin resisted, he was shot four times and killed, the police said. Mee, Raiford and Newton are all charged with first-degree murder.

Rachel Robidoux, Mee’s mother, said in a radio interview on WFLZ in Tampa that she did not know where her daughter might have gone wrong, but that the hiccup fame might have led to the wrong crowd of friends.

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