Former Bristol woman gunned down in Florida

Two years after moving from Bristol to Florida, 61-year-old Kathryn Donovan was gunned down by her younger brother on Thursday Three other women were also shot, one of them fatally.
According to the St. Petersburg Times, Donovan was "an internationally renowned expert in the use of color and its affect on people."
The paper reported that Donovan, who used her maiden name of Kalisz in her business, was the founder of Sci\ART Global, LLC and the author of Understanding Your Color - A Guide to Personal Color Analysis.
The accused killer, John Kalisz, may have had Bristol ties as well. He apparently confessed to the shooting in a phone call to a friend, Jessica Denny, who lives in Bristol.
Donovan has three daughters, one of whom, Manessa, was shot by her uncle. He had allegedly molested her and a 30-year-old sister. Manessa survived despite four bullet wounds.
John Kalisz also shot and killed a police officer. The accused shooter was hit with a number of bullets fired by police, but survived.
Denny told Hernando Today about two conversations she had with John Kalisz:
In an emotional interview Friday, Denny, who lives in Bristol, Conn., told a Hernando Today reporter of her two conversations with Kalisz. One conversation lasted for five minutes; the other for about an hour, she said. During the latter conversation, she had local authorities on one phone and Kalisz on the other.

"He said he was at peace with his God," Denny said. "He said he loved me."

Denny said Kalisz had with a strained relationship with his older sister, Kathryn Donovan.

Kalisz spent Christmas with her in Bristol but seemed dejected, Denny said.

A few days later, most of Kalisz' possessions and his home went up in flames after an accidental fire when he relighted the pilot light on his stove.

"It just seemed like his life was falling apart," Denny said. "When he had that fire in his home, it destroyed everything he had."

His misguided anger was then aimed toward his sister, she said.

On Thursday, when she talked to him over the phone, she felt helpless, she said.

"It's like I was talking to a totally different person," Denny said, crying.

When Margaret Rose (Rutz) Kalisz, 80, died in 2008, her obituary said her husband had predeceased her, but she had two sons, John Kalisz of Estes Park, Colo. and Robert Kalisz of Bristol, and three daughters: Kathryn Donovan of Brooksville, Fla., Becky Berarducci and Linda Pleva, both of Plainville. Two sons died before their mother.
Police hereabouts have also had run-ins with John Kalisz, as this story from The Herald last winter shows.
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Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com