Thursday, the 61-year-old man responsible for murdering a 12-year-old Florida Girl, 30 years ago has been identified and charged by the authorities in Hernando County after a DNA match was found.
12-Year-Old Florida Girl Murdered In 1993, Man Responsible For The Killings Has Been Charged (PHOTO: CBS News)
Man Charged With The 12-Year-Old Florida Girl Murder In 1993
For three decades, the death of the 12-year-old Florida Girl was unidentified no one knows for certain what happened to Jennifer Odom after she got off a school bus on a typical day in 1993. Jennifer Odom was poorly seen lifeless in a Florida orange grove not long after.
However, CBS News stated in an article that a DNA match has been identified as Jeffrey Norman Crum, 61 years old, the one who killed and abduct the 12-year-old Florida Girl by the authorities in Hernando County. Norman has been currently serving two life sentences in connection with a 2015 sexual battery and attempted murder conviction.
On Thursday, the state Attorney Bill Gladson announced that prosecutors will pursue the death penalty in the Odom case.
Crum was indicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and sexual battery charges, by the grand jury Gladson said at a news conference in Brooksville.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Crum had a lawyer to speak for him about the case.
Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said detectives never stopped working on the case even as the decades passed.
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The Incident Of The Crim In 1993 Killings
ABC News reported that the day of February 19, 1993, was a typical day in school for Jennifer Odom but end up in horror because it was the same day she disappeared.
The 12-year-old Florida Girl got off her school bus at around 3 p.m. in Pasco County, just south of Hernando County. She waved to her friend as she walked the roughly 200-yard distance to her house, but never made it home.
Children who were on the bus have told investigators they witness a faded blue pickup truck slowly tailing Jennifer as she walked home. Six days after she disappeared, her body was discovered in an orange grove in Hernando County after a massive search that the media closely followed.
Crum has a violent crime history, including a robbery in 1981 and a sexual battery case in 1985 in Hillsborough County, according to court records.
Nienhuis said the DNA they collected from Crum’s past sexual battery case gave them the evidence they required to charge him in Jennifer’s killing.
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