FL FL - Jennifer Odom, 12, Blanton, 19 Feb 1993

[docwho3]

For now I still think he might have worked at the hospital but it is possible
that he had once worked the groves and then moved up in the world.
(Thankyou for the video link. Very nice.)

I wonder if there were nearby canals to dump the truck in?
The recent case of the man who drove his car into a canal with his son in it
brought to light about 17 vehicles that had been dumped into the canal
to get them out of sight.

It also made me wonder if they are checking those vehicles for matches to old violent crimes or thefts.

Still there were evidently many many thousands of blue pickups on the road.

I did a simple websearch on blue pickups used in abductions or attempted abductions
and got pages of results.

 

[Skully]

snipped:

Income
The average hourly wage for farmworkers in Florida over the period from 1988 through 1997 was $5.36. The median personal income for Florida farmworkers was between $5,000 and $7,500 per year, and the median family income was between $7,500 and $9,999 per year. Three- quarters of the Florida farmworkers had family incomes that were below $12,500 per year. The families of six out of ten Florida farmworkers had incomes that put them below the poverty line.

Fruit pickers often climb high ladders while carrying bags that weigh up to 95 pounds when full. A typical citrus worker in Florida harvests fruit from a ladder of 18 to 20 feet in length, picking three to five tons of fruit per day. Many injuries occur when workers fall from trees, or strain backs due to heavy loads they must carry.

Living Conditions
Because of their low incomes and itinerant employment schedules, farmworkers have relatively few housing options available to them. While there are several federal farmworker housing rental projects in Florida, these facilities provide accommodations for less than five percent of Florida’s farmworkers. Only a handful of Florida growers provide housing for their employees.
Most Florida farmworkers must scramble to find rental units in the communities in which they work. Because of high rents, farmworkers often pool their funds to rent a dilapidated house or trailer. Many of these units are seriously overcrowded and in severe disrepair.
Taken from floridalegal.org/facts

This report was done for 1990-1993 farmworkers. If you google Florida migrant workers 1993, you will get other reports and stats. One was that many go on to work jobs as mechanics, landscapers, and such with the season is off. This fills in the income gap. Most of the workers are men who are married and leave the family at a different location and work the fields to support them. So it is possible the grove was done here, and he back tracked knowing she was walking alone and there was no one around to see him. He most likely lived with other workers and the truck was the main transportation, but he could have just parked it. I don't know if he could drive it without it being registered. I know people do to this day.

 

[Skully]

For now I still think he might have worked at the hospital but it is possible
that he had once worked the groves and then moved up in the world.
(Thankyou for the video link. Very nice.)

I wonder if there were nearby canals to dump the truck in?
The recent case of the man who drove his car into a canal with his son in it
brought to light about 17 vehicles that had been dumped into the canal
to get them out of sight.

It also made me wonder if they are checking those vehicles for matches to old violent crimes or thefts.

Still there were evidently many many thousands of blue pickups on the road.

I did a simple websearch on blue pickups used in abductions or attempted abductions
and got pages of results.

One of the problems with checking out vehicles is, in FL, you have people from all over the states. If he was a farmworker, he probably didn't have it registered. It could have come from Mexico or given to him. So if you run a report on blue trucks in the area, it is not showing up. They did road blocks and checked people in trucks and who they were. It is on one of the video's here. So finding the truck never happened. But there are hundreds of lakes, swamps, ponds, rivers in this area to dump a truck.

 

[Beatrice]

This is the video of the first 6 miles of our drive....

Video # 1 on Vimeo

Great video, Bern! Thank you!

 

[Skully]

Okay, here is the next 6 miles, one more video and we will be done. Let me know what you think.



Video # 2 on Vimeo

 

[Skully]

I just wanted to tell you that I can only do 10 minutes of video at a time, because that is all you can up load to vimeo at a time. These files take 3 hours to upload and get on this site. So I have one more to go about another 6-8 minutes of video. I did not name the last turn off that takes you to where her body was found for a reason. It has never been put in the paper, just an area, so I am not putting it out there.

I don't know about you, but I feel like crying as I do this drive. She was taken and murdered in broad daylight. He was brazen enough to have her in his truck at the peak of cars on the road, people coming home from work, and school. He knew where he was going and it was a long ride, with a body in his truck. How was he so sure, no one would stop him or see something, or get a ticket on the road? Just brazen. Just some of the things I think about when I sit and watch this video.

I know somebody knows what happened and who did this, I really hope someday they will be brave enough to tell what they know.

 

[Skully]

Just a note, since Dec 10, 2010 we have had 1,908 views on this thread. I am happy she is not forgotten after all these years.

 

[carbuff]

Thank you so much for these videos. It really helps visualize the area.

I noticed that in video 2, you seemed to be driving through a somewhat more densely populated area, with houses that looked like they were just rural residences, not farms. Would those have been there in 1993?

 

[Skully]

Thank you so much for these videos. It really helps visualize the area.

I noticed that in video 2, you seemed to be driving through a somewhat more densely populated area, with houses that looked like they were just rural residences, not farms. Would those have been there in 1993?

No many of them were not there. My hubby did the drive with me and said that most of the area was rural and lots of groves. Many of the pines you see on the sides of the road, have remnants of orange trees thought them. I guess they figured they would just die out without the direct sun. The road itself was not all paved like it is now. It was a main road in the second video but not as nice.

 

[Astrella613]

So, they have never released a cause for her death?

 

[Skully]

So, they have never released a cause for her death?

Head trauma.

 

[Skully]

Final Video,..
Video # 3 on Vimeo

 

[Skully]

I found a collections of articles on rootsweb ancestry.com

There is a lot of information that I didn't see in the other articles. Jennifer died of head trauma, she was beaten to death according to St Petersburg Times.

" Hernando sheriff's Sgt. Frank Bierwiler would not say wherther the "trauma to the head" was the result of a gunshot, some other wound or a beating. Later, Bierwiler appeared on television, saying she died of blunt trauma to the head, indicating she had been beaten. end quote.

Feb, 25, 1993 St. Petersburg Times: Sally Hicks; Rick Gershman

snipped

"They're also convinced she would never willing go with a stranger. Mrs. Converse described herself as "paranoid" about her children's safety, and the conversation of two weeks ago was just one of many they had had about how to handle strangers.

We used to say, "Chill out. this is the county. This is where we grew up, "Mary Beth Denney said. But they all understood the need for caution: "Jennifer was so pretty, so energetic and bubbly. She was the type of child anybody would want. We were overly protective of her because of that."

Jennifer was taught to be awar of her surroundings, though Converse speculated that the presence of workers in the surrounding groves recently might have inured her to the sight of strange vehicles on the usually isolated road.

end quote

In the video of the drive you see some cars and some houses, but 17 yrs ago this whole area was isolated, very few cars on the road. Most of the area was orange groves. So that is why I think that a worker or someone connected with the grove industry (manger or supervisor) may have know the area, been around enough to see her and know she was alone walking at this time. I think this person was very angry because of the way she was killed and left with such disrespect to her body, uncovered. It could have been some sort of imaged slight on his part, or just anger against a class or gender. But he knew this area, well. The fact she was dumped on the side of a horse trail and her cloths are somewhere else and the back pack and case were found in another dump site, shows his intent with where he placed things. I don't know how long the back pack and case were in that dump site, but I bet her cloths, purse, boots and anything else are in another dump or place that is disrespectful in nature. This feels like a very angry man, with an axe to grind. I don' think revenge of any kind, just he had a hateful nature or jealous nature. Perhaps he was poor, or worked the fields and wanted something bigger in life. IDK.

 

[Astrella613]

This verifies the vision I got of her. I got severly beaten, beaten to death, hurts to write this or think about it.
I just got to watch the second video now and there were two spots I got a feeling at, one near the beginning and one near the end.

 

[Astrella613]

Number three gave me high anxiety all through it. Think he lives or lived right near this area.

 

[Skully]

Just a friendly reminder if you have visions, or dreams or psychic impressions, please put them in the parking lot Dream Thread. Thank you.

 

[carbuff]

Was the area at the end always wild like that, or is it another abandoned orange grove?

 

[Skully]

Was the area at the end always wild like that, or is it another abandoned orange grove?

She was left on the horse trail, like just off the side in the pines. The area today is very over grown and I would think 18 yrs ago, it was more like woods and trails for people to ride horses and walk. This trial was used everyday. So she was found 6 days after she disappeared. People were searching near her home, some 10- 15 miles away. They searched the groves near her home and this couple was one of the searchers. They were walking this horse trail and found her. So he wanted her found because there are so many places he could have hid her body, including water with gators and they wouldn't have found her that fast. So I don't really know how to answer your question.

 

[carbuff]

That answers it very well, thank you.

Do they know how long it was between when she was killed and when she was dumped?

 

[Skully]

That answers it very well, thank you.

Do they know how long it was between when she was killed and when she was dumped?

6 days. She was taken on a Friday, and found the next Thursday.

Just a note, she was off the bus by 3:00, her sister was home by 4:00 and they called the sheriff's office by 4:30. They were there by 5:00, as I read within 90 minutes of the time she got off the bus, deputies had been called out. It would still be daylight here in FL in Feb. I know if you live up North it gets dark around 5pm in the winter. So they had daylight for hours yet. I have to wonder if he took her somewhere and then dumped the body after dark? That may explain why things got separated, cloths from the body and backpack and case. He may have been in a hurry as LE was searching miles away, but would be up his way very shortly. Just thinking out loud as I do.