Bizarre scene. Picture shows the display of the evidence from the Danny Rolling case for media to look at before the items are destroyed.
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080619/NEWS/806190342
This brings back memories of the weekend in August of 1990 when these murders took place. It was a rainy weekend, rained all weekend long. Thing is, nobody realized gruesome murders were taking place in three separate locations around town.
It was Monday morning before the word started getting out that the bodies of three girls had been found, two in one apartment, and one in another. Brutal murders, one girl being decapitated and her body placed sitting on the bed and her head on a shelf, the other two new students at the U of F as the fall term was just beginning. Then just as this was sinking in, the word comes out that two more bodies had been discovered inside an apartment near campus, one girl and one man.
We were terrified. Were there more bodies? Would there be more murders? Oh, my God, now a man has been killed. Parents were coming to pick up children from campus and around town and taking them back home for safety, residents were blocking windows and especially sliding glass doors as we were told entry was made through the glass doors; they are relatively easy to get open or even take completely out from the outside. There was a rumor that more bodies had been found, and then more had been found, but that turned out to be false. Final count was five dead.
A guy was arrested, a perfect suspect who had a scarred face and was acting peculiar, but he turned out to be the wrong man. Finally, Danny Rolling was arrested, pled guilty to the crimes, and was executed in 2006. But only after some dumb woman, Sondra London, actually married him in prison.
These crimes have always puzzled me in that they took place in different locations, locations quite a distance apart, over a rainy weekend, by a man who was on foot. It just was unusual that one person would kill so many people in such a short period of time in such a brutal manner. Danny Rolling was a small man, didn’t look strong at all. The man who was killed was a huge guy, over six feet. I don’t know. Just strange.
Danny Rolling
See more details about the crimes and Rolling’s execution:
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/rolling/gain_1.html
http://www.fadp.org/news/mh-20061026/
Take this link for pictures of the victims and a short video of the coverage of the crimes.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/10055781/detail.html
Victims:
Sonja Larson, 18, Deerfield Beach, Florida
Christina Powell, 17, Jacksonville, Florida
Christa Hoyt, 18, Archer, Florida
Manny Taboada, 23, Carol City, Florida
Tracy Paules, 23, Miami, Florida
Rest in Peace.
Posted: 06.20.08/Revised: 06.21.08
