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Thread: Luke Fleming Sentenced to Two Concurrent Life Terms in 1999 FL Rape and Slaying of Deborah Dalzell

  1. #1
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Luke Fleming Sentenced to Two Concurrent Life Terms in 1999 FL Rape and Slaying of Deborah Dalzell


    Deborah Dalzell






    New DNA tests lead to arrest in 1999 murder case in Sarasota, cops say


    By Sarah Nealeigh
    Bradenton Herald

    SARASOTA - Advances in DNA testing technology — including a process that produces a computer-generated image of what a DNA sample’s contributor might look like — led to an arrest in a 1999 murder case in Sarasota, according to authorities.

    Officials say DNA testing, part of the investigation into the murder of 47-year-old Deborah Dalzell in March 1999, led detectives with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office to identify and arrest 39-year-old Luke Fleming.

    During the initial investigation of the crime scene, detectives found semen evidence, according to the sheriff’s office. When run through the law enforcement DNA database, no matches were found.

    But technology and research in DNA have advanced since Dalzell’s death, especially in the past three years, said Captain John Walsh of the sheriff’s office investigations bureau. After thousands of hours of investigation, talking to more than 300 people and getting nearly 100 DNA samples, Walsh said, investigators have some answers.

    In 2015, the sheriff’s office reached out to Parabon Nanolabs. The company specializes in a technology called DNA phenotyping, a process that predicts physical appearance and ancestry from unidentified DNA evidence collected in the investigation, according to the sheriff’s office.

    In 2016, detectives got a genetic profile of the collected DNA. The semen DNA produced predictions and a depiction of what the person may have looked like, the sheriff’s office said. Walsh explained detectives were able to use that composite and “develop new leads.”

    Two years later, the sheriff’s office asked Parabon Nanolabs to do another analysis that compared the DNA to a database of volunteered DNA profiles to find relatives of the DNA sample.

    Using family relationship information, detectives built a chart that identified a man named Joseph Fleming. Though he died in 2001, detectives learned he had two sons, Luke and Jesse Fleming, who lived in a home less than a mile from Dalzell.

    Jesse Fleming, a convicted felon, already had his DNA in the law enforcement database. When his DNA didn’t match the sample, investigators determined Luke Fleming was the “only viable living relative,” Walsh said.

    Luke Fleming also looked similar to the depiction provided by Parabon Nanolabs, according to Walsh.

    “Detectives used this information to identify people who may have information helpful to the investigation, ultimately identifying 20-year-old Luke Fleming, who at the time, lived at 5185 Magnolia Pond Drive, walking distance to Deborah’s home,” according to the sheriff’s office.

    A report received by the sheriff’s office on Sept. 14 identified Fleming as the contributor of the DNA sample, according to Walsh. Fleming was 20 at the time of Dalzell’s death.

    On Wednesday, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office held a news conference during which officials announced the development in their 19-year investigation into the death of Dalzell.

    On Twitter, the sheriff’s office called the announcement “one of many steps in the right direction” toward closing the case.

    Coworkers at KMC-Telecom were concerned for Dalzell after she did not show up for work on March 29, 1999. Deputies went to Dalzell’s home in the 5300 block of Colony Meadows Lane, where she lived alone and found her dead in the bathroom.

    She had been beaten, sexually battered and strangled, according to investigators. The last time anyone spoke with Dalzell was the night before her body was found.

    In the probable cause affidavit, investigators wrote they determined at least one person went in the rear of Dalzell’s home through a cut in the pool screen and an open door.

    “This is a very significant day for Deborah’s family, for our community and our detectives,” Sheriff Tom Knight said in a news release. “I can’t imagine what it feels like to spend nearly twenty years with unanswered questions related to such a heinous crime. My thoughts are with Deborah’s family as I hope this resolution will eventually bring them the closure they need and deserve.”

    Dalzell’s sister, Peggy Thistle, spoke at Wednesday’s news conference on behalf of the family. She said the family has dreamed of the news of an arrest more than 19 years. Investigators said Thistle was the last person to speak to Dalzell.

    “It’s an emotional day today,” Thistle said, speaking through tears.

    “We miss Deborah every day. We never gave up hope,” she said.

    Thistle remembered her sister as kind, smart — she passed the Massachusetts Bar exam on her first attempt — and an “incredible role model.” She said Dalzell, a life-long Massachusetts girl, made the “huge decision” to move to Sarasota.

    “But she fell in love with the beach, found the found the house of her dreams and called it paradise,” Thistle said. “On March 29, 1999, this evil person turned her paradise into a nightmare.”

    She said they did not know the Fleming family.

    Fleming was initially taken into custody in Ellenton late Sunday and was taken to the Sarasota County jail on Monday, according to the sheriff’s office. He was charged with murder and sexual battery with great bodily harm and is being held in Sarasota County on a $1.2 million bond.

    Walsh said Fleming had an “unremarkable” criminal history, with a previous arrest in Manatee County for domestic battery.

    Fleming had moved from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Sarasota in 1991 and graduated from Riverview High School in 1997, Walsh said. Fleming, he added, has lived in Pinellas County for the past year.

    The investigation into Dalzell’s death is ongoing. Dalzell’s birthday is Friday, Thistle said.

    According to IMDB.com, Dalzell’s murder was featured in an episode of Investigation Discovery’s “Sensing Murder” in 2006 in which two psychics sought clues in her death.

    https://www.bradenton.com/news/local...218649870.html
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    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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    Prosecution will not seek death penalty against alleged cold case killer

    SARASOTA (WWSB) - Prosecutors say they will not seek the death penalty in the case against a man accused of murdering a Sarasota woman thirty years ago.

    Luke Fleming pleaded not guilty after being arrested back in September for the 1999 rape and murder of Deborah Dalzell.

    Sarasota County deputies used new DNA technology to linked him to the crime.

    On Thursday, Fleming’s attorney waived his right to appear in court. However, the prosecution and defense decided to aim for a February 2020 trial date.

    Fleming is being held in Sarasota County Jail without bond.

    http://www.mysuncoast.com/2018/12/06...d-case-killer/
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  3. #3
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Jan 9, 2020

    Anderson: Living with an alleged murderer and never suspecting a thing


    By Chris Anderson
    Tribune Herald

    Britney Meisch met Luke Fleming in 2012 at a Sarasota apartment complex. They were engaged and had a son together. She says she had no idea she was living with an alleged murderer and was stunned to find out.

    Luke Fleming was arrested for the murder of Sarasota accountant Deborah Dalzell in 2018, 19 years after it took place. His former fiance says she never had a clue.

    The handoff point was a bank parking lot, with a strip mall on the periphery, and she pulled her car up next to his. She really thought she knew him — they were engaged once, after all — but this is where the secret spilled.

    It was a Sunday night, which meant the weekend was over, which meant it was time for Luke Fleming to return Kieran to his mother, Britney Meisch. She took her young son, strapped him in the child seat and watched as Fleming began to drive away.

    The undercover detectives came from nowhere, so many, so fast. They surrounded Fleming before he could reach the exit, pulled him out and cuffed him.

    Her hands shook on the steering wheel as she watched. She tried to yell, but all she could manage were whispers.

    "What did you do?" she said. "What did you do?"

    Think you know your spouse? Your children? Your parents? Your siblings? Are you sure about that? Really sure? Certain there are no secrets? No monsters in the closet covered by decades of dust and deceit?

    What if you had lived with someone for five years, were engaged to be married to that person, had a child together, and then found out they might have committed a murder 19 years ago and you never had a clue?

    "Five years of my life were a lie," Meisch said. "They were just a lie."

    Luke Fleming and Britney Meisch met in a hot tub at an apartment complex in Sarasota in the spring of 2012. She was 23. He was 10 years older and everything she wanted. Funny, charming, accomplished and smart. He had a psychology degree from USF. Their first date was at the Melting Pot restaurant. She was enamored. Soon she was pregnant.

    She'll never forget the day they were at the Strawberry Festival in Plant City and he wanted a caricature portrait of them together. Strange, she thought, but OK. She had no idea Fleming had told the artist to write "Will you marry me?" on it. Of course she said yes, and the picture hung on their wall.

    It didn't matter a date was never set, she began looking at dresses anyway and consulted with Pier 22 in Bradenton about the reception. Marriage, she said, was important to him.

    They moved to Tennessee, where they lived for a few years. He took a new job, one that involved a lot of travel during the week, but he was always home on weekends. There were good times, more good than bad, she remembers, like trips to Chicago, even Hawaii. He was there when Kieran was born, too, and for his first steps. A great father, she said.

    And yet ...

    "Something would happen with his eyes when he got angry," she said. "Something was not right. He wasn't like a normal person. It seemed almost dark."

    Looking back there were red flags she missed — "so many I don't know where to start," she said. She remembers his apartment when they first met. It had only a TV, couch, computer and mattress on the floor. He was always bleaching the walls, she said, so often that she jokingly called him Dexter after the forensic analyst character from television who was a vigilante serial killer, hunting down murderers who had escaped justice.

    Fleming liked to destroy things that were important to her, she said, like the antique camera he threw across the room. He was like an actor and never relaxed. He could be as cruel as he was charming, and he never showed remorse. She remembers thinking: "This is not normal. I am not with a normal person."

    By the fall of 2016 they were back in Manatee County. She spent a month planning to leave him. Everything had to be in order because "I was afraid of the hell he would bring down on me if he found out."

    She took her son and left. He followed her, she said, and tried to run her off the road. She called the police. Nothing was done. She filed for a restraining order and moved in with her grandmother in Palmetto. He went to live in St. Petersburg.

    One day she was contacted by detectives. Had she ever heard of Deborah Dalzell, the Sarasota accountant who was murdered in 1999? DNA, in the form of semen, had been discovered during her autopsy. Samples were entered into a database, and in 2016 a genetic profile was created.

    She said she was told that Fleming's late father Joseph could be the killer, not Luke, and that a DNA swab from Kieran was needed. She swabbed her son herself.

    She said she had no clue Luke Fleming was a suspect, but some of the questions she was asked aroused suspicion.

    "One detective asked, 'Are you sure he is Kieran's father?'" she said. "I said, 'Yes, why are you asking me that?'"

    On Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018, she received a text from a detective asking if Fleming was still going to drop off Kieran at the SunTrust bank parking lot in Ellenton. And that's when it hit her.

    "Oh my god, they think it's him."

    Panic set in. If Fleming had any idea that the detectives were on to him he could take Kieran and not show up. She raced to the bank and pulled into the parking lot, right next to his car. She saw the arrest. Kieran, in his car seat, did not.

    Shaking and with tears in her eyes, she sped home to Palmetto and found her aunt, who lived across the street, mowing the lawn. Meisch frantically waved her hands. The mower stopped.

    "Oh my god," she shouted. "It was Luke! It was Luke!"

    Soon family members were standing in a circle in the middle of the street, blindsided. A detective came by that night to explain what happened.

    A press conference was held on Sept. 19, 2018, with Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight touting the massive amount of work that went into the arrest for murder and sexual assault, and the advanced forensic tools that were used.

    "What led to his arrest was unlike anything you have heard in the state of Florida," Knight said.

    Fleming's trial is scheduled for next month. Meisch is trying to keep an open mind and hopes it is fair, all the evidence properly presented. She agreed to talk, but wanted several things clear: She harbors no animosity towards Fleming, she is not seeking publicity for sharing her story, and she had no idea she was living with an alleged murderer. He never mentioned Dalzell's name once and nothing ever slipped.

    She has dreams sometimes — "He just shows up here and I'm scared. I don't know why he's here or why he got out."

    In another dream it's a normal day. They are at the pool. At the family house. Everyone is laughing. He is laughing.

    "Then I wake up and 'Oh, he's in jail for murder,'" she said. "It's a dream."

    She is back in Tennessee now, her life on hold until after the trial. She is optimistic about the future, and excited about watching her son grow. Still, things are tough. Dating, she said, has not gone well. She fears clouds of suspicions will always bring storms.

    "If I could be with someone for five years and not see this," she said, "how am I supposed to know who someone truly is?

    "The answer is, you don't."

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.her...emplate=ampart

  4. #4
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Trial begins for the accused 1999 cold case killer in Sarasota

    By Daniela Hurtado
    mysuncoast.com

    A first of its kind case to go to trial in the Suncoast.

    The accused cold case killer of the 1999 Sarasota murder of Deborah Dalzell is on trial this week.

    Luke Fleming is charged with murder and sexual battery with great bodily harm.

    Two years ago, Sarasota detectives made an arrest after a crack in the case through DNA technology.

    Sperm left behind at the crime scene at the home of the victim in 1999 was used to produce a trait prediction of what the suspect would’ve looked like.

    Detectives then obtained a voluntary DNA swab of Flemings child and that profile determined the profile belonged to the suspect.

    “It is 700 billion times more likely that it was deposited by this defendant than anybody else," said Sarasota County Assistant States Attorney Art Jackman.

    Seven witnesses took the stand today.

    Prosecutors during their opening statements said Dalzell was found dead in her home after a coworker went to check on her and noticed her home in disarray and thought something was wrong.

    The defense differed their opening statements.

    "When you became alarmed you called Mr. Magnet before law enforcement, correct? Yes." Witness after witness have taken the stand in the trial of Deborah Dalzell's murder.

    “Her face was brutally battered,” said Sarasota County Assistant States Attorney Art Jackman.

    During opening statements prosecutors talked about the condition she was found in.

    “And he’s also going to tell you that he sees the white t-shirt wrapped around Deborah’s neck and he’s also going to tell you that there’s a sock stuffed down the back of Deborah throat,” said Jackman.

    Dalzell didn’t show for work that morning-- her former worker checked on her and saw her car still in the garage... A ripped-up window screen.... And things out of place in her room.

    “I called her boss and said Mike there’s something terribly wrong here you need to get out here. Hung up and called 911”, said a former coworker of the victim Joel Seimer.

    When detectives and crime scene technicians showed up to the crime scene they found the bath tub overflowing and Dalzell murdered.

    In court Tuesday, Flemings former girlfriend also took the stand where she said that nearly two decades after the murder law enforcement officials asked for a DNA swab of her and Flemings son.... tying him to the case, he was later arrested.

    The trial recessed for the day right before 4 p.m. Tuesday. The trial will continue in Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.

    https://www.mysuncoast.com/2020/02/2...ller-sarasota/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Jury finds Luke Fleming guilty of 1999 Sarasota murder

    By Carlos R. Munoz
    Sarasota Herald-Tribune

    SARASOTA — After testifying in his own murder trial, Luke Fleming couldn’t convince a jury he had a one-night stand with a 47-year-old Sarasota woman who was later found dead inside her home on Colony Meadows Lane in March 1999.

    His defense attorney called no other witnesses and following a swift three-day trial, Fleming was found guilty of killing Deborah Dalzell.

    The jury deliberated 2½ hours before returning with a verdict at the Judge Lynn N. Silvertooth Judicial Center in Sarasota. Fleming was convicted of first-degree murder and sexual assault with a deadly weapon.

    “We’re very pleased about the jury’s verdict,” Assistant State Attorney Karen Fraivillig said. “We had a very intelligent jury that obviously paid attention very closely to the evidence by the state. They were not taken in by the defense.

    “This is a case where we had a brave, independent woman who lived her life on her own terms and because of that, she was made vulnerable and murdered, essentially in her own bedroom. ... Her family waited a long time for justice. But as I said during the closing argument, DNA was the silent witness, and it finally spoke loudly.”

    Fleming, 41, whom Dalzell’s sister Peggy Thistle called “an evil person” who turned her sister’s paradise into a “nightmare” after his arrest in September 2018, was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences for murdering and raping the former Massachusetts attorney and accountant.

    Defense attorney Anne Borghetti, of Clearwater, tried to convince jurors that because no fingerprints were found on “items of struggle,” her client could not be placed inside Dalzell’s home at 5356 Colony Meadows Lane.

    But prosecutors said doors, cigarettes, and ashtrays were hardly “items of struggle.”

    The State relied on preserved DNA evidence to show Fleming’s guilt.

    According to sheriff’s reports, at least one person gained entry to Dalzell’s home by cutting a pool screen at the back of the house and entering an open doorway. Dalzell had been brutally battered, gagged with a sock, sexually assaulted and then strangled with a T-shirt.

    Deputies found her naked, sprawled over a master bathtub of running water that spilled onto the carpet. Her head was submerged in the water.

    Detectives collected DNA in the form of blood and semen from the scene and genetic testing was performed but did not yield a match at the time.

    Advances in DNA technology led detectives to re-submit a rape kit in 2016. DNA Labs International created a genetic profile that determined the suspect was a white male. Using hereditary samples from male family members, they were able to calculate a 1 in 4.9 nonillion chance that the suspect was anyone but Fleming.

    “What is most meaningful about today’s outcome is the justice it brings to Deborah’s family,” Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight said in a news release. “After two decades of searching for answers, I hope this verdict brings them the peace and resolution they deserve. As for the DNA evidence used in this investigation, it speaks volumes about law enforcement capabilities in the modern world. Those criminals who have escaped the system might want to start looking over their shoulders. This technology will only grow in its efficiency and usefulness in solving crimes.”

    The DNA that linked Fleming came from his brother, a convicted felon who was entered in the Combined DNA index that tracks all felons, and his 2-year-old son.

    Fleming’s defense attorney told jurors the state couldn’t prove Fleming sexually assaulted and killed Dalzell, instead offering speculative testimony that Fleming had a tryst with Dalzell after a random meeting at the bar near Clark Road.

    Fleming said they met at either Swamp Bar or Applebees, the only drinking establishments that would serve him underage. He said he was attracted to her northeastern accent because he was born in the northeast.

    They went outside to smoke.

    Fleming claimed Dalzell flirted with him and they went to his car, a 1998 Chevrolet Celebrity and had sex in the backseat. The meeting happened around dinnertime, 8 or 10 p.m. He said the semen found on Dalzell’s thigh belonged to him.

    Did you kill her?” Borghetti asked.

    Fleming replied, “Absolutely not.”

    Assistant State Attorney Art Jackman questioned Fleming’s recollection of his whereabouts, but Fleming couldn’t remember what bar he was at, what time, what kind of car Dalzell had or who was at the bar.

    His account conflicted with testimony from Peggy Thistle, who said she spoke to her sister around the same time Fleming claims they were having sex in the back of his car. Thistle said Dalzell had declined a dinner invitation because she was tired and wanted to finish Thistle’s taxes.

    Fraivillig said Dalzell was suffocated after a violent struggle in her new home. She emphasized that Fleming’s DNA was found on her body. If she had been with Fleming, her clothing would have wiped it away, Fraivillig said.

    “The defendant denies,” Fraivillig said. “A denial is not reasonable doubt. You have instructions from the judge. You weigh the evidence. You as jurors have the ability to disregard evidence completely.

    “I submit you disregard what the defendant told you.”

    All 12 jurors found him guilty.

    Fleming was handcuffed, and after a brief recess, heard victim impact statements from several members of Dalzell’s family who testified how her death hurt them. They described years of anxiety and worry and the loss of a strong woman who would have been a good role model.

    Deborah Dalzell’s mother, Marilyn Dalzell, told the court no parent should outlive their child.

    “When Deborah was murdered we as a family were broken,” Marilyn Dalzell said. “We closed our feelings and were unable to talk about (it) ... . Finally after several years, Peggy and I had been at a bereavement meeting to learn how to heal. We are still working on it.”

    https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/2...arasota-murder
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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