DNA Technology Unveils New Suspect in 30-Year-Old Jennifer Odom Murder

A 61-year-old man was arrested and charged in connection with a cold case investigation involving the 1993 killing of a 12-year-old girl in Florida.

Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said during a press conference on Thursday that Jeffrey Norman Crum has been charged with murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in connection with Jennifer Odom’s death.

It's not immediately clear if Crum has entered a plea or retained an attorney.

Jennifer was last seen getting off her school bus in northeastern Pasco County to walk home in 1993. Six days later, her body was found along a horse riding trails off Powell Road in Hernando County with signs of trauma, signaling she was “brutally attacked and murdered,” police said at the press conference. 

Her death launched a manhunt for the suspect, which had been originally focused on the driver of a blue pickup truck some fellow students said they saw at the scene after Jennifer left the bus.

Since then, investigators have tested “dozens and dozens” and “maybe even hundreds of items” they believed to be linked to her death. However, despite their efforts, many of the clues and leads led to dead ends.

HERNANDO COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICEHERNANDO COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE VIA AP

Nienhuis said after years of investigating leads, a breakthrough came due to biological material collected from a crime scene from another teenager who was “horribly attacked” and sexually assaulted 13 months prior to Jennifer's death.

The biological material found was put through a DNA analysis in 2015; it allegedly identified the 61-year-old Crum as the primary suspect in that case. 

“The MO’s in both cases were almost identical with the exception of Jennifer, as we know, who was abducted and found six days later. So [Crum] quickly, almost instantaneously, became our number one suspect in the Jennifer Odom case,” Nienhuis said.

Following this breakthrough, investigators worked for years gathering evidence against Crum through several interviews. While officials wouldn’t give many details about the evidence found in the case, they said he owned a blue truck and was familiar with the area where Jennifer was taken and killed. 

“I have confidence that we have the right person and that we have the right aggravators, in this particular case, to treat it as a death penalty case,” said Bill Gladson, State Attorney for Florida’s 5th Judicial Circuit.

"This is every parent's worst nightmare," he added. "This is a thing that keeps parents up at night, worrying about their children."