Execution Day Set for Killer in 1980 Slaying of Palm Harbor Girl

Young Elisa Nelson was riding her bicycle to school on Nov. 4, 1980.

She was late and carrying a note from her mother explaining that her tardiness was because of a dentist appointment early that morning.

But the 10-year-old girl never arrived to her Palm Harbor school.

Her bicycle was found later that day in a ditch about a mile from school, state records indicate. 

Her lifeless, blugeoned body was found in an orange grove the next day. 

Gov. Rick Scott signed a death warrant Friday, March 1, ordering Elisa's convicted killer Larry Eugene Mann, 59, be excuted by lethal injection on Wednesday, April 10 at 6 p.m.

State records indicate that Mann abducted Elisa while she was on her way to school. A medical examiner determined she died of a skull fracture caused by a single blow to the head. A cement-encased steel pipe was reported to be found next to her body. 

Authorities began to connect Mann to Elisa's slaying after responding to an emergency call on his suicide attempt the same day Elisa went missing. Mann told authorities he had “done something stupid and needed help,” state records indicate.  

Mann's wife later discovered the bloodstained note Elisa's mother had given her inside his 1957 Chevy pickup. He was arrested on Nov. 10, 1980.

Mann reportedly attempted suicide several times before Elisa's abduction and slaying. He also has a history of pedophilia and psychotic depressions, although no signs of molestation were observed on Elisa's body, according to state records.

Mann was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping in Pinellas County in 1981. He remains in custody at Union Correctional Institution (Male) in Raiford, FL.

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