DNA links death row inmate to cold case murder of Florida mom

(WBBH/NBC News Channel) — Florida authorities have solved the 30-year-old murder case of a Charlotte County woman.

Members of a cold case unit in Charlotte County linked the murder of 42-year-old Sharon Gill to a man who is currently on death row in Ohio.

Gill was murdered in her home on March 21, 1990. Detectives confirmed DNA evidence connected 68-year-old Roland “Rollie” Thomas Davis to the slaying.

Gill was stabbed 29 times in her home in the Deep Creek area of Punta Gorda.

“She was found by her then 18-year-old daughter Krista when she returned home from school,” Sheriff Bill Prummell said. “Recently they received confirmation from the biology section of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in Tampa that evidence they submitted produced viable DNA evidence connecting Roland Rollie Thomas Davis Sr. to the murder.”

“We have learned that Davis was in Southwest Florida, traveling from Ohio to Florida between 1970 and 2004 and lived and worked in Charlotte, Lee and Henry County areas during this time period,” Prummell said. “Of course he denied being in our vicitm’s home which of course is where the DNA was found on an item in her home, where his DNA should not have been.”

Davis is already on death row for the 2000 Ohio murder of Elizabeth Sheeler, who was 86 at her time of death. Detectives said Davis stole money from her apartment and took off. He was connected to the crime in 2004 through DNA evidence.

Investigators suspect Davis could be connected to other murders in Florida and other states.

As for a motive in Gill’s murder, detectives believe Davis is “probably just a psychopath.”