More Today
Working on three leads on the Billings murders. I hope to post something significant on the case later today.
Yesterday was our print day for the newspaper so I had to wear my publisher hat most of the day. The Thursday, July 23 issue has a solid cover story on the Billings case.
The phone rang off the hook yesterday. I was interviewed, really it was more of an ambush, by Jonathan Hunt for Shepard Smith’s show on Fox News. Hunt went after the validity and reliability of my sources for the murder-for-hire post. I must have handled it better than he expected, because they decided not to run the interview….or I was just that bad of an interview. The networks don’t like being scooped by a small town newspaper publisher.
CBS News is reporting that “Florida police have now unequivicably stated they are not investigating the murder of Byrd and Melinda Billings as a contract hit.”
Further in the report:
Sheriff’s spokesman Ted Roy said Tuesday that investigators only considered a contract hit as a possibility for “a fleeting second during the initial phase of the investigation.”
“Could it still be a motive? I guess it could, but someone else other than the investigators assigned to the Billings case will have to investigate it because investigators working the Billings case sure don’t believe so,” he said.
Read more.
Last November, a man walked into Pen Air/Members First Credit Union in the Live Oak Village Shopping Center, Gulf Breeze. He is described as a white male in a black hood sweatshirt and wearing blue jeans, black or brown shoes, black gloves and carrying a gun. He looks to be in his late 20s to early 30s around 5’8” and weighing about 180 lbs. His face was covered so that just his eyes were showing.