Who is Jabez Spann? Florida teen disappeared from Labor Day party in 2017 after 'witnessing a murder'
SARASOTA, FLORIDA: It has been three years since Jabez Spann disappeared with no arrests made to date. The 14-year-old had vanished from a Labor Day party which he had attended with his family in Sarasota. It has been a year since his remains were discovered along a fence line near the Manatee County. The authorities have not yet given an official cause of death.
The Sarasota Police Department on Friday, September 4, 2020, offered a reward of $50,000 for any information leading to an arrest in the case. The Sarasota PD took to their Twitter handle to post, "Today marks 3 years since #JabezSpann disappeared. In February 2019, his remains were found in a rural area in Manatee County. We're still asking for info in connection to his death. If you have info, call @SRQCrimeStopper at 941-366-TIPS. $50,000 reward remains for info leading to an arrest."
Spann, who would now have been 17, had been reported missing on September 4 in 2017. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement had sent out an alert at the time and revealed that Spann was last seen around 22nd Street and Palamadelia Avenue in Sarasota, WTSP reports. He had been wearing a turquoise-colored shirt and was 14 at the time he vanished. His skeletal remains were discovered in February last year. His family said that Spann may have witnessed the murder of a 31-year-old man, Travis Combs, before he disappeared.
A police report revealed that there were three men chasing Combs and shouted "give it up" to him, a week before Spann went missing. At the time of the chase, Spann was leaving his friend's house on 22nd street when he heard a gunshot. The gunshot struck Combs in the chest and he fell down dead. In the report, Spann has been quoted as saying, "Oh my God. Y’all shot him." A week later, Spann was reported missing after he attended a candlelight vigil for Combs, Jacksonville reports.
Spann's grieving grandmother, Lucille Tillery, spoke to Fox News on Friday, September 4, and said, "I seen that little boy every little day. I seen him every day. The last time I seen him was this day. You go to bed every night wondering when you wake up the next day is somebody going to come around and say well so and so did this to Jabez." "They throw my grandson side of the road like he was a piece of trash, like he didn’t have no family, like nobody cares about him, I’m here to tell you today this is a sorry community. You want us to get out there and say black lives matter, sure black lives matter but what about the kids getting killed in our community by our own blacks. Their lives matter too," she shared.
The family has also started the Jabez Spann Foundation. The Sarasota Police are continuing to track leads. Captain Johnathan Todd said, "We are confident there’s somebody in the community that has basically the key that will unlock this case for us." Anyone with information about Spann's case can send information anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 941-366-8477.