June 5, 2024 • 31 mins
On April 25, 1994, 15-year-old Laralee Spear was abducted, shot, and killed after she stepped off her school bus outside DeLand, FL. Her murder has never been solved. A $50,000 reward is available for the tip that leads detectives to the killer.
Guest Bio and Links:
Detective Cordell LeMay with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, has 14 years of experience, including 11 as a detective. He holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a professional certificate in profiling from the University of Central Florida.
In this episode of Zone 7, Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum, sits down for a part two series with Detective Cordell Lemay to discuss the unsolved case of Laralee Spear, a 15-year-old high school student from DeLand, Florida, who was tragically murdered in 1994. Detective LeMay details the events of that day, the investigation's progress, and the current focus on finding new leads through DNA evidence. They discuss the importance of community involvement and the $50,000 reward for information leading to the case's resolution.
Call the Major Case Unit at 386-254-1537 or email ColdCaseUnitTips@volusiasheriff.gov if you have any tips on the Laralee Spear case.
Resources:
Who Killed Laralee Spear? 50K Reward and 30 Years Later with Sheriff Michael Chitwood
Show Notes:
- (0:00) Welcome back to Zone 7 with Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum
- (2:00) Sheryl introduces guest, Cordell Lemay to the listeners
- (3:00) Overview of Laralee Spear's Case
- (6:00) The crime scene and initial investigation
- (12:30) The search for suspects
- (17:30) Community involvement and call to action
- (20:30) “The easiest secrets to keep is the secret only one person knows about because you don't got other people that can rat you out. But even if it's just one person, I firmly believe over 30 years somebody had to get this off their chest to somebody.” -C.L
- (23:00) Detective LeMay's commitment
- (30:25) “Even when a case wasn't mine if I thought I could contribute, whether with my forensics expertise or investigative doggedness. I always found a way to insert myself.” -P.H
- Thanks for listening to another episode! If you’re loving the show and want to help grow the show, please head over to iTunes and leave a rating and review!
---
Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnLine, Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and a CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook., Cold Case: Pathways to Justice. Sheryl is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students and the criminal justice community together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.
Social Links:
- Email: coldcase2004@gmail.com
- Twitter: @ColdCaseTips
- Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Y'all. This is part two of the cold case of
Laura Lee's spear. Y'all remember last week we got to
speak with Sheriff Chipwood out of the Volushi County Sheriff's Office.
He was fantastic. He wants this case solved and he's
got the right man on it. I'm gonna tell y'all
(00:29):
Detective Cordell LeMay. He has been with the Volucia County
Sheriff's Office for fourteen years, eleven of those as a detective.
He has worked major case He's worked crimes against persons,
property crimes. Started as a road deputy and that's where
(00:50):
he got I'm sure the majority of his training. He
holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a professional
certificate in profiling, both from UCF the University of Central Florida.
He was the first deputy in recent memory, so that's
probably about three decades that successfully investigated and charged a
(01:15):
reco case. Then he pioneered the development of the geo
fence search warrant for his department. He was only second
to Raleigh, North Carolina in the whole country pulling that off.
He was also Investigator of the Year. I have talked
to this man. We have talked about Laura Lee's case,
(01:38):
and I'm going to tell y'all right now, he don't
get tired. We talked about different people, threw some names out,
said hey, this might be a way to get you
some help. This might be a different advantage point, this
might be a new way to look at something. He
was all about it. He was not going to hesitate
to try whatever he could. It is my honor to
(02:01):
welcome Detective Cordell le May to Zone seven.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Thank you very much for the kind of introduction. I
really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
You are more than welcome. I'll tell you the sheriff
had some nice things to say about you too, off air,
of course, but he did. It was a wonderful conversation,
and he just talked about how devoted you were and
determined and just a solid deputy all the way around,
well respected, good head on your shoulders, ethical, the whole package.
(02:31):
So I know what you're putting into this case, and
I just appreciate you coming and sharing with us and
maybe even talking a little bit about how anybody listening
can help you. So why don't you take a second
and just kind of give us an overview of Laurlee
Spears's case the way you know it.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
On April twenty fifth, nineteen ninety four, a rictim Laurley Spear.
She was a fifteen year old high school student. She
lived in DeLand, Florida, which is, for those unfamiliars, a
pretty rural town in Vlusha County, Florida. It especially was
in nineteen ninety four. Larlie went to DeLand High School
(03:16):
and she was a just getting into the cheerleading squad,
and in addition to that, she was active in her
local church youth group. From all of the interviews with
family and friends, those were her two main priorities. Extracurricular
stuff outside of that didn't really didn't really exist. So
(03:37):
it was it was school, homework, straight A. She was
a straight A student, and when she wasn't at home
or at school, she was out at cheerleading practice or
she was at a church function.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
So this was a good kid.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, yeah, I almost want to say, like textbook perfect child.
From everything I've heard about her, didn't have a mean
bone in her body. And that's really what makes what
happened to her so disturbing and upsetting, because here we
have a truly innocent victim. On April twenty fifth, ninety four,
(04:14):
she got off her school bus around three point thirty
pm on Deerfoot Road into Land now back then Deerfoot
Road it still is, but back then even more so.
It was a dirt road, probably about a mile long,
actually three quarters of a mile long, and there were
(04:34):
houses on each side of the dirt road. But it
was the road was pretty narrow, so only about wide
enough for a single car to get by one at
a time. She was the only one that got off
on her school bus, got off of her school bus
at that stop, and so she walked down the road
to her home and she never made it home.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And she was a rule follower, I mean she would
have hit that door right on ton absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
It was said that her mother could almost set a
clock by her schedule. Her mom was home and so
within ten to fifteen minutes of her not getting home,
her mother realized that something was a miss. She started
calling around to Larley's friends and to neighbors asking if
anybody's seen her, and nobody had, so at that point
(05:25):
her mother called the sheriff's office. There was actually one
or two deputies that were patrolling that area at the time,
they weren't far away. They responded to take that missing
person's report at about four o'clock. Like I said, she
got off the school bus at three thirty. At about
four o'clock her mom reports are missing. People in the
neighborhood start looking for her. Deputy start looking for the helicopter,
(05:48):
which we call air one, goes up in the air
and starts starts looking for her in the area, and
they locate her body not far away the other end
of the road that she lives on, which is basically
about a quarter of a mile away from her house.
They locate her body there at a burned down residence.
(06:11):
The house that it was at it caught fire of
the year before burned down. Nobody lived there anymore, but
that's where the helicopter found her body at about five
forty PM I believe.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So DeLand is inland, yes, So it's what forty minutes
from the beach, give or ten. So you're not talking
about somebody that's near the water where all kinds of
tourists and different people would be just walking or driving
or cruising around.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
No, DeLand is not a tourist destination. It's just you know,
a residential, little small town in the area.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And Deerfoot Road. I mean it's lined with pretty thick
woods even today.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah today, even more so back then, which is why
it wasn't easy for you know, the cars to pass
each other on the road. You had to pull over
to let somebody drive by.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
If somebody was laying in wait, she wouldn't have seen them.
So I have to brag a little bit now about
your department, because a lot of times nineteen ninety four
or today, you get a call like that from a
mama and you're like, well, I mean, maybe she's talped
at a friend's house, maybe she missed a bus, maybe
(07:24):
she decided to go to a boyfriend's house, maybe she
ran away. Y'all did not do that. Y'all immediately took
this seriously, got some deputies over there, started a search,
even put a helicopter in the air. I mean within
an hour, you pretty much had a full own search,
which I think is impressive.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
They really did, because it was just so outside of
the norm for this girl. She didn't go anywhere on
her own, She didn't take it upon herself to hey,
you know, just walk over to her friends or whatever.
You know if she wasn't where she was supposed to
be when she was supposed to be, and there was
(08:04):
some sort of issue.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And that's important to understand that victimology, and I mean
detective I got four sisters. Charlene, you could set a
clock by she was going to be home when she
said she was going to be home. Now, my sister Shelley,
that was a different story. If she found a better
time or something more interesting or something more fun, she
(08:26):
was going to go in that direction. So I mean,
we would have probably waited much, much, much longer before
we realized something bad had happened to her, because we
knew she was probably somewhere half the time of her life.
But I think it's important that even her sister Jenny,
who was only thirteen, I mean, everybody in her family
knew she wasn't running away. She wasn't somewhere spoken and drinking.
(08:49):
She wasn't somewhere just with friends playing video games. That
was not her style. So again, I think your department
taking it on like I did, says an awful lot.
And y'all ain't given up yet. I mean you're still
giving it everything you've got.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Well, we really are. I mean, it's just passed the
thirtieth anniversary of this happening. This thing needs to be solved,
and we're all of the same opinion, and from the
top all the way down, we want to try and
pull out every stop that we can to make sure
that this thing gets resolved. It's been too long now,
(09:29):
and y'all.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Have offered fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
That's a chunk it change it is.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And if I had to guess that abandoned house was
the centerpiece for some folks going there drinking, smoking, shooting guns,
this is not the only crime they've been associated with.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yes, So that area after it burned out, I don't
know what it was like before it burned down, but
after it burned down, it became a hangout spot of sorts.
Older teenagers, young adults would go back there, hang out,
drink beers. Shooting was not uncommon in the area, So
(10:12):
I don't know if this is specifically the only place
that people would go target shooting, but after talking with
many of the neighbors at that time, it was uncommon
to hear gunshots and there was plenty of evidence of
target practice going on at the scene there, which becomes
such an important aspect of the investigation because of the
(10:38):
fact that we found evidence to suggest that the person
who killed her had been there previously at another date
target shooting in that area, which obviously you and I
understand to be very important because it shows that whoever's there,
it's not like some passer by just passing through the neighborhood.
(11:03):
They most likely live around that area, and they're familiar
with the area, and they've been there before. And what
makes it doubly important is if there are other people
hanging out there in addition to this unknown suspect being
there occasionally, some people are probably going to cross paths
with this guy at some point.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Oh, I think the possibility that other people know this person,
know that this person shot guns there, know that this
person was kind of a regular there. I have a
feeling he either bragged about it or told on himself
in some way, because again, as the crow flies, you know,
he might be able to go somewhere and be a
(11:45):
good distance away sort of. But the reality is that
spot is not something you would see from the roadway.
It's not something you would know about if you weren't
from that general area.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And I mean like to yeah, absolutely, And I used
to back when I was on patrol in my early
days at the agency. I worked in that area, and
this is before I learned of this case, But I
became kind of familiar with those back roads and everything.
But when I first went back there, I had no
idea where the heckuy was going. I was kind of
it was easy to get lost, so especially if somebody
(12:21):
had to be familiar with the area and know where
they were going.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Now y'all have done such due diligence. Y'all have had
about twenty four different suspects.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, we had a lot more than that, to be
completely honest. So we have DNA that's going to help
us find this guy. As far as the DNA goes,
we're able to use it to either rule in or
rule out somebody. Obviously, so far, everybody has been that
we've been focusing on has been ruled out, so to speak,
(12:56):
or else we wouldn't be talking about this case anymore.
And of course there's there's people that we may can't
come into contact with that you know, refuse to give
us our DNA, that don't want to help out the
investigation for whatever reason. So you know, we got to
kind of think more three dimensionally about.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
How to how to.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Deal with those those issues. But way back in the
day when this started, through interviews that were done at
the time, a dark colored truck became a focal point
of this investigation after some neighbors in the area talked about,
you know, hearing gunshots, hearing gunshots around the time of
(13:35):
the murder when it would have happened, and then seeing
a dark colored truck beaten feet pretty quick out of
the area. It doesn't mean that's what we're looking for,
but it's a clue. At the time, you know, before
DNA evidence and anything like that existed, or while it
was in its infancy, this dark colored truck was one
(13:56):
of the biggest leads. We wound up with a guy.
His name was Bobby Rally. Bobby Raley was he was
currently in jail for a double murder that he and
his cousin, Domingo Figueroa, committed in June of that year,
(14:18):
So June nineteen ninety four, like a month and a
half after this murder, and while he was in jail
for it, there were some people in the jail that
started giving information about him, saying that he had confessed
to this, or he was making really weird comments about
this case. What they were telling us or what they
(14:39):
were telling the detectives at the time seemed very good.
It was decent evidence. We got all these people, probably
like five or six people in the jail. It was
coming forward with this stuff that either Bobby Rally is
telling them or they inadvertently observed about him when he
was at the jail, and so, uh, that really put
(15:01):
him on the radar. You know, he matched a or
he drove a vehicle that was pretty close to the
suspect description. I guess it was probably like a day
or two after the murder he actually took off to Virginia.
That was one of the things that we were looking for,
is that somebody who may all of a sudden up
and leave town, you know, after this sort of thing happens.
(15:24):
And so all this evidence was was compiled, it was
brought to a grand jury, and Bobby Rally was indicted
for this murder. And then some inconsistencies started showing. Long
story short, the investigation was reassigned and I guess I'll
say it was determined that Bobby Rally didn't do it,
(15:45):
but it was determined there wasn't probable cause for Bobby
Rally having done it, especially especially one of one of
the most impactful pieces of evidence was there was a
truck upholstery shop in the area and that was run
by a retired deputy who used to work with us.
(16:08):
On the day of the murder, Bobby Raley brought his
truck in there to get his seats replaced, and it
was in such a timeframe that it wouldn't have been
possible for him to do the murder and get back
there and be there to have his truck work done.
And so the charges against him were dropped and for
(16:28):
all intents and purposes, it was back to square one
with the investigation. Because this process with charging Bobby Raley,
I think it went on for a couple of years,
you know, after him being charged and you know, hearings
and the court process and all of that. So during
that time the investigation wasn't focused on anyone else. After
(16:48):
going through the case file and the deep dives that
I've done on it, there were a lot of good
suspects at the time. Say, in my experience as a detective,
I've never seen a rogues gallery of such good suspects
in a small area, especially a small little town like this.
(17:11):
Over the years after the charges against Rawlei were dropped,
the detectives that have worked on this case before me,
I've obviously done their due diligence to try and rule
out these other good suspects that we have. Some of
them have been ruled out, and you know, some of
them haven't been cooperative or for whatever reason, they have
(17:32):
not been ruled out. And I think it's important to
specify when I say ruled out, and I tell you
earlier on that we have DNA evidence. We use the
word ruled out or eliminated as a suspect or something
like that, But all it really means is that this
(17:52):
person is eliminated as a contributor to the DNA that
we do have. It doesn't mean that this person wasn't there,
you know, if there were more than one people. But
what it does mean is that for this whatever this
particular suspect data that we do have, that this person
isn't the one that matches that gotcha.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Well, there's things about the crime saying y'all have never
released and I am a big fan of the ex girlfriend,
and if there is anybody that we were to come
forward to say they dated this person that was known
to be at the house. That may be a name
that's in your file.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
You mean, like the people who used to live in
that house before it burned down? Is oatch? You mean?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I mean somebody that calls you up and says, hey,
I used to date X and he hung out at
that house and he told me yes, you know, GF
and R were at the scene, and You're like, we
have never released R. So how would this person know that.
I think we need to, you know, push this call
to action because I believe in my gut people know
(19:01):
this was not somebody that wasn't known to a ton
of people that went there drinking and smoking weed. They
all knew each other, and after this happened, they all disbanded,
and this person probably went goes for a little bit
and then started do another crap and is either in
jail in and out the last thirty years or he's
in prison right now.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Absolutely, whether it's one person that's responsible for this, Larly
was she was raised right, Okay, she heard all the
things that you know kids heard back in the nineties there,
you know, just say no to drugs, don't take candy
from strangers, you know, don't get into a vehicle with
(19:40):
weird people. And so she wouldn't have been one to
just hop into somebody's car, you know, if they were
driving down the road. There was an anecdote that I
remember from from that time that I guess there was
a neighbor with his son's that was driving down that
(20:01):
road and it was raining out, and he saw her
walking home and he stopped to say, hey, I'll give
you right back to your house. And with that innocent circumstance,
she politely declined said, hey, no, I'm not supposed to
get in the car with anybody. I don't know. I
think if if somebody were to get her in a car,
which obviously I think is the only way that she
(20:23):
could have been taken almost a mile down the road,
I was transported in a vehicle, somebody either had to
force her in there under threat, or there is more
than one person. The easiest secret to keep is the
secret only one person knows about, because you don't cut
other people that can ratch you out. But even if
(20:46):
it's just one person, I firmly believe over thirty years,
somebody had to get this off their chest to somebody.
If there's two people or more, then more than one
person already know about it. If there's one person, they
probably told somebody. If you know, mom, dad, girlfriend, grandma,
(21:07):
somebody out there knows about what happened. I guess it's
incumbent upon somebody's hopeful goodness as a person if they
have this information to finally come forward with it. There's
been a lot of people that have come forward. Every
time we have some sort of publicity about this case,
well meeting, people come forward to say, hey, this happened
(21:29):
back then. I thought maybe this is suspicious, maybe you
guys should check this person out. But to this day,
nobody has come forward and said, hey, I know something
about this, and this is what I know.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I want to be real clear. Don't call because you're
mad at an ex husband, don't call because you're trying
to get your neighbor in trouble or something ridiculous. I
want you to be able to call and say, this
is something about the crime scene that is not in
the newspaper, and the only reason I know it is
because this person told me. They bragged they got drunk,
(22:11):
they went to jail and needed some type of status.
Because here's the thing about you know, the Bobby Riley
you were talking about, if he said something to a
salemate that was enough to make that person reach out
to y'all. Again, let's get specific and if the DNA
(22:32):
doesn't match him, again, if there's a second person, does
it match Domingo Figueroa, Does it match somebody else that
they know? Are those two taking this case on because
they know who did it? But since they're in jail,
they know this guy hadn't been arrested, so they can
get the status from doing it. Let's make that push
(22:52):
somebody out their nose. This person has not kept their
mouth shut for thirty years. They have also not led
an honorable life. I can tell you that. And nine
times out of ten his name is in your case file.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
There's DNA advancements happening all the time. I'm not a scientist,
I'm just a cop. So some of this stuff is
difficult to wrap your mind around about how it works.
But I'm confident that with what we have, it's less
(23:28):
of an if we find what we're looking for and
more more of a win. It's just a matter of time.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I agree with you. One hundred percent, which is another
reason I'm telling those people, if you're listening to this,
there's fifty thousand dollars on the table right now, and
Detective le May is coming. He's going to solve it.
He's already got in his rolodex the name of some
people that I guarantee you if it's solvable, they can
do it today. So come forward, tell what you know,
(23:58):
because it's going to happen anyway. And I mean, fifty
thousand dollars is life changing.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, yeah, I could think of a lot of things
to do with fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Are you kidding? That could be the next six episodes
of Zone seven? What mean you to do with the
two thousand dollars?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Yes, ma'am, And you know. And I feel like, just
from a perspective of appealing to the humanity of people,
of somebody who may know what happened and is listening,
or even you know, even the person that did it themselves,
I can only imagine that this sort of thing is
(24:35):
a thing that eats at you, like somebody out there
did something really terrible and got thirty years to live
their life and do whatever they wanted to do with
their life. Meanwhile, Larley Spears stuck back in nineteen ninety
four because she never really got the chance to get
(24:56):
her life going. You know, it's time for the person
out that did it. It's time to It's a come
to Jesus moment. If we don't get you first, it's
time to do the right things.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I agree, And you know there's another reality. Some of
those people that used to party at that house have
a fourteen year old daughter today, have a fifteen year
old daughter, have a thirteen year old daughter like her sister.
You get to look at her every day, what she's into,
what she enjoys, the music, the school, dances, her clothes, whatever.
(25:28):
And you know who took that from somebody? You know
what would what it would do to you if something
were to happen to your child. It's a phone call.
You don't even have to say who you are, give
a name, give something that is not in the newspaper,
not even five minutes out of your day. Call detectivelo
May and say, hey, I don't want to give you
(25:49):
my name. I'm calling from a phone at Target. But
here's what I know, and here's who I know did it.
And I've read every newspaper article and this isn't in.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
It, absolutely, and I mean it's important for people to
know and understand that. And we're not relying on the
charity of strangers to try and point us in the
right direction. We're still out there beating up, beating the
pavement on this thing. I've knocked on on people's doors.
I tell them why I'm there, and their headspins. They're like, still,
(26:22):
like this thing's so old, you guys are you're still
actively looking into this, and it's like, yeah, we're still
going to ain't got to stop, Like no, that.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Blows my mind. It blows my mind when people think
that way, like there's a statute of limitations where we're
just not going to care about laar Ley Spear again.
And the reality is, let's say this person did get
completely away with it. That means there is somebody out
there pumping gas next to your daughter, somebody working at
the golf course next to your son, somebody eating dinner
(26:54):
next to your wife. That is not okay for that
killer to be able to do any of those things.
And let me just tell you something else. If y'all
don't want to call the police, reach out to me.
We had somebody. I'm gonna tell the truth. We had
a witness come through Zone seven last week. You can
call me, and for anybody listening, I can set the
(27:15):
record completely straight with y'all. I am a snitch. You
hear me, I got no fall. I will call the
detective at two in the morning, two in the afternoon.
I will go knock on his office door. I'm gonna
tell it. So if you call me, I am more
than happy to type it up, get it to him,
raise my right hand and swear this happened. This person
reached out. You don't have to tell me who you are.
(27:38):
You can send me an anonymous message or phone message
or whatever you want to do. Y'all know how to
work social media and everything else. You can reach out
anytime and I will get the information there. It's that
important and it's that easy.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yes. And speaking of the anonymity, we have crime Stoppers
in Florida to completely anonymous service if you want it
to be. People submit tips to us through there all
the time. Sometimes people when there's rewards, people aren't even
concerned about the money, you know, They like I just
don't want to get involved, but I want to say
(28:16):
something and you know that or them calling use a
perfect way for them for them to do that. If
somebody is interested in the money aspect of it, we're
there for you to.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, right on, because I'm going to tell it for free,
because that's just the right thing to do. But if
you need the money, and the money is there, that's
why they put it up. And if you need to
get that money, tell on this person and move. You've
got the means to be able to do it. The
biggest thing is do it, Detective. Give us a cross
(28:48):
street and maybe jog some folks' memories of exactly where
this house.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Was lacross street where this happened was. It was a
lot right on the corner of these two streets. It
was Deerfoot Road and Facio Road, and the land Deerfoot
Road runs it only runs from Facio Road to spring
Garden Road. And so Laralie got off the off the
(29:15):
bus at Deerfoot in spring Garden and she was found
all the way at the other end at Deerfoot and Facio.
That's the house that you know was used for hanging out, drinking,
shooting back then. Both Deerfoot Road and Facio Road, they
are both out of the way, dirt roads perfect.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And again, I truly believe that somebody used to frequent
that place, and after this happened, I don't think they
ever returned, and I think it was really obvious to
the people that knew them. And I just am prayerful
that somebody's going to come forward, and we are going
to keep y'all updated. And if y'all can think of
anything that you know, Detective la May can try, or
(29:55):
that Zone seven can try, let us know and we
will see what we can do to push this thing
where he needs it to be. Detective I appreciate you
so much. I know that her family appreciates what you're doing.
And like I said, you and I have talked that
I'm sure we're going to talk again, and I will
see you and Belusha soon.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
All right, it sounds good. Thank you, Cheryl. I appreciate
it so much.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Absolutely, y'all. I'm going to end Zone seven the way
that I always do with a quote. Even when a
case wasn't mine, if I thought I could contribute, whether
with my forensics expertise or investigative doggedness, I always found
a way to insert myself. Paul Hols I'm Cheryl McCollum
(30:44):
and this is Zone seven.
Y'all. This is part two of the cold case of
Laura Lee's spear. Y'all remember last week we got to
speak with Sheriff Chipwood out of the Volushi County Sheriff's Office.
He was fantastic. He wants this case solved and he's
got the right man on it. I'm gonna tell y'all
(00:29):
Detective Cordell LeMay. He has been with the Volucia County
Sheriff's Office for fourteen years, eleven of those as a detective.
He has worked major case He's worked crimes against persons,
property crimes. Started as a road deputy and that's where
(00:50):
he got I'm sure the majority of his training. He
holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a professional
certificate in profiling, both from UCF the University of Central Florida.
He was the first deputy in recent memory, so that's
probably about three decades that successfully investigated and charged a
(01:15):
reco case. Then he pioneered the development of the geo
fence search warrant for his department. He was only second
to Raleigh, North Carolina in the whole country pulling that off.
He was also Investigator of the Year. I have talked
to this man. We have talked about Laura Lee's case,
(01:38):
and I'm going to tell y'all right now, he don't
get tired. We talked about different people, threw some names out,
said hey, this might be a way to get you
some help. This might be a different advantage point, this
might be a new way to look at something. He
was all about it. He was not going to hesitate
to try whatever he could. It is my honor to
(02:01):
welcome Detective Cordell le May to Zone seven.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Thank you very much for the kind of introduction. I
really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
You are more than welcome. I'll tell you the sheriff
had some nice things to say about you too, off air,
of course, but he did. It was a wonderful conversation,
and he just talked about how devoted you were and
determined and just a solid deputy all the way around,
well respected, good head on your shoulders, ethical, the whole package.
(02:31):
So I know what you're putting into this case, and
I just appreciate you coming and sharing with us and
maybe even talking a little bit about how anybody listening
can help you. So why don't you take a second
and just kind of give us an overview of Laurlee
Spears's case the way you know it.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
On April twenty fifth, nineteen ninety four, a rictim Laurley Spear.
She was a fifteen year old high school student. She
lived in DeLand, Florida, which is, for those unfamiliars, a
pretty rural town in Vlusha County, Florida. It especially was
in nineteen ninety four. Larlie went to DeLand High School
(03:16):
and she was a just getting into the cheerleading squad,
and in addition to that, she was active in her
local church youth group. From all of the interviews with
family and friends, those were her two main priorities. Extracurricular
stuff outside of that didn't really didn't really exist. So
(03:37):
it was it was school, homework, straight A. She was
a straight A student, and when she wasn't at home
or at school, she was out at cheerleading practice or
she was at a church function.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
So this was a good kid.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, yeah, I almost want to say, like textbook perfect child.
From everything I've heard about her, didn't have a mean
bone in her body. And that's really what makes what
happened to her so disturbing and upsetting, because here we
have a truly innocent victim. On April twenty fifth, ninety four,
(04:14):
she got off her school bus around three point thirty
pm on Deerfoot Road into Land now back then Deerfoot
Road it still is, but back then even more so.
It was a dirt road, probably about a mile long,
actually three quarters of a mile long, and there were
(04:34):
houses on each side of the dirt road. But it
was the road was pretty narrow, so only about wide
enough for a single car to get by one at
a time. She was the only one that got off
on her school bus, got off of her school bus
at that stop, and so she walked down the road
to her home and she never made it home.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And she was a rule follower, I mean she would
have hit that door right on ton absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
It was said that her mother could almost set a
clock by her schedule. Her mom was home and so
within ten to fifteen minutes of her not getting home,
her mother realized that something was a miss. She started
calling around to Larley's friends and to neighbors asking if
anybody's seen her, and nobody had, so at that point
(05:25):
her mother called the sheriff's office. There was actually one
or two deputies that were patrolling that area at the time,
they weren't far away. They responded to take that missing
person's report at about four o'clock. Like I said, she
got off the school bus at three thirty. At about
four o'clock her mom reports are missing. People in the
neighborhood start looking for her. Deputy start looking for the helicopter,
(05:48):
which we call air one, goes up in the air
and starts starts looking for her in the area, and
they locate her body not far away the other end
of the road that she lives on, which is basically
about a quarter of a mile away from her house.
They locate her body there at a burned down residence.
(06:11):
The house that it was at it caught fire of
the year before burned down. Nobody lived there anymore, but
that's where the helicopter found her body at about five
forty PM I believe.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So DeLand is inland, yes, So it's what forty minutes
from the beach, give or ten. So you're not talking
about somebody that's near the water where all kinds of
tourists and different people would be just walking or driving
or cruising around.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
No, DeLand is not a tourist destination. It's just you know,
a residential, little small town in the area.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And Deerfoot Road. I mean it's lined with pretty thick
woods even today.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah today, even more so back then, which is why
it wasn't easy for you know, the cars to pass
each other on the road. You had to pull over
to let somebody drive by.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
If somebody was laying in wait, she wouldn't have seen them.
So I have to brag a little bit now about
your department, because a lot of times nineteen ninety four
or today, you get a call like that from a
mama and you're like, well, I mean, maybe she's talped
at a friend's house, maybe she missed a bus, maybe
(07:24):
she decided to go to a boyfriend's house, maybe she
ran away. Y'all did not do that. Y'all immediately took
this seriously, got some deputies over there, started a search,
even put a helicopter in the air. I mean within
an hour, you pretty much had a full own search,
which I think is impressive.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
They really did, because it was just so outside of
the norm for this girl. She didn't go anywhere on
her own, She didn't take it upon herself to hey,
you know, just walk over to her friends or whatever.
You know if she wasn't where she was supposed to
be when she was supposed to be, and there was
(08:04):
some sort of issue.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And that's important to understand that victimology, and I mean
detective I got four sisters. Charlene, you could set a
clock by she was going to be home when she
said she was going to be home. Now, my sister Shelley,
that was a different story. If she found a better
time or something more interesting or something more fun, she
(08:26):
was going to go in that direction. So I mean,
we would have probably waited much, much, much longer before
we realized something bad had happened to her, because we
knew she was probably somewhere half the time of her life.
But I think it's important that even her sister Jenny,
who was only thirteen, I mean, everybody in her family
knew she wasn't running away. She wasn't somewhere spoken and drinking.
(08:49):
She wasn't somewhere just with friends playing video games. That
was not her style. So again, I think your department
taking it on like I did, says an awful lot.
And y'all ain't given up yet. I mean you're still
giving it everything you've got.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Well, we really are. I mean, it's just passed the
thirtieth anniversary of this happening. This thing needs to be solved,
and we're all of the same opinion, and from the
top all the way down, we want to try and
pull out every stop that we can to make sure
that this thing gets resolved. It's been too long now,
(09:29):
and y'all.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Have offered fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
That's a chunk it change it is.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And if I had to guess that abandoned house was
the centerpiece for some folks going there drinking, smoking, shooting guns,
this is not the only crime they've been associated with.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yes, So that area after it burned out, I don't
know what it was like before it burned down, but
after it burned down, it became a hangout spot of sorts.
Older teenagers, young adults would go back there, hang out,
drink beers. Shooting was not uncommon in the area, So
(10:12):
I don't know if this is specifically the only place
that people would go target shooting, but after talking with
many of the neighbors at that time, it was uncommon
to hear gunshots and there was plenty of evidence of
target practice going on at the scene there, which becomes
such an important aspect of the investigation because of the
(10:38):
fact that we found evidence to suggest that the person
who killed her had been there previously at another date
target shooting in that area, which obviously you and I
understand to be very important because it shows that whoever's there,
it's not like some passer by just passing through the neighborhood.
(11:03):
They most likely live around that area, and they're familiar
with the area, and they've been there before. And what
makes it doubly important is if there are other people
hanging out there in addition to this unknown suspect being
there occasionally, some people are probably going to cross paths
with this guy at some point.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Oh, I think the possibility that other people know this person,
know that this person shot guns there, know that this
person was kind of a regular there. I have a
feeling he either bragged about it or told on himself
in some way, because again, as the crow flies, you know,
he might be able to go somewhere and be a
(11:45):
good distance away sort of. But the reality is that
spot is not something you would see from the roadway.
It's not something you would know about if you weren't
from that general area.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And I mean like to yeah, absolutely, And I used
to back when I was on patrol in my early
days at the agency. I worked in that area, and
this is before I learned of this case, But I
became kind of familiar with those back roads and everything.
But when I first went back there, I had no
idea where the heckuy was going. I was kind of
it was easy to get lost, so especially if somebody
(12:21):
had to be familiar with the area and know where
they were going.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Now y'all have done such due diligence. Y'all have had
about twenty four different suspects.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, we had a lot more than that, to be
completely honest. So we have DNA that's going to help
us find this guy. As far as the DNA goes,
we're able to use it to either rule in or
rule out somebody. Obviously, so far, everybody has been that
we've been focusing on has been ruled out, so to speak,
(12:56):
or else we wouldn't be talking about this case anymore.
And of course there's there's people that we may can't
come into contact with that you know, refuse to give
us our DNA, that don't want to help out the
investigation for whatever reason. So you know, we got to
kind of think more three dimensionally about.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
How to how to.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Deal with those those issues. But way back in the
day when this started, through interviews that were done at
the time, a dark colored truck became a focal point
of this investigation after some neighbors in the area talked about,
you know, hearing gunshots, hearing gunshots around the time of
(13:35):
the murder when it would have happened, and then seeing
a dark colored truck beaten feet pretty quick out of
the area. It doesn't mean that's what we're looking for,
but it's a clue. At the time, you know, before
DNA evidence and anything like that existed, or while it
was in its infancy, this dark colored truck was one
(13:56):
of the biggest leads. We wound up with a guy.
His name was Bobby Rally. Bobby Raley was he was
currently in jail for a double murder that he and
his cousin, Domingo Figueroa, committed in June of that year,
(14:18):
So June nineteen ninety four, like a month and a
half after this murder, and while he was in jail
for it, there were some people in the jail that
started giving information about him, saying that he had confessed
to this, or he was making really weird comments about
this case. What they were telling us or what they
(14:39):
were telling the detectives at the time seemed very good.
It was decent evidence. We got all these people, probably
like five or six people in the jail. It was
coming forward with this stuff that either Bobby Rally is
telling them or they inadvertently observed about him when he
was at the jail, and so, uh, that really put
(15:01):
him on the radar. You know, he matched a or
he drove a vehicle that was pretty close to the
suspect description. I guess it was probably like a day
or two after the murder he actually took off to Virginia.
That was one of the things that we were looking for,
is that somebody who may all of a sudden up
and leave town, you know, after this sort of thing happens.
(15:24):
And so all this evidence was was compiled, it was
brought to a grand jury, and Bobby Rally was indicted
for this murder. And then some inconsistencies started showing. Long
story short, the investigation was reassigned and I guess I'll
say it was determined that Bobby Rally didn't do it,
(15:45):
but it was determined there wasn't probable cause for Bobby
Rally having done it, especially especially one of one of
the most impactful pieces of evidence was there was a
truck upholstery shop in the area and that was run
by a retired deputy who used to work with us.
(16:08):
On the day of the murder, Bobby Raley brought his
truck in there to get his seats replaced, and it
was in such a timeframe that it wouldn't have been
possible for him to do the murder and get back
there and be there to have his truck work done.
And so the charges against him were dropped and for
(16:28):
all intents and purposes, it was back to square one
with the investigation. Because this process with charging Bobby Raley,
I think it went on for a couple of years,
you know, after him being charged and you know, hearings
and the court process and all of that. So during
that time the investigation wasn't focused on anyone else. After
(16:48):
going through the case file and the deep dives that
I've done on it, there were a lot of good
suspects at the time. Say, in my experience as a detective,
I've never seen a rogues gallery of such good suspects
in a small area, especially a small little town like this.
(17:11):
Over the years after the charges against Rawlei were dropped,
the detectives that have worked on this case before me,
I've obviously done their due diligence to try and rule
out these other good suspects that we have. Some of
them have been ruled out, and you know, some of
them haven't been cooperative or for whatever reason, they have
(17:32):
not been ruled out. And I think it's important to
specify when I say ruled out, and I tell you
earlier on that we have DNA evidence. We use the
word ruled out or eliminated as a suspect or something
like that, But all it really means is that this
(17:52):
person is eliminated as a contributor to the DNA that
we do have. It doesn't mean that this person wasn't there,
you know, if there were more than one people. But
what it does mean is that for this whatever this
particular suspect data that we do have, that this person
isn't the one that matches that gotcha.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Well, there's things about the crime saying y'all have never
released and I am a big fan of the ex girlfriend,
and if there is anybody that we were to come
forward to say they dated this person that was known
to be at the house. That may be a name
that's in your file.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
You mean, like the people who used to live in
that house before it burned down? Is oatch? You mean?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I mean somebody that calls you up and says, hey,
I used to date X and he hung out at
that house and he told me yes, you know, GF
and R were at the scene, and You're like, we
have never released R. So how would this person know that.
I think we need to, you know, push this call
to action because I believe in my gut people know
(19:01):
this was not somebody that wasn't known to a ton
of people that went there drinking and smoking weed. They
all knew each other, and after this happened, they all disbanded,
and this person probably went goes for a little bit
and then started do another crap and is either in
jail in and out the last thirty years or he's
in prison right now.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Absolutely, whether it's one person that's responsible for this, Larly
was she was raised right, Okay, she heard all the
things that you know kids heard back in the nineties there,
you know, just say no to drugs, don't take candy
from strangers, you know, don't get into a vehicle with
(19:40):
weird people. And so she wouldn't have been one to
just hop into somebody's car, you know, if they were
driving down the road. There was an anecdote that I
remember from from that time that I guess there was
a neighbor with his son's that was driving down that
(20:01):
road and it was raining out, and he saw her
walking home and he stopped to say, hey, I'll give
you right back to your house. And with that innocent circumstance,
she politely declined said, hey, no, I'm not supposed to
get in the car with anybody. I don't know. I
think if if somebody were to get her in a car,
which obviously I think is the only way that she
(20:23):
could have been taken almost a mile down the road,
I was transported in a vehicle, somebody either had to
force her in there under threat, or there is more
than one person. The easiest secret to keep is the
secret only one person knows about, because you don't cut
other people that can ratch you out. But even if
(20:46):
it's just one person, I firmly believe over thirty years,
somebody had to get this off their chest to somebody.
If there's two people or more, then more than one
person already know about it. If there's one person, they
probably told somebody. If you know, mom, dad, girlfriend, grandma,
(21:07):
somebody out there knows about what happened. I guess it's
incumbent upon somebody's hopeful goodness as a person if they
have this information to finally come forward with it. There's
been a lot of people that have come forward. Every
time we have some sort of publicity about this case,
well meeting, people come forward to say, hey, this happened
(21:29):
back then. I thought maybe this is suspicious, maybe you
guys should check this person out. But to this day,
nobody has come forward and said, hey, I know something
about this, and this is what I know.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I want to be real clear. Don't call because you're
mad at an ex husband, don't call because you're trying
to get your neighbor in trouble or something ridiculous. I
want you to be able to call and say, this
is something about the crime scene that is not in
the newspaper, and the only reason I know it is
because this person told me. They bragged they got drunk,
(22:11):
they went to jail and needed some type of status.
Because here's the thing about you know, the Bobby Riley
you were talking about, if he said something to a
salemate that was enough to make that person reach out
to y'all. Again, let's get specific and if the DNA
(22:32):
doesn't match him, again, if there's a second person, does
it match Domingo Figueroa, Does it match somebody else that
they know? Are those two taking this case on because
they know who did it? But since they're in jail,
they know this guy hadn't been arrested, so they can
get the status from doing it. Let's make that push
(22:52):
somebody out their nose. This person has not kept their
mouth shut for thirty years. They have also not led
an honorable life. I can tell you that. And nine
times out of ten his name is in your case file.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
There's DNA advancements happening all the time. I'm not a scientist,
I'm just a cop. So some of this stuff is
difficult to wrap your mind around about how it works.
But I'm confident that with what we have, it's less
(23:28):
of an if we find what we're looking for and
more more of a win. It's just a matter of time.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I agree with you. One hundred percent, which is another
reason I'm telling those people, if you're listening to this,
there's fifty thousand dollars on the table right now, and
Detective le May is coming. He's going to solve it.
He's already got in his rolodex the name of some
people that I guarantee you if it's solvable, they can
do it today. So come forward, tell what you know,
(23:58):
because it's going to happen anyway. And I mean, fifty
thousand dollars is life changing.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, yeah, I could think of a lot of things
to do with fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Are you kidding? That could be the next six episodes
of Zone seven? What mean you to do with the
two thousand dollars?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Yes, ma'am, And you know. And I feel like, just
from a perspective of appealing to the humanity of people,
of somebody who may know what happened and is listening,
or even you know, even the person that did it themselves,
I can only imagine that this sort of thing is
(24:35):
a thing that eats at you, like somebody out there
did something really terrible and got thirty years to live
their life and do whatever they wanted to do with
their life. Meanwhile, Larley Spears stuck back in nineteen ninety
four because she never really got the chance to get
(24:56):
her life going. You know, it's time for the person
out that did it. It's time to It's a come
to Jesus moment. If we don't get you first, it's
time to do the right things.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I agree, And you know there's another reality. Some of
those people that used to party at that house have
a fourteen year old daughter today, have a fifteen year
old daughter, have a thirteen year old daughter like her sister.
You get to look at her every day, what she's into,
what she enjoys, the music, the school, dances, her clothes, whatever.
(25:28):
And you know who took that from somebody? You know
what would what it would do to you if something
were to happen to your child. It's a phone call.
You don't even have to say who you are, give
a name, give something that is not in the newspaper,
not even five minutes out of your day. Call detectivelo
May and say, hey, I don't want to give you
(25:49):
my name. I'm calling from a phone at Target. But
here's what I know, and here's who I know did it.
And I've read every newspaper article and this isn't in.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
It, absolutely, and I mean it's important for people to
know and understand that. And we're not relying on the
charity of strangers to try and point us in the
right direction. We're still out there beating up, beating the
pavement on this thing. I've knocked on on people's doors.
I tell them why I'm there, and their headspins. They're like, still,
(26:22):
like this thing's so old, you guys are you're still
actively looking into this, and it's like, yeah, we're still
going to ain't got to stop, Like no, that.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Blows my mind. It blows my mind when people think
that way, like there's a statute of limitations where we're
just not going to care about laar Ley Spear again.
And the reality is, let's say this person did get
completely away with it. That means there is somebody out
there pumping gas next to your daughter, somebody working at
the golf course next to your son, somebody eating dinner
(26:54):
next to your wife. That is not okay for that
killer to be able to do any of those things.
And let me just tell you something else. If y'all
don't want to call the police, reach out to me.
We had somebody. I'm gonna tell the truth. We had
a witness come through Zone seven last week. You can
call me, and for anybody listening, I can set the
(27:15):
record completely straight with y'all. I am a snitch. You
hear me, I got no fall. I will call the
detective at two in the morning, two in the afternoon.
I will go knock on his office door. I'm gonna
tell it. So if you call me, I am more
than happy to type it up, get it to him,
raise my right hand and swear this happened. This person
reached out. You don't have to tell me who you are.
(27:38):
You can send me an anonymous message or phone message
or whatever you want to do. Y'all know how to
work social media and everything else. You can reach out
anytime and I will get the information there. It's that
important and it's that easy.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yes. And speaking of the anonymity, we have crime Stoppers
in Florida to completely anonymous service if you want it
to be. People submit tips to us through there all
the time. Sometimes people when there's rewards, people aren't even
concerned about the money, you know, They like I just
don't want to get involved, but I want to say
(28:16):
something and you know that or them calling use a
perfect way for them for them to do that. If
somebody is interested in the money aspect of it, we're
there for you to.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, right on, because I'm going to tell it for free,
because that's just the right thing to do. But if
you need the money, and the money is there, that's
why they put it up. And if you need to
get that money, tell on this person and move. You've
got the means to be able to do it. The
biggest thing is do it, Detective. Give us a cross
(28:48):
street and maybe jog some folks' memories of exactly where
this house.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Was lacross street where this happened was. It was a
lot right on the corner of these two streets. It
was Deerfoot Road and Facio Road, and the land Deerfoot
Road runs it only runs from Facio Road to spring
Garden Road. And so Laralie got off the off the
(29:15):
bus at Deerfoot in spring Garden and she was found
all the way at the other end at Deerfoot and Facio.
That's the house that you know was used for hanging out, drinking,
shooting back then. Both Deerfoot Road and Facio Road, they
are both out of the way, dirt roads perfect.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And again, I truly believe that somebody used to frequent
that place, and after this happened, I don't think they
ever returned, and I think it was really obvious to
the people that knew them. And I just am prayerful
that somebody's going to come forward, and we are going
to keep y'all updated. And if y'all can think of
anything that you know, Detective la May can try, or
(29:55):
that Zone seven can try, let us know and we
will see what we can do to push this thing
where he needs it to be. Detective I appreciate you
so much. I know that her family appreciates what you're doing.
And like I said, you and I have talked that
I'm sure we're going to talk again, and I will
see you and Belusha soon.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
All right, it sounds good. Thank you, Cheryl. I appreciate
it so much.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Absolutely, y'all. I'm going to end Zone seven the way
that I always do with a quote. Even when a
case wasn't mine, if I thought I could contribute, whether
with my forensics expertise or investigative doggedness, I always found
a way to insert myself. Paul Hols I'm Cheryl McCollum
(30:44):
and this is Zone seven.
Host
Sheryl McCollum
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