FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - The Broward Sheriff’s Office made a break in a cold case from the 1994. Detectives have solved the murder of an 89-year-old woman.
Eighty-nine-year-old Lillian DeCloe was brutally murdered after she was strangled and sexually assaulted while she was at her Pompano Beach home. For almost 30 years, her family has had no closure not knowing who killed their loved one.
“Lillian obviously fought for her life, she sustained numerous injuries in the fight,” said BSO Detective D. Towsley.
This family is now breathing a sigh of relief after learning who the murderer was.
On Tuesday, BSO spoke to the media to announce that they have found DeCloe’s murderer and that the case is now closed.
At her home, DeCloe was strangled as she struggled with the man who broke in.
Detectives said she fought for her life.
At the time, detectives thought this was a case of a simple burglary. The crime would go unsolved for close to 30 years.
DeCloe’s niece, June Nicholas, would be the one to find her after she was killed.
“It was that bad,” she said. “I would lay in my bed, and I would see her on the floor.”
The case was reopened in 2019, and a nightgown that had semen on it was re-tested with technology that has greatly improved over the years.
“Ultimately, they didn’t come up with a suspect, and it went cold for a good many years,” Towsley said.
BSO teamed up the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and were able to tie the new findings to a man called Johnny Mack Brown.
The new technology is able to connect DNA with that of family members that are already in that database.
The DNA results led them to a man, which then led them to Brown, which was his father.
“They re-tested it and came up with a young man who had spent time in Florida prison that we now know was a relative to the suspect,” Towsley said.
BSO then exhumed his body and pulled tissue samples and bone marrow from Brown, and that’s when detectives determined he was 100% the man who sexually assaulted and murdered DeCloe.
Detectives also learned that Brown lived a few doors down from DeCloe.
“I think it was just the opportunity, he lived close by, only a few houses down,” said BSO Det. D. Towsley. “When he fell on hard times and he went homeless, and he had a drug habit. It indicated that he broke into the house. He may or may not have known she was there alone, but she was 89, she lived by herself, and it looked like all the drawers were opened and things were gone through the house, like burglary gone bad. She must have confronted him, and it went from there.”
Ultimately, Brown murdered her in a very vicious way, according to detectives.
Detectives said that DeCloe’s family was an absolute pleasure to deal with, and now, they finally have some peace and closure in this case.
“I know wherever she is, she can sleep in peace,” Nicholas said.
For detectives and the cold case team, the solving of this case was a victory.
DeCloe’s family can now rest easy knowing who the actual murderer was.
BSO said they will continue to reopen these cold cases and are hoping that they will have favorable outcomes such as this one.
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