Lillian DeCloe: Florida woman's brutal 1994 murder case solved after 24 years
BROWARD, FLORIDA: The brutal 1994 murder case involving an 89-year-old woman from Florida is now finally solved. A team of officers during their investigation had to dig through the grave of a former US Marine, who lived near the victim’s home to get to the bottom of this cold case, as stated by the Broward Sheriff’s office on Tuesday, December 13. Lillian DeCloe was killed in her Pompano Beach home in April 1994.
Authorities have identified the killer as Johnny Mack Brown, a Vietnam War veteran, who lived close to DeCloe's house. The culprit had been dead for more than a decade now and struggled with PTSD and drug addiction, his family shared with the sheriff’s office. Officials were able to close the case successfully, with the key factor being semen recovered from DeCloe’s nightgown after she was sexually assaulted by her killer. The case was reopened in 2019 by the department's Cold Case Homicide Unit.
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"Like an episode of 'CSI', a series of breakthroughs led to Lillian's killer, and the first emerged from DNA evidence recovered from Lillian's nightgown," said the sheriff's office in a statement. "The killer left semen on the garment after he sexually assaulted Lillian. From that evidence, BSO's Crime Lab developed a suspect profile." A familial search of the database conducted by authorities with help of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement speed up the process, which involves using a DNA profile to search for close male relatives to the contributor. This led to the identification of a known offender who had spent time in a Florida prison, with an on-record DNA sample, revealed by the sheriff’s office.
The authorities then deduced the known offender to be a possible relative of the DNA contributor in DeCloe’s murder, ultimately leading investigators to Brown. Later in August, the detectives exhumed Brown’s body in order to collect tissue samples from his remains, reports CBS News. It was then found after testing that Brown’s DNNA matched evidence left at the crime scene.
"The results were more than conclusive – the DNA results are 66.8 trillion times more likely that they came from Brown and DeCloe than if they came from DeCloe and another person," said the sheriff's office.
DeCloe’s family struggle for almost three decades finally ended as they wondered all this time, "who could possibly murder this harmless woman, who spent her life as a teacher and nurse, caring for others," as per the sheriff's office. "I know wherever she is, she can sleep in peace," said DeCloe's niece, June Nicholas.