The necklace that could solve a murder
GREG JONES | Staff Writer
gregjones@dailycommercial.com
Investigators think they have a new lead in a cold case of a 12-year-old Montverde girl murdered
32 years ago.
A recent review of the case found a photograph of a cross Georgia Jane Crews was wearing when her body was found in a wooded area behind a Seminole County department store a few days after her disappearance. The cross appears to have been made out of motorcycle parts.
Although investigators at the time were told by a friend of the family that the cross belonged to Crews, a follow-up interview with her family has revealed this not to be the case. Investigators now want to know who made the cross or who owned it, and how it got around the little girl's neck.
"Obviously, I have been in contact and dealing with the family," said Seminole County Det. Robert Jaynes, who is now working the case. "We don't forget about these cases. We are giving it the best we can."
Crews and her family were living on Highland Avenue in Montverde on April 8, 1980, when the girl walked to a nearby convenience store to get a snack before watching her favorite television show. She failed to return by dark, something she never did, and never made it to the store.
By midnight, more than 100 people had joined a massive search that went on through the night and into the following day. Shoulder to shoulder, they checked the woods and orange groves in the area, and authorities even dragged the bottom of Lake Florence near the family's home.
"There were no clues," Sgt. George Hamner of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said at the time. "There were no tracks or really anything to go by. Nobody saw her get into a car; nobody saw her with anybody.
"This is a small town. Everybody pitched in to try to find her. We did everything we could. We didn't find her."
But a family of four did about nine days when took a shortcut from an apartment complex to a K-mart near Casselberry, about 30 miles from Montverde. Crews was found face up in a wooded area, wearing the same dark jeans and blue pullover top she was wearing when she disappeared. The cross and chain were around her neck.
Crews' body was so badly decomposed she could only be identified through medical and dental records, and there was no evidence of a sexual assault. The fifth-grader with long blonde hair and brown eyes had been stabbed in the back.
Over the years, people have moved from the Highland Avenue area, including potential tipsters and even the Crews family themselves, so Jaynes said the cross is the best lead investigators have gotten in lone time.
"We need to find ownership of the cross," he said. "It was not her cross."
Anyone with any information about the case can call Jaynes at 407-665-6965. His e-mail address is bjaynes@seminolesheriff.org. Anonymous tips can also be made through Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS.
"We need the community's involvement," Jaynes said. "The problem with these cases is people forget about them."
Friday, January 11, 2013 - www.dailycommercial.com/11jan2013neck