Mario Scramuzza loved milk.

The 48-year-old emergency medical technician drank it by the glassful daily, sometimes drinking two gallons a day. And often while on duty at the Lacombe firehouse, he’d walk up to other firefighters with a milk mustache and ask in his heavy Italian accent, “Hey, you got my milk.”

The phrase became a running joke and now, five days after the father of one was killed in a murder for hire scheme allegedly orchestrated by his wife, its those memories that resonate in the small Lacombe fire house and within EMT and paramedic circles statewide.

Mario Scramuzza

“From Jefferson to Orleans to Baton Rouge, we’re getting calls from everyone,” said St. Tammany Parish Fire Protection District 3 Chief Chuck Flynn, who hired Scramuzza about a year ago. “You name it, they knew him.”

It was hard not to, Flynn said.

The 22-year EMT veteran, who worked at both East and West Jefferson Medical Centers as an EMT/paramedic, was a 22-year veteran of the field with a thick Italian accent and contagious smile. He moved to St. Tammany to get away from the crime, and as the father of a 13-year-old, “slow down” life, Flynn said.

At the firehouse he mentored other greenhorn EMTSs, took over supply orders to get the best prices and save taxpayer dollars, fine-tuned quality reports and generally made everyone smile, Flynn said. He longed to become a full fledged firefighter.

On Friday, those days ended.

Scramuzza was found dead at his house at 44 Green Hills Drive near Folsom on Saturday afternoon, hours after the late Friday murder. St. Tammany Parish Coroner Dr. Peter Galvan ruled the cause of death as strangulation and blunt force trauma.

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies on Monday arrested two people in connection with the crime. Scramuzza’s estranged wife, Gina Scramuzza, 41, and Carlos A. Rodriquez, 38, of Kenner, were each booked with first-degree murder in the murder-for-hire plot that brought Rodriquez to the Northshore, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said. Both suspects were booked into St. Tammany Parish Jail and both are being held without bond, but it was unclear if one suspect or both allegedly took part in the strangulation.

Authorities are also searching for other yet-to-be publicly identified suspects thought to be involved in the crime.

Scramuzza’s body was discovered Saturday when he failed to report to work at the Lacombe-area firehouse.

Worried, co-workers summoned Gina Scramuzza to her house to check on her husband. When she arrived she called deputies to report a break-in about noon Saturday. She said her husband’s vehicle was stolen, Strain said.

Deputies went on to question Gina Scramuzza and found the two had a “declining relationship” and she had “substantial disdain for her husband,” Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. George Bonnett wrote in a press release. Her story also had “inconsistencies,” and her demeanor “didn’t seem consistent with a grieving widow,” Sgt. George Cox said.

Later, after several hours of interviews she “admitted her role in this homicide,” Strain said, adding she contacted Rodriquez to murder Mario Scramuzza, Strain said.

“This is a case where the two in this marriage grew distraught and bitter,” Strain said, adding later, “She did everything in her power to make sure he was dead. Unfortunately, she succeeded.”

Strain was tightlipped on other aspects of the crime because it is an ongoing investigation, but during a press conference he hinted that money might be a motive.

He said several “general insurance polices” had recently been bought. He declined to elaborate.

“We’re 10 steps into a 100-yard dash” investigation, Strain said, citing his reasons for withholding some information. “We’ll make sure we leave no stone unturned.”

Jerry Nelson hopes Strain makes good on his promise, if others are involved. Nelson, part of the area’s neighborhood watch association, was one of the first to hear about the crime Saturday.

“It was devastating,” Nelson said. “We’ve never had anything like this happen before.”

Flynn was also devastated. He plans on attending a “huge funeral procession” at 10 a.m. Thursday on Veteran’s Memorial Boulevard starting at the Leitz-Eagan funeral home. Member of other fire districts from around the parish will assist in covering shifts so members of FD3 may attend the funeral.

“He was so nice. I don’t think he’d swat a fly if it was biting him,” Flynn said. “He treated everyone like a family. An 8-year-old or a 98-year-old, black or white, it didn’t matter. We all learned a lot from him.”

With that, he may have to raise a glass of milk in toast.