ACTIVE SEARCH FL - Daniel Lee Upton, 30. Suspect Prison Escapee Stephen Michael Smith, 34. Gulf Co. 19 Aug 2019.

[PastTense]

"A $10,000 reward has been offered in the search for an escaped Georgia inmate who was identified as a suspect in a Florida homicide, authorities said.

Stephen Michael Smith, 34, is wanted in the shooting death of a 30-year-old man whose body was discovered Monday morning in Gulf County, a sparsely populated community in the central Florida Panhandle. Smith was reported missing from his Clayton County transitional center five days earlier after he did not return from work.

Authorities in Gulf County have not released many details about the homicide. The victim was found shortly after 10 a.m. Monday at a home on Sea Pines Lane, which is located yards from the beachfront in Port St. Joe. In a news release Tuesday, Gulf County officials identified 30-year-old Daniel Lee Upton of Lakeland, Fla., as the victim. It’s not clear if Smith and Upton knew each other."
Escaped Georgia inmate identified as suspect in Florida homicide

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Authorities located the suspect wanted for allegedly shooting and killing a man in Gulf County on Monday. After pursuing the suspect, authorities said the suspect is dead after he shot himself in the head Tuesday night.

Law enforcement had been searching for Stephen Smith following the murder of Daniel Upton from Lagrange, Georgia.

U.S. Marshals Task Force and Gulf County Sheriff’s Deputies said they found Smith in his car traveling on U.S. Highway 98.

Law enforcement agencies tried to apprehend him by surrounding the vehicle at the intersection of Ivy Road and U.S. Highway 98 in Bay County.

Before officers were able to apprehend Smith, they said he shot himself in the head with a pistol.

Bay County Sheriff’s Office will investigate the incident of Smith’s death.
Gulf County murder suspect dead in Bay County