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Thread: Death Penalty Pursued for Jeffrey Norman Crum in 1993 FL Murder of Jennifer Odom

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    Death Penalty Pursued for Jeffrey Norman Crum in 1993 FL Murder of Jennifer Odom


    Jennifer Odom


    Jeffrey Norman Crum

    Unsolved case won't fade away

    It was a cool, sunny Friday afternoon in St. Joseph when 12-year-old Jennifer Odom got off her school bus.

    By sundown, a distinct chill had spread across the remote East Pasco community.

    Jennifer didn't make it home.

    Family, friends and neighbors were in a panic the night of Feb. 19, 1993.

    Jennifer's mother stayed home and waited by the window. Search parties numbering in the hundreds combed the woods in all directions.

    Six days later came the devastating discovery. The girl's body was found in neighboring Hernando County. Jennifer's murder has gone unsolved for 19 years. It remains a source of frustration, futility and emotional pain.

    Tips still get called in to law enforcement. Leads get checked. Every so often, evidence still gets sent to a lab. Technologies in forensic science keep improving. Hope doesn't fade.

    Detectives won't call it a cold case. That implies it's not being worked. Hundreds of eyes have glanced at thousands of reports.

    Jennifer has never been forgotten.

    "I don't remember a time when the Odom case was shelved," said Hernando County Sheriff's Detective Jim Boylan, who started with the agency in 1991 and was an undercover vice deputy the year Jennifer was killed.

    He handles the bulk of the agency's unsolved cases.

    Boylan sees Jennifer's smile every day at work. He keeps two of her photographs tacked on a board above his desk. His predecessor, who retired in 2007, did the same.

    Boylan regularly speaks to Jennifer's mother and stepfather. He visits her gravesite, located four-fifths of a mile from where she was abducted.

    The honor roll student and water-skiing enthusiast stepped off the bus after it stopped along Jim Denny Road in rural Pasco County. Her walk home was the length of about two football fields. Her friends from inside the bus watched her feet hit the dirt road.

    Some of them noticed a white and blue pickup creep toward her.

    The bus continued down the road and the students lost sight of Jennifer and the truck.

    Jennifer's body was found Feb. 25, 1993 near an orange grove along the south side of Powell Road in Spring Lake.

    Authorities didn't release a lot of details and they still haven't. As long as the case remains open, they intend to keep most of the information to themselves.

    "We can't talk about that," said Sheriff Al Nienhuis, who sat down with a reporter earlier this month and went over a list of more than 30 questions that were submitted in advance about the case.

    "We're not going to talk about that at all for obvious reasons," he said when he got to the question about the girl's cause of death.

    Prior news reports revealed Jennifer died from a blow to the head.

    The sheriff and his detectives were asked whether students on the school bus, passersby or other potential witnesses were shown photographs of potential suspects.

    "We're not going to talk about a lot of specifics there," Nienhuis said.

    Boylan said a composite sketch was never drawn. Those who saw the truck only noticed the driver was a male. They couldn't provide further details.

    One piece of information the Hernando County Sheriff's Office released years ago was a detailed description of the pickup – the last image Jennifer's classmates saw before her disappearance.

    It was a 1970s or 1980s model pickup with light blue paint. It was faded, dirty and in shoddy condition. The license plate was damaged. The truck had two side-view mirrors, a trailer hitch and might have been missing a rear hubcap. It could have been a General Motors truck, but was almost certainly American made, according to news reports.

    While Nienhuis wouldn't confirm it, it was reported in the past that some trucks fitting the above description were searched, photographed and swabbed.

    * * * * *

    Jennifer was abducted in Pasco and slain in Hernando County.

    Manpower from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was requested. The same went for the FBI.

    In 1993, Hernando saw 13 murders, including five by the hands of serial killer Mike Kaprat. Detectives who worked the Kaprat case also investigated Jennifer's death.

    The calls made to the sheriff's office and the statements recorded by investigators quickly reached the thousands. No other case fills more binders and occupies more bookcase space at the sheriff's office. None comes close.

    Nobody interviewed about the case made excuses about why it has gone unsolved for so long. Nobody feels the detectives who worked it back then, some of whom are still with the agency, were too overwhelmed, under qualified or distracted.

    "There are always challenges," said Boylan. "I looked at some of the ways we documented the leads and I was actually pretty impressed with some of the technologies we used then. There were a lot of them coming in, but they were all documented so (mistakes) would not happen.

    "We have to deal with the cards that we've been dealt," he said. "You can't plan a murder investigation. You have to work with what you're given and that makes any murder investigation a challenge."

    Jennifer's body was found by a couple along a horse trail that looped south along Powell – less than a mile west of Cedar Lane. People regularly walked it. Sometimes people dumped trash there. Others wandered through the woods like scavengers, picking up scrap metal, cans or anything recyclable.

    More than 1 inch of rain fell from the time Jennifer was abducted until her body was found. The wet conditions likely washed away most traces of evidence.

    Investigators said she was killed close to where her body was found and within a day of when she was kidnapped.

    "All leads have been taken to their logical conclusion," Nienhuis said. "We don't let any of them hang."

    Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway, who has prosecuted numerous child killers during his career, said certain cases never get cast aside. Oftentimes law enforcement places almost an extreme emphasis on crimes against children. It's unfathomable for detectives to disconnect emotionally and move onto something else.

    "It's not unsolved for a lack of effort that's for sure," Ridgway said. "In this case, (the sheriff's office) was not short-staffed. If they had been, they would've shortened something else and focused on this. This case would never have been put in the backseat. Whenever there is a kid killed or a cop killed, everything gets pulled out full bore."

    Ray Williamson is a retired U.S. Army military police officer and private investigator. He has been a volunteer with the sheriff's office's major case unit for about 18 months. Of the 680 hours he has volunteered, roughly 500 have been devoted to The Odom case.

    "You really want to see these get solved," Williamson said.

    * * * * *

    Jennifer's family confirmed her identity after then-Pasco Sheriff Lee Cannon showed them photographs of the girl's jewelry. She was wearing two rings and a gold necklace with two charms.

    Cannon, who had been sheriff for only a few weeks, said the sights, sounds and reactions from Feb. 25, 1993 were singed into his memory.

    "It was very somber," he said. "I was just trying to wrap my mind around what was going on. It was extremely, extremely, extremely difficult. There's no other way to describe it."

    Media from across Tampa converged on Powell Road. The stress was palpable, especially among deputies.

    Former Hernando County Commissioner Tony Mosca said he frequently thinks about that day. He drove to the scene after hearing from a friend a body had been found. Mosca, along with hundreds of others, waited for several hours before Cannon and Hernando County Sheriff Thomas Mylander confirmed what everyone had suspected. The body was Jennifer's.

    Mosca told reporters at the time he was amazed at how secretive deputies were with each other that afternoon. Speculation was disallowed. Everyone was sullen and serious. The more they held back, the more the media grew agitated.

    Mosca had never witnessed anything like it before or since. Once the identity of the body was confirmed, information slowly began to trickle.

    "They asked me if I wanted to go to the scene," Mosca said. "I declined."

    * * * * *

    Many of Jennifer's belongings had remained missing. Detectives were hoping they would turn up somehow, either in the killer's possession or somewhere close to the scene of the crime.

    A couple on the prowl for scrap metal in a rural area northeast of Weeki Wachee came upon Jennifer's missing clarinet case and book bag.

    The media frenzy began again.

    The distance between where Jennifer was killed and where her clarinet was found was about 18 miles. It was about 30 miles from Jennifer's old bus stop. Detectives surmised the culprit had inherent knowledge of the region's rural landscape.

    A fingerprint was found inside the book bag. It didn't match Jennifer or her family. So far, it hasn't matched anyone.

    A DNA sample from the clarinet case was sent to an FBI lab as recently as 2009, according to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.

    Nienhuis and Boylan conveyed optimism about the investigation. There is the advancement in DNA technology to consider. It's also possible someone might finally confess or somebody else might hear or see something suspicious – even after all this time, he said.

    "I don't think you ever reach a dead-end," Nienhuis said. "There is always something you can do."

    Ridgway's office prosecuted a case 20 years ago in Marion County involving two men who had killed a couple inside an antiques store.

    Somebody walked into an FBI office in Las Vegas and told agents his girlfriend's husband had old statues with dried blood on them. The investigation was turned on its head and eventually two men were arrested and convicted of double murder and sentenced to life in prison.

    "It can be something like that or it can be a DNA event that breaks a case," Ridgway said. "You just don't know."

    Ridgway was part of the prosecutorial team that presented evidence to a Hernando grand jury in 1998. It centered on the Odom case. The defendant was not indicted.

    Ridgway said jurors made the right choice. His witness' story kept changing.

    * * * * *

    Jennifer's mother and stepfather, Clark and Renee Converse, have agreed in the past to be interviewed for news stories. Renee Converse most recently was interviewed by a Tampa news station last year.

    A Hernando Today reporter left three messages with the couple. All of them went unreturned. The same reporter tried contacting Jennifer's best friend, Michelle Sample. She, too, declined to answer.

    Those close to the case said the couple's willingness to be interviewed gets chipped away with every story that gets printed or aired. Their hopes are lifted leading up to it, but after some days and weeks go by without a resolution, they feel emotionally deflated.

    Boylan said the family has fears about the psychological toll the case could have on them if and when it is solved. First comes an arrest and then comes the media attention. A year or two goes by with more court hearings and then comes the trial, which would be accompanied by more media attention.

    "If the case gets solved, it kind of starts all over again for Jennifer's family," said Boylan. "It's bittersweet. It would be very hard for them. You can tell … Part of them wants it solved and the other part is not looking forward to going through that."

    Emotions ran high 19 years ago. Grief counselors were assigned to schools throughout Pasco and Hernando counties after the news broke about Jennifer's death.

    Some of her classmates at Weightman Middle School were immediately enrolled in after-school day care. Their parents wouldn't let them ride buses any longer.

    Theories have swirled about who the killer might be. Some have guessed he was known by the family. Others think he scoped the bus stop in the days and weeks prior to the murder.

    Some have suggested there are two killers. Boylan hasn't ruled that out, but said murderers who work solo have better odds of eluding arrest. They can control what they say, but not what accomplices say. When people talk, they usually get caught.

    Tips don't always get sent directly to Hernando. The investigation started in Pasco. Both sheriff's office websites have Jennifer listed on the "unsolved" cases list.

    That word was purposely chosen over "cold." The case has never gone cold, detectives said.

    "The whole experience was so difficult," said Cannon, who lost his re-election bid in 2000. "Everybody in the world seemed to be involved in that case. They did everything they possibly could do. We just couldn't get anything to gel, but that doesn't mean it's over."

    http://www2.hernandotoday.com/news/n...way-ar-360509/

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    One bad witness, one psychic

    She gave a story to investigators.

    She gave a story to prosecutors.

    She gave a story to a grand jury.

    Each one seemed different. Each one changed.

    Kimberly Ducharme's perceived string of lies led Hernando County Sheriff's detectives to the far clutches of New England, where authorities there conducted an eight-hour manhunt in July 1998, according to news reports.

    Ducharme's ex-husband, Walter, eventually was detained and questioned. Then he got a round-trip flight with a police escort.

    There were snags. There were questions. There were doubts.

    Walter Ducharme's alleged involvement in the slaying of 12-year-old Jennifer Odom finally went before a Hernando grand jury – four months after the manhunt.

    It took a couple days, but jurors decided not to indict the 34-year-old Maine woodsman, who was thought to have lived in Pasco County at the time of the Feb. 19, 1993 abduction and homicide.

    "(Kimberly Ducharme) gave a series of statements that ultimately led her to testify before the grand jury," said Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway, who was one of three prosecutors who worked the case. "She gave a series of statements about her knowledge about Walter Ducharme's involvement and her knowledge kept improving with each statement.

    "She claimed to know more and more every time she talked," Ridgway continued. "It kept changing over time."

    Walter Ducharme was the first and only suspect ever known to have been arrested in the Odom slaying. The state never got close to a conviction.

    All traces of the Ducharme name haven't been erased in connection with the 19-year-old homicide case. Kimberly Ducharme's photo is still visible in at least one area of the major case section at the sheriff's office.

    Investigators downplayed it. Mostly everyone who has worked the case no longer considers her to be relevant to the investigation, they said.

    Odom was abducted around 3 p.m. at her bus stop at the corner of Jessamine and Jim Denny roads in the St. Joseph area of East Pasco.

    Children on the bus told authorities they saw an older model blue pickup heading in Odom's direction as they were pulling away.

    It is not known whether Walter Ducharme ever owned or drove a vehicle matching that description.

    Ridgway, who works in Ocala, said he couldn't disclose too many details about the Ducharme investigation. The file remains in Brooksville, but it is not part of the public record.

    The veteran prosecutor remembered very little about the case when he was first contacted by a reporter earlier this month. He drove to Hernando County the following week to review the file and refresh his recollection.

    Kimberly Ducharme herself had confessed to the Odom slaying at least three times and each time she recanted, according to news reports.

    When she told authorities her ex-husband was responsible, they listened. Eventually, her accusation lacked merit and she withdrew it, prosecutors said.

    She was convicted in 1993 of child abuse. Investigators said she is out of prison and has since changed her name.

    "When it was all over and done with, I was satisfied Walter Ducharme didn't have anything to do with it," Ridgway said. "It was a wild goose chase."

    The State Attorney's Office hasn't been kept in the loop with as much regularity in recent years as it pertains to the Odom investigation.

    Ridgway wouldn't discuss the case beyond the old Ducharme lead because it belongs to the sheriff's office.

    He said for every 100 leads detectives get, his office hears one.

    * * * * *

    Google searches of the Odom case brings up pages of old newspaper stories and forums related to unsolved murders.

    Among the hits are links to videos on YouTube, which contain a 1994 episode of "Unsolved Mysteries," a documentary series that ran on several networks.

    Psychic detective Nancy Myer was profiled in the 15-minute episode, the second half of which was devoted to the Odom case.

    She still remembers some details about her visit.

    "Let me put it this way, the detectives I worked with were wonderful," Myer said. "There was a senior officer who had made a prior agreement with 'Unsolved Mysteries' and he wasn't going to hold to the agreement."

    The senior officer, who she thinks was a lieutenant at the time but doesn't recall his name or whether he worked for the Hernando or Pasco Sheriff's Office, refused to let her see the crime photos. That decision, she said, was made moments before the cameras started rolling.

    She was allowed to touch the photos, but they had to remain face down.

    Myer is used to that kind of resistance. Some investigators are open to having her participate. Others think her methods are hokey.

    The lieutenant she met wasn't the rudest or angriest she ever met. One police officer actually pulled a gun on her, she said.

    But his behavior was bad enough that she remembered him.

    "Be that as it may, this was a tragic, tragic case," Myer said of the Odom homicide.

    She pointed out there was a carnival held in Pasco during the time of the murder. She thought two men who lived the transient lifestyle were probably the kind of suspects the authorities were looking for.

    Based on the feelings she was getting while touching the photos, talking to detectives and visiting Odom's bus stop, Myer was convinced there was a pair of suspects.

    "I said then these guys would kill again," she said. "They probably have. It would be easy for them to do it again and not get caught."

    Myer said she remembers Odom's face and the flowers on her grave. She remembers the images she conjured when she visited the horse path off Powell Road where the girl's body was discovered.

    She got the feeling the pickup truck had been at the bus stop several times. She suspected the culprits were "casing that area for a while," she said.

    One month after Myer visited Spring Lake, one of the detectives called her and told her they had found Odom's book bag and clarinet case. It was found 18 miles northwest near Weeki Wachee.

    Myer knew they were looking for them.

    "That was not an easy area to search because the undergrowth was so (thick)," she said. "I told them they were going to have to search and it wasn't going to be easy to find."

    After the episode aired, more than 50 tips were called in, according to news reports.

    Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis didn't answer questions related to Myer's involvement 18 years ago.

    "At some point, I thought, they're going to get caught in another state for doing the same thing," Myer said. "One of them will talk. I have always felt that eventually they would catch these guys."

    http://www2.hernandotoday.com/news/n...hic-ar-360510/

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Jennifer Odom homicide case timeline

    Homicide case timeline

    Feb. 19, 1993 – Jennifer Odom, 12, goes missing after getting off a school bus in St. Joseph.

    Feb. 25, 1993 – Jennifer’s body is discovered by a Hernando County couple. She was lying in an orange grove south of Powell Road near Spring Lake.

    Jan. 5, 1995 – A couple discovered Jennifer’s book bag and clarinet case in a rural area near Nightwalker Road – about 12 miles northwest of where Jennifer’s body was found.

    Jan. 9, 1998 – Charges were dropped against a man accused of fatally shooting a 15-year-old girl behind a burned-out building in DeLand. Bobby Allen Raleigh was investigated in the Odom case, but no charges were brought. He remains on death row for previous convictions.

    July 21, 1998 – Authorities detain and question Walter Ducharme, a drifter who lives in Maine.

    Nov. 18, 1998 – A Hernando County grand jury listens to testimony from Ducharme’s ex-wife and decides not to indict Ducharme in Jennifer’s slaying. Prosecutors later say they are convinced he had nothing to do with the homicide.

    Feb. 20, 2006 – The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office holds a media conference – attended by Jennifer’s parents – announcing a new hotline and website address devoted to the case.

    Early December 2011 – The most recent tip called in to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.

    http://www2.hernandotoday.com/news/2...ine-ar-360513/

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    Coinciding with the recent 20-year anniversary of this tragedy, this case is getting new life...

    __________________________________________________ ________


    BROOKSVILLE, Fla. (AP) — It’s been 20 years since Jennifer Odom stepped off her school bus in rural Florida, the last anyone saw of her before the 12-year-old’s body was found six days later on a nearby horse trail.

    Now, investigators are renewing efforts to find Jennifer’s killer after years of dead-end tips that never panned out, despite billboards, a story on NBC’s ‘‘Unsolved Mysteries’’ and a $20,000 reward for information. The slaying shook this rural community nestled among orange groves, horse farms and gently sloping green hills about an hour north of Tampa.

    ‘‘I just remember everyone being so afraid,’’ said Madeline Beaumont, who lived in the area and was one of hundreds who searched the woods and groves for Jennifer in the six days she was missing. ‘‘I started looking around and suspecting anybody that looked cross-eyed, ‘I wonder if they’re the one that killed Jenny Odom.'’’

    Hernando County Sheriff Al Neinhuis recently announced he was dedicating a new, full-time detective to the case. The investigator’s salary will be paid for with a grant. Furthermore, two civilian volunteers will do a top-to-bottom review, going through every document, report and piece of evidence gathered.

    ‘‘Everything is going to be looked at under a microscope,’’ said Hernando County Sheriff’s Detective Jim Boylan, who now heads the agency’s cold case division.

    Thousands of tips have come in over the years, and a dozen more have been given to authorities in the week since the sheriff’s announcement. The tips have led to possible clues as far away as Ohio and Pennsylvania, though investigators have not elaborated on what led them to those states. Evidence found at the time suggested Jennifer’s killer knew the area well, though where that person is now is a mystery.

    http://www.boston.com/business/news/...M0M/story.html
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    Suspect indicted in Jennifer Odom cold case

    Jeffrey Norman Crum has been charged with kidnapping, sexual battery and murder three decades after Jennifer was found dead.

    By Tony MarreroTimes staff
    Emma UberTimes staff

    A man has been indicted on murder and other charges in the decades-old cold case of Jennifer Odom, a 12-year-old girl who was found dead in a Hernando County orange grove in 1993.

    Jeffrey Norman Crum, 61, has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in the case, Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis announced at news conference on Thursday.

    Crum is already serving two life sentences for sexual battery and attempted murder convictions in a similar case in Pasco County that Nienhuis said helped investigators link him to the Odom case that stumped investigators for 30 years.

    Bill Gladson, state attorney for the 5th Circuit, said his office will seek the death penalty in the Odom case.

    “I have confidence we have the right person and we have the right aggravators in this particular case to treat it as a death penalty case,” Gladson said.

    On Friday, Feb. 19, 1993, Jennifer stepped off her school bus around 3 p.m., waved goodbye to friends and started walking the 200 yards to her home in rural Pasco County. Children on the bus reported they saw a faded blue pickup truck slowly following Jennifer as she walked home. Jennifer never made it to her door.

    Six days after she disappeared, detectives located Jennifer’s body — naked, facedown and severely decomposed in a Hernando County orange grove.

    Since then, investigators have amassed some 1,000 pieces of evidence, taken thousands of tips, done hundreds of interviews and clocked tens of thousands of hours to determine who killed the girl.

    Records show Crum has a significant history of convictions for violent crime. They include a conviction for a 1981 robbery and a 1985 sexual battery case in Hillsborough County.

    In 2015, Crum was charged with a 1992 Pasco County sexual battery case that occurred about 13 months before Odom’s abduction and murder. In that case, a 17-year-old girl enrolled in Land O’Lakes High School’s special education program survived after family members found her hours later “in a pool of blood” nearby behind an abandoned house south of Masaryktown.

    Authorities said that after the woman got off the bus from school on Jan. 16, 1992, Crum took her by the arm and led her behind an abandoned house where he hit her head with a blunt object so hard it crushed part of her skull and caused her to lose part of her brain. When the former honor roll student and track and field participant recovered, she was paralyzed on her left side, investigators said.

    In 2019, he was sentenced to life in prison in that case.

    Nienhuis said Thursday that biological evidence in that case helped lead to Crum’s arrest and indictment in the Odom case.

    As the years wore on, Jennifer’s mother Renee Converse and other family members have tried to have faith that the case would eventually be solved.

    “I think they would have done anything in the world to have solved this case,” Converse told the Tampa Bay Times in 2018, 25 years after her daughter’s body was found.

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/...ounty-florida/
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