Murder Suspect Awaits Trial

The man who authorities say is responsible for the death of a young Tampa girl in the 1970s now sits in the Pinellas County jail awaiting trial.

Jerry Fletcher, 69, was booked into the jail about a month ago on murder charges stemming from the death of Gina Justi, age 14.

Justi vanished while on her way to see a puppy near her Tampa home. Her body was later found in a Palm Harbor orange grove. Authorities say she had been raped and strangled.

The case went cold for forty years until 2010 when Pinellas County Sheriff's Cold Case Detective Mike Bailey picked up the case and used DNA collected from the crime scene where Justi's body was found, according to this Palm Harbor Patch story.

The DNA profile was submitted to a national database and got an immediate hit for Fletcher. Bailey's investigation also found that back in the early 1970s, Fletcher was a contract industrial painter who lived in Tampa about seven miles away from where Justi was supposed to visit the puppy.

He also discovered that Fletcher lived in Tampa in 1972 and was accused of abducting a girl from a restaurant off Dale Mabry Highway and raping her.The case went to trial and a jury found Fletcher not guilty.

But Fletcher would face a judge again.

In 1974 an Illinois jury convicted Fletcher of killing 13 year-old Shirley Mccune in 1973, Bailye said. Fletcher was serving a life sentence in that case in Illinois when the Florida State Attorney's office issued a warrant charging him for Justi's murder.

There is no date set for Fletcher's trial.

Related-

• DNA Leads Detective to Suspect in 1971 Killing of 14 Year-Old

Were you living in Palm Harbor in 1971? Do you remember this case? Let us know in the comments section below.

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