Facts of the Crime:
Lori McRae left the post office where she worked at 12:35 a.m. on January 31, 1995 and drove away in her red and gray Chevrolet Blazer. She called her husband to tell him that she was stopping at the Winn-Dixie on the way home. When she did not arrive at 1:45 a.m., her husband called the police. A Walgreen’s employee, Clayton Chou, who worked at the store adjacent to the Winn-Dixie reported seeing Lori McRae approached by and engaged in a conversation by a man in the store.
Chou picked Jones out of a photographic lineup. David Jones was the last person seen with Lori McRae. On January 31, 1995, a man, later identified as Jones, drove a red Blazer to an automobile detailing business and inquired about having the inside of the vehicle cleaned. The owners of the business noticed that the man had several tattoos and had scratches on his face. Later, one of the owners, Dennis Marsh, saw a picture of a red Blazer on a news report that linked the Blazer to the disappearance of McRae. Marsh telephoned police and later picked Jones out of a photographic lineup.
ATM surveillance records showed a man, later identified as Jones, withdrawing money from McRae’s account. Over a 35-hour period, 105 transactions were attempted, with 11 successful in obtaining a total of $600. Police staked out ATMs and arrested Jones, who was driving a red Blazer whose tag number matched McRae’s Blazer. Police found trace amounts of blood in the vehicle.
On February 21, 1995, after his arrest, Jones told correctional officers that he needed to talk to police, saying “I need to confess and I need to tell where the body is.” Jones confessed to the murder to correctional officers and later to Detective Parker of the Jacksonville Police Department. Jones led police to the body, which was dumped in Baker County. McRae’s body was severely decomposed, and the time of death was determined to be three weeks earlier. The cause of death was ligature strangulation with a cord. McRae’s body was bound around the legs, had bruising to the extremities, and defensive wounds.
Jones was sentenced to death in Duval County on April 25, 1997.
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