Lewis wrote a five-page letter outlining the details, many of which Hewitt said "only the killer knew.". He was tall, good-looking, athletic, polite. ), "When he went in, I followed him in the apartment and I saw the young lady on the bed. Three months before the Gainesville murders, in May 1990, Rolling and his father had an argument in which Rolling's father chased him out of the house at gunpoint, Hewitt said. Rolling pleaded guilty to the serial killings of five young people at the University of Florida in Gainesville.). Current Address: YVXK San Paulo Cir, Melbourne, ", Mackenzie, looking pained, interrupts: "But that was before the plastic surgery. Even today, a spokesman for the new state attorney hesitates: "Is Ed Humphrey still a suspect?Well, hmmm.One would think it ought to be a simple question.". Humphrey's bail was set at $1-millionand he remained behind bars until well after investigators set their sights on a new suspect: Danny Rolling. "My brother is in jail now because of the image Gainesville gave him, not because of anything he did.". A suspect in the slayings of five college students has been convicted of beat ing up his grandmother, despite her testimony that her injuries came from a fall. A classic film noir, it features a great cast and a great storyline. It worked, but it also made him dull, sluggish, overweight. theres a lot more ahead, Humphrey told the Orlando Sentinel before the ceremony. Ed remembers their reaction: "Oh, it's a celebrity.". He takes a slug of coffee and fidgets with an unlit cigarette. George figured that if someone came after Ed, trying to kill him, Ed could just dial 911. "It's just a negative," he says. He got out once a week--in leg chains and handcuffs--when his lawyer came, and twice a week to take a shower. John Donvan, a I understand why it went in the direction it did, didnt agree with it.. His DNA didnt match the semen found at the murder scene. They found that the suspect had type B blood, but Humphrey's blood was type A. Humphrey was still in police custody when investigators discovered a cold case in Shreveport, Louisiana, that had striking similarities to the murders in Gainesville. There was a toilet, a sink and a military mattress on the floor. Smith said Rolling also talked about the best way to kill a deer. WebLived In Honolulu HI, Morehead City NC, Orange Park FL, Saint Petersburg FL. He said the officer tracked the man to a campsite. "He always told us ' One day, I'm going to leave this town and I'm going to go where the girls are beautiful and I can just lay in the sun and watch beautiful women all day,'" Juracich said. But most of Humphreys descriptions of the student mutilations were not accurate. "This death is devastating to us as a family. he would yell. Other times it appears to happen in an instant. It happens too often, though less so now than when he first got out of prison. For months Edward Lewis Humphrey was the key suspect in the horrific slayings of five Gainesville students. After she failed to show up to work on the night of Aug. 26, 1990, Det. ", He refused to carry the phone, but then he rarely left the house without George. And so Grandma was bleeding and everything, and I got, like, a cloth and stuff and tried to help her out. One day after the last of the five bodies were discovered in Gainesville, police arrested Humphrey not for the murders but for assaulting his 79-year-old grandmother in Indialantic. "VVhen he was not taking his lithium, he was a clearly diagnosed manic-depressive," Marti Mackenzie says. WebEdward Lewis Humphrey, age 50s, lives in Palm Bay, FL. WebEdward Lewis Humphrey was an early suspect in the case of five grisly murders of college students in Gainesville, Florida; one Daniel Rolling was eventually convicted of the killings, ", "I wanted to know every little detail," Ada Larson said. On Aug. 30, the day after the last of the bodies was found, Edward Humphrey--then 19, deeply troubled and wild-looking--was arrested and jailed for assaulting his 79 A brutal serial killer was on the loose. He is saying, as he's said before, that he never met Ed Humphrey. Earlier that summer, investigators learned, Ed had been kicked out of the Gatorwood apartment complex where two of the victims were killed. Edward Lewis Humphrey, 18, of Indialantic, Fla., held in the Brevard County Jail on a charge of beating his 79-year-old grandmother, has been described by police as They wound up having a few drinks and getting in trouble with a security guard at a hotel bar. Do you understand that? Edward Lewis Humphrey, a former honors student and an Eagle Scout from Brevard County, began classes at the University of Florida in the summer of 1990. Christopher Slobogin, a professor at the University of Florida Law School, said suspicions about Mr. Humphrey's possible connection with the Gainesville murders increased the likelihood that he would be prosecuted on assault charges that otherwise would probably have been dropped. Good Student and Boy Scout I knew, until he was gone, I couldn't really start my life again and be me," Lahey said. "He was just the wrong boy at the wrong place at the wrong time--with the wrong malady.". ", "Always studying. But Humphrey was left torn and tarnished. His premonition came true the next day. The killer always managed to avoid being spottedby potential witnesses. "So I wanted to have the last word.". Before moving to Edward's current city of Palm Bay, FL, Edward lived in Melbourne FL and Indialantic FL. He didn't want to go to school because he didn't want to see anybody. Investigators narrowed their list of prime suspects to four Sunday in the grisly slayings of five students and hinted that the serial killer left ``messages of some importance.' I fell asleep there.". "He has been persecuted. After Lewis told the investigators what Rolling had told him, investigators would then ask Rolling if what Lewis said was correct. The two 23-year-olds had been close friends since high school and had just begun living together. "Should I smile? Then 28, he received a bachelors degree in business administration with a 3.76 grade-point average, graduating magna cum laude. They didn't connect the robbery to the Gainesville murders until later on, when they listened to it. Edward Lewis Humphrey was an early suspect in the case of five grisly murders of college students in Gainesville, Fla. Daniel Rolling was eventually convicted of the killings, but Humphrey was never officially cleared by the police. A top official in the case points out the murders were methodical and elaborately planned. Law enforcement officials, as well as the prosecutors office, regretted the way Humphrey had been treated. "He's one of our best employees. He had Even though three decades had passed, I knew it wasnt going to be easy for Humphrey to talk about his darkest days; a time when his name was linked to grisly crimes. I knew that many people with connections to the Gainesville murders had left Florida. On Aug. 30, 1990, four days after the first victim was found, Humphrey was arrested after a fight with his grandmother and charged with battery. Were gonna do whats best for Ed and put all these miserable stuff behind us.. Humphrey, 19, nodded when his 79-year-old grandmother blew him as kiss as he entered the courtroom but was generally oblivious to the proceedings. He's only given his home phone number to one--Ed Humphrey. "No offense." "The first night I was in there, no one told me anything," he says. But there was one major problem for investigators: Even though DNA testing technology was still in its infancy, investigators were able to determine the suspect's blood type through semen left behind at all three crime scenes. Ray Barber, called for backup and with more investigators on the scene, they found Powell dead on the first floor of the apartment. I had to know it. Im happy I always have the support of family and friends, and Im happy with my family now.. "I just thought it sounded like he was being railroaded,"says Kennedy, who noticed an article about Ed one day in the San Francisco Chronicle. Ed Humphrey and his 79-year-old grandmother had been fighting again. John Donvan, a former reporter for ABC News who covered the Gainesville cases, said Lewis claimed Rolling told him many of the details of the murders and that Rolling wanted to confess. Few who knew him in his early high school days dreamed he would ever become a murder suspect. And they don't even know what the terminology is. Blood spattered an easy chair, the carpet, the coffee table. He may be a possible suspect, announced Sadie Darnell, then the Gainesville police spokeswoman. Kelly McClory, 24, had joined the kennel staff last October. He sent $25. As the questioning went on, Rolling began to say he'd "dealt with different personalities all my life." One piece of this wall has remained unchanged for more than 30 years: The section where the names of all five victims are painted in remembrance: Sonja Larson, Christina Powell, Christa Hoyt, Manuel Taboada, Tracy Paules. But his attorney, Donald Lykkebak of Orlando, said: "The prolonged investigation has been emotionally and financially exhausting. They say Humphrey made a "sawing motion" across his throat with the knife and threatened to get a gun and shoot them. Marker Address Rent ? He glances again at the photographer. "I hit her and I'm sorry." There is still a court order not to discuss evidence m the case. He reportedly threatened several people there with a large knife and once warned a security guard: "God told me to kill you. During the robbery, a teller had slipped a red dye pack into the bag of money, and later on that night, an officer noticed a man walking into a wooded area, Hewitt said. "Here was a kid who was held up as a ass murderer," Mackenzie says. "I don't want people to read about me. I just couldn't even sleep. To do so, he claims, would jeopardize the prosecution. WebEdward Lewis Humphrey, Age 51. aka Lewis E Humphrey, Edward J Humphrey, Humphrey Edward Lewis, Humphrey Humphrey. ", Marti Mackenzie nods. He'd tried to choke her, she said, and when she fell to the floor, he hit her in the face. The task force searched his Indialantic home and Gainesville apartment. The grand jury considered evidence against Humphrey but declined to indict him. I walked to my car, trying not to look back, trying not to think about those scars Id seen on his face. She disagrees. Would you like to meet him?". "I feel 100 percent that the media is the main reason our country is the way it is," Ed says afterward, disgusted. I got it done . His grandmother would later try to drop the charges, insisting Ed never hit her, that she accidentally fell into the fireplace. Sonja Larson's body was found on her waterbed on the second floor, with stab wounds in her arms and torso. The world was watching to see how and when they would catch the killer. According to another newspaper report, Humphrey's statements to police may be challenged because prosecutors stretched the law to keep defense attorneys away from him after he was arrested Aug. 30 in an attack on Hammack had been with the Brevard County Sheriff's Offfice for less than a year, but he'd been to the plantation-style Indialantic house at least five times before. Like the previous murders, Paules, who'd been raped, was found posed and she had soap on her lower body as well as tape residue on her wrists and mouth. "Every time they'd mention [Tracy's] name, it was like a punch in the head," Lahey said. But at the trial, she testified she had fallen and hurt herself in the dark. A once-peaceful university town panicked. But Public Defender J.R. Russo said today that some hospitals rejected Humphrey outright and the only ones that would admit him would charge $600 to $1,000 a day, more than the family could afford. Rolling wanted to address the court. Now he works six days a week, attends community college and wants to become an X-ray technician. Her right eye was swollen shut. He'd seen interviews with his new neighbors on the evening news, and they had said they were afraid of Ed Humphrey. But I thought about the few words that Humphrey uttered in our brief conversation. The door opened and before me stood Ed Humphrey. I had practiced so many times what I would say in this moment. The two talked in June at the Krispy Kreme doughnut store where McGrath worked. Ed's dad, family friends told investigators, had a ferocious temper. "I'd have taken a room full of him," says Bill Thomas, Ed's teacher in eighth grade. "It's hard for me to picture him doing anything discreetly.". "All I want to know [is] what was she thinking. Humphrey, who was released from state prison in September after serving 10 months for beating his grandmother, had no comment Friday on the grand jury's action. His public defender, J. R. Russo, said Humphrey's mental state deteriorated while he was jailed. The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville cited sources it did not identify in today's story about Edward Lewis Humphrey. ", A police officer told state investigators that 10 days before the killings Ed claimed he was going to Gainesville to "cut up some women.". You could see [she was] in a bad position, and I just turned around and walked out," Curnutt said. "If any evidence comes out later, he can still be indicted. His mug shot fueled growing public speculation and drew hordes of reporters from around the country. As for his own behavior, Ed says: "I can't help it if my body (needs) lithium. He had a promising future ahead of him. On Aug. 30, the day after the last of the bodies was found, Edward Humphrey--then 19, deeply troubled and wild-looking--was arrested and jailed for assaulting his 79-year-old grandmother. Would he demand I leave? I mean, I was amped. Before he could stand trial for the murders, however, Rolling was convicted on federal bank robbery charges, Smith said. The second, more sinister personality, was named "Gemini" and Rolling blamed him for his deadliest acts. That's who you are?! (Edward Lewis Humphrey was an early suspect in the case of five grisly murders of college students in Gainesville, Fla. Daniel Rolling was eventually convicted of the killings, but Humphrey was never officially cleared by the police. "I can't blame them for making Ed a suspect, but I can blame them for sticking with it. A task force of police agencies in Gainesville, searching for the killer who had ", (Eighteen-year-old Sonja Larson was among the victims of the so-called Gainesville Ripper, Danny Rolling, in Gainesville, Florida, in 1990. "Recon lock and load!" It was a nasty, turbulent, protracted parting that left Ed's mother--a devout Catholic--devastated. He also said he hopes to resume his studies _ but not at the University of Florida. Police found Paules on their living room floor. "But there are some things that you just can't run from and this being one of those.". 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