Florida cops name former deputy as ‘only’ suspect in 1983 murder of 11-year-old girl

Former St. Lucie County Sheriff's Deputy James Howard Harrison is the suspect within the many years outdated rape and homicide of Lora Ann Huizar.
St. Lucie County Sheriff's Offic

Florida cops introduced Thursday they've solved a decades-old homicide of an 11-year-old lady, naming a now-dead sheriff’s deputy and preacher because the youngster’s doubtless killer.

Former St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Deputy James Howard Harrison was revealed as “the one possible suspect” within the horrific rape and homicide of Lora Ann Huizar in November 1983, officers stated. Harrison died in 2008.

“We have now established possible trigger to find out that Harrison kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and murdered the juvenile sufferer and later altered the crime scene by putting the sufferer in a drainage ditch in an try and destroy bodily proof,” St. Lucie Chief Deputy Brian Hester stated in an announcement.

Lora disappeared on Nov. 6, 1983 whereas strolling house from a fuel station and her physique was discovered a day later close by, throughout the boundaries of Harrison’s common patrol in western St. Lucie County, the sheriff’s workplace stated.

The chilly case heated up once more final yr when a non-public lab recovered male DNA preserved from the sufferer’s sexual assault equipment, officers stated. Harrison’s physique was exhumed however the DNA had degraded and a comparability couldn’t be made, in response to the sheriff’s workplace.

Officers stated Harrison had informed witnesses to depart the world the place the lady’s physique was found 20 minutes earlier than different authorities confirmed as much as examine. Chilly case detectives discovered the place of the lady’s physique when others arrived didn’t match up with preliminary witness accounts.

St. Lucie Detective Paul Taylor stated the day he solved the case was “each the worst and the most effective day” of his regulation enforcement carer.

“No person dislikes a nasty cop greater than cop, and it felt bittersweet to lastly present the sufferer’s household with some lengthy awaited solutions,” Taylor stated in an announcement.

Harrison, who had labored for 10 totally different regulation enforcement companies in Florida, “exhibited a sample of inappropriate conduct involving juvenile females,” the sheriff’s workplace stated within the information launch. Investigators now suppose the ex-deputy could have been behind different intercourse assault circumstances within the Sunshine State.