Unsolved Mystery
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Who Killed Jack Sharp And Friend In 1983?
March 13, 2004|By David D. Porter, Sentinel Columnist
When Pamela Sapp was growing up during the early 1980s, she lived in a remote section of east Orange County that locals called Bunker Hill. Outsiders call it Bithlo.
Bunker Hill was close knit, Sapp said. She considered neighbors and other residents to be members of her extended family. But over the course of three days in October 1983, a series of events occurred that scarred Sapp's life. Those events sowed rumors that still haunt some longtime east Orange County residents.
On Oct. 11, 1983, Sapp's father, John C. "Jack" Sharp, and his friend Fred Tate were slain. No one has been arrested for this crime.
Sapp, who was 9 when her dad was killed, is determined to find justice. She has been sending e-mails, making phone calls and talking to people in an effort to find new clues. The mother of four, who co-owns a cleaning business, needs help.
She described her father -- 53 at the time of his death -- as a strong man who wouldn't take guff from anyone. Standing almost 6 feet tall, he weighed about 200 pounds. She said he was active in the parent group at her school and attended local churches. My computer background check showed he did not have a criminal history in Florida.
Sharp ran a scrap-metal business at the family homestead -- 13 acres on Baron Road. That area still is very rural. The tragedy began to unfold on Sunday, Oct. 9, when Sapp and her parents returned home from a family reunion in Gainesville. They found their home had been burglarized. "It was torn apart," she said. "Everything was a big mess. It was as though they were looking for something."
Several items, including some firearms, were stolen. A truck was missing from the property. Later, it was found up the road. Its engine was blown.
The family called deputy sheriffs, who investigated the burglary. The deputies said that they couldn't find any fingerprints. The family stayed home Monday, Oct. 10, and cleaned up the mess caused by the burglary. The next day they went about their usual business. Sapp went to school, and her mother, Beth, went to her job. Sapp's father had errands to run, and Fred Tate came by to help him.
When Sharp returned to the house, he apparently saw some suspicious tire tracks on the property. He called his wife and told her that a pistol that was in the house when he left that morning was missing. "OK," he said, "this is it." And he hung up.
Several times that day, Mrs. Sharp called the house. No answer. When she got home from work at midafternoon, he wasn't there, but she figured he was still running errands. When it turned dark, she got worried, and the family called everyone they knew but there was no sign of Sharp, Tate or Tate's van.
That night, worried friends and relatives gathered at the house. They called the Sheriff's Office to report the men missing. Near dawn on Wednesday, Oct. 12, after a deputy had come to take a missing-persons report, relatives spotted some tire tracks near the house. They followed the tracks to a swampy, overgrown area and found the bodies of Sharp and Tate. The condition of the bodies suggests to me that these killings were the work of someone with a stone heart. The missing van was found on Interstate 4 at State Road 434, where it had been set on fire.
Sapp has been frustrated and wonders if detectives have done enough to crack this case. She has sent e-mails to Sheriff Kevin Beary to press for more action. To be fair, though, it's important to note that Lawson Lamar, now the Orange-Osceola state attorney, was sheriff when these slayings occurred.
Sheriff's detective Tom McCann was a rookie on the homicide unit when these slayings were committed. He was assigned to that case with a veteran investigator who retired a few years ago. McCann, who still is in homicide, said he and his partner worked the case vigorously, but they never could develop any good leads.
In addition to finding the identity of the killer, the other big mystery is the motive for these slayings. That question has been the source of rumors for years in east Orange. Sapp said one theory is that the slayings resulted from a business dispute. But the leading rumor is that illegal drugs were involved.
Sapp insists that her father never would be involved with drugs. But she said people have told her they heard that her father didn't realize that an old washing machine or dryer that he picked up for his scrap business was used to hide a large amount of drugs, or drug money. If that's true, she said, it could mean that a person trying to retrieve the appliance's contents might have committed the burglary and the killings.
That scenario is intriguing, but detectives need facts, not theories. Tipsters can call Crimeline at
1-800-423-8477. A strong lead could earn a caller a reward of up to $5,000.
Pamela Sapp and her family deserve some answers.
