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After 35 Years Sarasota Police Solve the 1985 Murder Cold Case of Denise Stafford
The murderer was already serving a life sentence for another murder in the area
On October 12th, 1985, twenty-eight-year-old Denise Stafford was home alone with her daughter in Sarasota, Florida. Denise was a new mom, and her husband, Frank, was working a night shift at a local bar called the Playground Lounge.
While the exact timeline of the events is unknown, sometime between 11 PM that night and 3:10 AM, Denise was attacked and strangled to death while standing in her bedroom. Her body was found with her head placed at the foot of the bed. This led investigators to believe that she had been placed there after her murder.
Police reviewed the crime scene and Stafford’s home and found no evidence of forced entry. Leading them to believe that Denise knew her killer and that she had let them into her house. But they weren’t able to produce a suspect, leaving the case to go unsolved for years.
By 2020, DNA and forensic technologies had advanced rapidly. Investigators remained convinced that Denise had been placed on her bed by her killer and that her clothing would contain traces of the killer’s DNA from where they would have had to touch her to move her. In March 2020, Denise’s…
