FL - Sharon Gill, 42, murdered, Punta Gorda, 21 March 1990 *Arrest in 2021*

OkieGranny

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The POI in this case was a neighbor who continued to be a menace to society, as detailed in this lengthy article from November 2003:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20031109/NEWS/311090335

The 1990 murder of the Deep Creek woman, Sharon Gill, remains unsolved. Investigators at the time had said Shawn Malsky bragged about the murder to several friends. After Malsky spent 27 months in jail, however, prosecutors dropped the charges because they were unable to place him at the scene of the killing.

Still officially a cold case:

http://www.ccso.org/PublicInterest/unsolved_detail.cfm?r=17

On March 21, 1990, in the afternoon hours, CCSO deputies were called to the residence of Sharon Marie Gill on Rampart Blvd in the Deep Creek section of Punta Gorda, Florida after a family member came home and discovered that she was dead inside her house.

Investigation revealed that Sharon Gill had been stabbed multiple times. She was home alone at the time of this incident and no signs of forced entry into her residence were discovered.

MSM from 1992:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=snsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5799,2661417&hl=en
 
April 16 2019
Authorities in Florida need help solving cold case with Detroit connection
"SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WXYZ) — Authorities in the south need metro Detroiters to help solve a cold case with a connection to Michigan.

Investigators in Florida are actively looking for any information that can help bring the killer of 42-year-old Sharon Marie Gill to justice."
"Investigators arrested a neighbor for Sharon's murder but was that neighbor was eventually released due to a lack of evidence.

Krista says she never thought police had the right person."
"The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office believes someone in Detroit and the surrounding areas has information on this case.

"Try to remember back to that time," said Det. Gandy. "I believe again there are people there that have information that will help us. I believe they are still in that area and I believe that they want to try and help us."

rbbm.
 
Found this link on another thread so added it here.

Posted: 2:12 PM, Oct 03, 2019
Investigators say new DNA profile has developed in Sharon Gill cold case

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. -- Investigators have announced two new developments in the 1990 cold case murder of Sharon Gill in the Deep Creek area.

According to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, new tests using DNA technology have developed a new DNA profile in the case. Additional testing is still required to determine how this new DNA profile may assist in solving this case.
 
I hope the original tipster can be found and remembers details. This had to be a resident. Charlotte County just wasn’t that populated back then. There were snowbirds and tourist but it’s still to this day, a rural quiet area.

We spoke to Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office detectives looking into the decades-old cold case murder of Sharon Gill, 42, about how they are accomplishing that task Friday.

Snip:
“Deep Creek was a fairly new community, up-and-coming community, at that time, with a very low crime rate,” Gandy said.

That’s why the 1990 deadly stabbing of Gill inside her home was extremely unexpected.

“It was just not your typical homicide,” Gill said. “People walking, neighbors outside, and she was stabbed multiple times.”

Det. Kurt Mehl said special attention has been given to Gill’s murder.

“We have been heavily focused on this particular case,” Mehl said.

Their work is paying off. The cold case team put together a list of more than 20 potential suspects.

“The ones that we have spoken with so far have been very cooperative,” Mehl said.

Their cooperation, along with evidence, lie detector test results and new technology have helped the detectives clear several potential suspects from that list.

“We still have the potential of having some DNA that is being examined as we speak today with new methods,” Gandy said.

Investigators won’t completely clear them until they positively identify the person responsible. But it brings detectives one step closer to finding that person.

“If for nothing else for providing some type of answer to the families of the victims,” Mehl said.

Detectives received an anonymous tip about a suspicious person walking in the Deep Creek area around the time of Gill’s murder. They want to speak more with that tipster.
 
Cold case detectives to release info on 1990 homicide

Charlotte County Cold Case detectives will announce “significant information” on their investigation into the 1990 homicide of Sharon Gill on Monday afternoon.

[....]

Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell, Assistant State Attorney Dan Feinberg and members of the Cold Case unit will be answering questions on Monday.
 
Charlotte County murder case solved after 30 years - NBC2 News

Roland “Rollie” Thomas Davis, 68, has been linked to the murder after detectives say DNA evidence connected him to the crime.

Davis is currently on death row for killing an 86-year-old woman by stabbing her to death in Ohio, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office.

[....]

Davis had traveled to southwest Florida in the 1970s and worked in Charlotte, Lee, and Hendry Counties, deputies say. He was 37 at the time of Gill’s murder.

Detectives say Davis’ DNA was found inside Gill’s home and new technology made the connection possible.

Davis is already on death row for the stabbing death of Elizabeth Sheeler in 2000. She was 86 at the time of her death. Detectives say he stole money from her apartment and took off. He was connected to this crime in 2004 through DNA evidence also.
 

Charlotte County murder case solved after 30 years
''Detectives believe Davis could be connected to other murders in Florida and other states.''
''Detectives say Davis’ DNA was found inside Gill’s home and new technology made the connection possible.

As for a motive, detectives say Davis is “probably just a psychopath.”

Davis-1024x576.jpg

Roland Davis Mug Shot: 2003 Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office
 
Press release from the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office:

1990 Murder of Sharon Gill Solved

Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Blank-banner-5.png


Sheriff Prummell is pleased to announce another cold case is solved.

On Wednesday March 21, 1990 Sharon Gill was murdered in her home on Rampart Blvd in Deep Creek. Sharon was stabbed 39 times. Sharon, 42, was a recent Charlotte County resident and was to be joined by her husband Percy Gill after he finished work in Michigan. Percy was a minister in Detroit. Sharon was found deceased by her 18 -year- old daughter Krista, when she returned home from school.

The Cold Case Team has followed numerous leads in this case over the last few years and conducted numerous interviews. For the past year they have devoted more time and focused on this case extensively.

The Cold Case Team recently received confirmation from the biology section of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement laboratory in Tampa that evidence submitted by the team produced viable DNA connecting Roland (Rollie) Thomas Davis to the murder. Davis was born November 14, 1952 in Newark, Ohio.

The Cold Case Team established Davis was employed with a landscape crew that did work at the Gill home prior the murder.

Davis is currently on death row in Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Ross County, Ohio for the 2000 murder of an 86-year-old retired nurse. The retiree was stabbed to death in her home in Newark, Ohio.

Our Cold Case detectives have recently interviewed Davis at the Ohio prison. Details of that interview and some other details must remain confidential while we await decisions on how and when the prosecution team will proceed. More information will be available later.

The Cold Case Team has learned Davis was in Southwest Florida, traveling from Ohio on and off between 1970 and 2004 and lived and worked in the Charlotte, Lee and Hendry county areas during this time period. In 1990 when Sharon was murdered, Davis was 37 years old.

According to information obtained by detectives, Davis had a few male and female acquaintances in our area and frequently visited several bars within Lee and Charlotte County. The Cold Case Team continues working to identify these past friends and associates.

We are asking anyone who knew Roland (Rollie) Davis and/or any of his friends or associates to please contact the Cold Case Team.
 
Arrest made in 1990 Charlotte County homicide

The Cold Case Team has learned Davis was in Southwest Florida, traveling from Ohio on and off between 1970 and 2004 and lived and worked in the Charlotte, Lee and Hendry county areas during this time period. In 1990 when Sharon was murdered, Davis was 37 years old.
................................................

BBM

You don't say.

It's the least wonderful time of the year in Florida but thank God for genetic DNA.
 

Charlotte County murder case solved after 30 years
''Detectives believe Davis could be connected to other murders in Florida and other states.''
''Detectives say Davis’ DNA was found inside Gill’s home and new technology made the connection possible.

As for a motive, detectives say Davis is “probably just a psychopath.”

Davis-1024x576.jpg

Roland Davis Mug Shot: 2003 Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office


I'm thinking maybe a connection to Elizabeth Zea? It was during that time period.

Elizabeth Zea
 
''Roland Thomas Davis Sr. a.k.a. "Rollie"
•Jan 28, 2021
SWFL Crime Stoppers
Cold Case Detective Kurt Mehl spoke with SWFL Crime Stoppers Trish Routte about Roland Thomas Davis Sr. and his ties to Fort Myers. We are urging anyone with information to come forward. If you knew, saw, or even heard of Roland “Rollie” Thomas Davis Sr., contact Crime Stoppers or the Charlotte County Sheriffs Office. He was known to hang out at the Mayfair Lounge in North Fort Myers.''
Ohio death row inmate may be linked to multiple SWFL cold case homicides
''CCSO is looking into any connections Davis may have to unsolved homicides or missing women from the 1980s and 90s. They say he used to hang out at the now-closed Mayfair Lounge in North Fort Myers and has a history of violence.

If you have any information on Davis’ relationships in our community during that time frame, call us at 1-800-780-TIPS or reach out to us online at southwestfloridacrimestoppers.com or on the P3Tips mobile app. You can also contact the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office at 941-639-0013.''
 
Dirt bag ****** I am thrilled his DNA is in CODIS. I hope it is helpful for genetic genealogy in the future. It would definitely not surprise me to find he committed more murders.

Jan 29 2021
Police probe links between Ohio death row inmate and at least two cold case murders | Daily Mail Online
''They are also trying to establish a connection between Davis and female skeletal remains that were discovered along US 41 in south Punta Gorda in 1980 and other unsolved cases in Lee County.''
38634970-9201727-During_the_1980s_and_90s_Davis_was_said_to_favor_the_company_of_-a-42_1611944189082.jpg


38643508-9201727-image-a-43_1611944189277.jpg


During the 1980s and 90s, Davis was said to favor the company of bikers and prostitutes, who knew him by the nicknames ‘Rollie’ and ‘Manson.’ In 2003, David nearly killed a sex worker in Ohio (pictured in a mug from that time, right)
 
Roland "Rollie" Thomas Davis Sr., who had already been convicted and put on death row for the 2000 murder of an elderly Ohio woman, is now being looked at in multiple unsolved cases.

Cold case detectives in Florida said this week that they are eyeing a death row inmate, who late last year was connected through DNA evidence to a second, decades-old murder, as a possible suspect in other unsolved homicides and missing person cases from the 1980s and '90s.

Det. Kurt Mehl with the Charlotte County Cold Case Unit said in an interview this week that they are looking at convicted murderer Roland "Rollie" Thomas Davis Sr. in multiple unsolved cases. Davis was convicted of the murder of an elderly Ohio woman 15 years ago and was charged in November with the brutal 1990 murder of a Florida mother who was found stabbed dozens of times in her home. He was also arrested in Ohio in 2003 for severely beating a prostitute, detectives said.
Death Row Inmate Recently Linked To 1990 Murder Eyed In Other Cold Case Homicides

Charlotte Co. detectives think man arrested in 1990 homicide could be linked to more crimes

CCSO is looking into any connections Davis may have to unsolved homicides or missing women from the 1980s and 90s. They say he used to hang out at the now-closed Mayfair Lounge in North Fort Myers and has a history of violence.

“Because Mr. Davis has been involved in at least two homicides and an attempted homicide of a prostitute in Columbus, Ohio, he is on our radar for unsolved cases of missing women and murdered women, murdered females,” CCSO Det. Kurt Mehl said.

One of those unsolved cases is Christine Flahive, who went missing back in 1995 in Charlotte County.

Detectives are also looking to see if Davis is linked to a woman’s remains they found in Punta Gorda in 1980 and other cases in Lee County.
Ohio death row inmate may be linked to multiple SWFL cold case homicides
 

A Grand jury has indicted Roland Thomas Davis after DNA evidence connected him to the murder of Sharon Gill.

The Charlotte County Sheriff Cold Case Team later established that Davis was employed with a landscape crew that did work in the Gill’s home prior to the murder.

Davis will be extradited to Charlotte County to face charges of first-degree murder.
 

A cold case was closed after a man indicted for the 1990 murder of Sharon Gill in Charlotte County passed away from a medical condition in July.

On November 3, the State Attorney’s Office ordered to drop charges on Roland Thomas Davis, 70. He was on death row waiting for execution in Ross County, Ohio for a separate murder charge until his passing on July 8.
 

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