Bullet hole in the middle of John Deal’s recovered prescription glasses. Credit: Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office.
The three-members of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office (Florida) Cold Case Homicide Team are getting closer to solving the oldest homicide case on their docket. After a Y-STR match, they are seeking information from the public—especially anyone who may have spoken to 16 specific people they believe have direct or indirect information about the murder.
The murder in question is unusual in that the Cold Case Homicide Team does not have a body to work with—just physical evidence from a crime scene.
In January 1971, a local resident reported evidence of a crime left in the middle of a desolate stretch of roadway in Port Charlotte, Florida. This included a man’s hat, broken eyeglasses, a bank notice, a large amount of fresh blood, and a 22-caliber shell casing.
When examining the physical evidence, the detectives noticed the eyeglasses, which were broken in the middle by what appeared to be a 22 bullet, appeared to be prescription. They were later identified as belonging to 71-year-old John Deal, leading detectives to believe Deal was shot between the eyes with a 22-caliber firearm. The amount of blood on scene would indicate that Deal did not survive—however, his body has never been found.
“We have testimony that suggests this crime was interrupted by an approaching vehicle and the people involved in the murder hastily moved Deal’s body from the scene of the shooting,” said Mike Vogel, a member of the Cold Case Homicide team.
The recovered bank notice, a service charge for a check that failed to clear, was addressed to a Betty Faber. The investigation at the time revealed the 27-year-old Faber, who was known by a variety of names, was renting housing from Deal. Their relationship was friendly with Deal providing Faber a good amount of money, until an argument resulted in Faber moving out.
Once investigators tracked her down through a relative, Faber showed up to the police department driving Deal’s truck—which had blood in the trunk. Forensic tests confirmed the blood to be human, not fish as Faber had indicated. The woman said she dropped Deal off in Naples before he was to travel to Tampa for a medical procedure.
The initial investigation went cold shortly after. But, the current cold case detectives located a nephew of Deal’s in Georgia and obtained a DNA sample. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement compared the crime scene samples with the nephew’s samples and returned a Y-STR match, indicating the two are male relatives.
“This lab result combined with the other physical evidence gives us proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the blood from the scene was John Deal’s,” said Vogel.
Now, Vogel and the other cold case team members, Mike Gandy and Kurt Mehl, are seeking help from the public to finally close Deal’s case. They have identified and released a list of 16 people the detectives say have “discussed this matter with others.”
“We would like to speak to anyone who had contact with any of the people at or after the time of the crime, and heard any of them speaking about the crime,” said Vogel.
The listed are not necessarily suspects, the detectives say:
- Andy Naylor, (Lee, Charlotte County)
- Betty Faber AKA: Betty Cole, Betty Naylor, Betty Bird (Lee, Charlotte, and Sarasota County)
- Frank Jenkins AKA Sonny Jenkins, (Lee County)
- Brenda Jenkins AKA Brenda Ray, (Lee County)
- Ted Smith, (Lee, Charlotte County)
- Shirlene McMillan Williams, (Lee County)
- William Duffy, (Charlotte County)
- John Bird, (Sarasota County)
- John Faber, (Charlotte, Lee County)
- James Harkcom, (Lee County)
- Clarence Whickum, (Lee County)
- Larry Lopez, (Lee County)
- Ida Mae Pinder Dailey, (Lee County)
- John Nelson, (Lee County)
- Donald Naylor, (Lee, Charlotte County)
- Robert Naylor, (Charlotte County)
“We realize how much time has passed since the murder. We do believe there are still people in the area that have direct or indirect information on this case, no matter how insignificant they think their information may be,” said Vogel.