Cold case cracked: Hernando County Sheriff's Office solves 1972 murder
BROOKSVILLE, Fla. - The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office says it now knows who killed a woman 52 years ago and left her body in a wooded area of Brooksville wrapped in a blanket.
During a press conference on Thursday morning, Sheriff Al Nienhuis announced that Jerry Lee Fletcher was responsible for the murder of Peggy Joyce Shelton.
According to the sheriff, records show Shelton married Fletcher in Hillsborough County on Dec. 18, 1971.
A USF clay creation of the 1972 murder victim next to an image of Shelton. Images are courtesy of the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.
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The sheriff said because she did not have a criminal record and was never reported missing, she was not identified for decades.
Nienhuis noted that Fletcher’s family owned a motel on Nebraska Avenue in Tampa from 1970-1973.
He added that Fletcher lived at the motel, which had eight fully furnished cottages before he married Shelton.
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According to HCSO, the blanket Shelton’s body was wrapped in was a twin-sized blanket similar to the blankets at the motel.
Detectives say Shelton was found wrapped in a printed bedspread. Image is courtesy of the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.
Fletcher was arrested by the Tampa Police Department on Feb. 18, 1972, for the abduction and rape of a 16-year-old Tampa girl. He was not found guilty on June 28, 1972.
After releasing Shelton’s identity, detectives learned that the pair were married and there is no divorce record.
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However, after Fletcher left Florida and moved to Illinois for work, he married Sophia Huges in 1973 and only listed Gloria Espinosa, who he was married to in 1965, as his only previous wife.
He never talked about or wrote about being married to Peggy despite the marriage certificate, according to HCSO.
Nienhuis said on April 19, 1973, Fletcher murdered another woman. Her body was found in a cemetery. She was raped and strangled. Her body was also found in a blanket that was typically found in southern motels.
In June 2011, a detective got a DNA hit in Pinellas County on the 1971 abduction, rape, and murder of a 14-year-old girl, Gina Justi. She died from strangulation and blunt force trauma. She was found dead wrapped in a blanket in an orange grove in Palm Harbor.
The sheriff said the DNA profile was of Fletcher.
In June 2011, the detective visited Fletcher in prison in Illinois and said he admitted to other murders in Florida, but because the death penalty wasn't taken off the table by Pinellas County prosecutors, he refused to give details about the other murders.
Pictured: Jerry Lee Fletcher. Image is courtesy of the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.
Fletcher died in 2014.
Detectives interviewed Fletcher's two former wives. According to HCSO, the women said he was violent and abusive and they both believed he was going to kill them if they didn’t leave him.
They also interviewed James Owens, Fletcher’s former cellmate. Owens told the detective that he believed Fletcher was a contract killer but would not elaborate.
Major Case/Cold Case Detective George Loydgren said, "It’s bittersweet. We can’t bring their loved one back. That’s never going to change. I just try to hold the bad guys accountable and if we can get them into prison that’s great because that’s where they belong."
Pictured: Peggy Shelton. Image is courtesy of the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.
Nienhuis said Fletcher has all the makings of a serial killer, but he doesn’t necessarily meet all the criteria to be classified as one.
"We never give up and these things take time. We don’t want them to take 52 years, but we’ve got to play the hand we’re dealt. In 1972, when we found a body in the woods wrapped in a blanket, that was a very difficult case to solve in the 1970s. It’s a little bit easier to solve today, but it’s still very, very difficult and the faster we can get those leads the easier it is to solve them," Nienhuis said.
READ: Cracking unsolved cases: Hernando County launches rapid DNA technology
DNA is taken from anyone who is arrested for a serious crime in Hernando County or anyone who is in the country illegally. The sheriff says the DNA is checked against people wanted for murder, rape, kidnapping and terrorist activities. Within about an hour, detectives know if they are wanted anywhere across the country for a serious crime. They know in about 24 hours if the suspect is wanted for a less serious crime.
"Back in the 70s, you couldn’t spell DNA. Nobody knew about it. It didn’t exist. It didn’t come online until the late 80s and then early 90s," Loydgren said. "And as it’s gotten better and better, like anything else in technology, we now just need a pen dot, like a little, minute amount of blood to have the possibility to identify our victim and or killer."
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