ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- A homicide has already been tied to a St. Augustine wedding, but investigators recently told Channel 4 another wedding guest was badly beaten that same night.

The slaying victim is 36-year-old Melissa Lightsey. Her body was fished from the ocean the day after she attended a wedding reception. On Wednesday, her husband, Ben Lightsey, made his first court appearance after being charged with murder.

Investigators said Lightsey beat his wife to death following the wedding reception, and then dumped her body in the ocean and tried to make it appear that she had drowned.

The victim's stepfather, Jim Bryan, said he was told his daughter was literally yanked from the reception.

"They all were pretty much aware that he was physically dragging her out of there. They were not walking hand in hand," said Bryan.

According to a police report, another person who attended that same wedding was hospitalized with severe head injuries and had to undergo brain surgery.

Police said after the reception, the groom and the groom's brother pummeled a relative while he slept.

The groom, Ryan Leber, and his brother, Richard Leber, are facing serious charges. The police report states the pair got into an altercation with their brother-in-law and went to his room at the Holiday Inn, where the newly weds and other family members were staying the night, and attacked the man.

The victim had to be flown by air ambulance to Jacksonville to have brain surgery after the incident.

The Leber brothers are charged with aggravated battery in the assault of Christopher Dukes.

In a police report, Dukes wife said, "He was actually beaten as he was lying on the bed." She told police she was not sure if her husband ever woke up during the assault."

She also indicated that when her brothers realized how badly her husband was beaten they had to remove him from the bed and begin CPR.

"Ryan said that this whole thing got started over his sister telling him about her husband (Chris) striking her earlier in the night," the police report states.

Police said the beating was so bad that bedding from the hotel room was removed as evidence.

In the aftermath of the hotel beating and Melissa Lightsey's death, Jacqueline Dukes wrote on her MySpace page, "I am so distraught and sick over the murder of Melissa Lightsey. If she had brothers like mine she wouldn’t be dead right now."

Christopher Dukes remains in an area hospital recovering. Ryan and Richard Leber have been released from jail but are still facing aggravated battery charges.