BROOKSVILLE, Fla. – The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office has announced a suspect has been charged in the 1993 kidnapping and killing of Jennifer Odom.
During a news conference Thursday morning, Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis announced that Jeffrey Norman Crum, 61, has been charged in the case.
Crum, already serving two life sentences for sexual battery and attempted murder, has been charged with first degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in the Odom case.
Crum had become a suspect in the case during the past few years as detectives continued to work the cold case.
“I can tell you the investigation never stopped,” said Nienhuis, who added that Crum may be a suspect in other cases.
Prosecutors said they will be seeking the death penalty in this case.
Odom was 12 when she vanished from a Dade City bus stop in February 1993.
Odom got off her school bus in Dade City but never made it to her family’s home, prompting a massive search by local law enforcement and volunteers.
Six days later, Odom’s body was found in an overgrown section of an orange grove in Hernando County.
Authorities have been working the case ever since.
Crum was convicted in April of 2019 in another cold case involving the 1992 brutal rape of a 17-year-old Pasco County girl.
Hernando County Detective George Loydgren said that girl was left for dead in an area just 15 minutes from where Odom’s body was found, and like Odom, she too had just gotten off her school bus when she was attacked.
In 2015, FDLE identified Crum as the suspect by using a familial DNA search after the DNA of Crum’s son was taken while he was in prison for armed robbery.
The work of Loydgren, other detectives, state attorney offices, and Pasco and Hernando county officials led them to Crum.
“Over the last 30 years, countless detectives, sworn law personnel and civilians and tipsters have had a hand in this investigation,” Nienhuis said.
Loydgren said he was happy to see an arrest finally made but more work still needed to be done.
“(I’m) happy that we’re at a point where we’re able to charge Jeffrey Crum,” he said. “And begin the legal process on having him answer for what he did.”
Jennifer Odom was 12 when she vanished from a Dade City bus stop in 1993. She was found dead a few days later in a Hernando County orange grove. (FILE IMAGE)
