After three decades, Florida investigators say they have found the man allegedly responsible for kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old girl as she was walking home from school—before leaving her body in a nearby orange grove.
Jeffrey Norman Crum, 61, was indicted on several charges, including first-degree murder, in connection with the February 1993 death of Jennifer Odom, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office said Thursday.
Crum is already serving two life sentences in connection to a similar cold case a few counties away. Authorities say that case, in which authorities used DNA to convict Crum of sexually assaulting a high school student and leaving her for dead in 1992, was instrumental in linking the suspect to Odom’s murder.
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“All of us, especially those of us in law enforcement, can think of Jennifer as our sister, our niece, our granddaughter, and realize, man, this was a tragedy beyond tragedy,” Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said at a press conference announcing the indictment.
State Attorney Bill Gladson said his office will be seeking the death penalty against Crum. It is not immediately clear if Crum has a lawyer.
The arrest marks a major development in a case that rocked a rural Florida county. Authorities say that on Feb. 19, 1993, Odom got off her school bus around 3 p.m. and said goodbye to her friends before embarking on the 600-foot walk to her home.
Friends told authorities that they saw a blue pickup truck following Odom as she walked away, the sheriff’s office said. The child never made it home, and it took authorities about six days and an extensive search to find her body.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, authorities say she was found facedown, naked, and decomposing in an orange grove. Her clothing, including a red sweater and Hooters hoodie, was never recovered. Two years after her body was discovered, a couple hunting for scrap metal found her missing backpack and clarinet case in western Hernando County, authorities said.
Over the years, investigators say they combed through more than 1,000 pieces of evidence in the case that ran cold for years.
A major break, however, came in 2015, when Crum was charged with sexual battery in an attack that took place just 13 months before Odom was murdered. In that case, the 17-year-old girl who was assaulted survived after she was found behind an abandoned house. Crum, who has an extensive criminal history that includes convictions for a 1981 robbery and a 1985 sexual battery case, was convicted in 2019.
“The MOs in both cases were almost identical with the exception of Jennifer, as you know, was abducted and found six days later,” Nienhuis said. “[Crum] quickly became our primary suspect in the Jennifer Odom case.”
The sheriff added that his officer was finally able to link Crum to the Odom case with biological evidence. And despite the arrest, he added, his office is still asking for more information about the case.
“We truly believe there are one or more individuals out there that have information that can help add a little piece to that mosaic about what happened with Jennifer,” Nienhuis added.
