Her body was abandoned in the woods 52 years ago. Cops say a potential serial killer was behind it

Florida police say they have solved the cold case of an unidentified woman found dead in woods five decades ago.

On July 19, 1972, the previously unidentified woman was found slain near the highway in Hernando County, Florida, wrapped in a hotel-style twin-size blanket.

Police had no clear leads and were unable to identify the body, let alone who might’ve killed her.

Fifty-two years later, things have changed.

Florida police announced Thursday they had solved the murder of Peggy Joyce Shelton, who they say was killed by her ex-husband Jerry Lee Fletcher, a man responsible for a string of killings across multiple states and a potential serial killer.

Fletcher died in prison in 2014 serving a sentence on separate murder charges, a decade before he was identified as his wife’s killer, but Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said at a press conference on Thursday he’s still glad to have found a resolution to the long-running cold case.

“The justice he’s faced now is with his Creator,” Nienhuis said . “It’s not going to be by a man-made court system.”

Shelton and Fletcher married in 1971, according to the sheriff, though because she didn’t have a criminal record and was never reported missing, officials didn’t find her for years.

At the time of their marriage, Fletcher’s family owned a motel in Tampa between 1970 and 1973, where he lived at one time.

In 1972, Fletcher was arrested for abduction and rape of a 16-year-old girl, though he was later found not guilty.

He eventually left Florida and married another woman in 1973, and didn’t list his past marriage to Shelton on official records.

Within the year, Fletcher killed again, this time a 13-year-old girl he encountered while in Illinois working as an industrial painter at a Caterpillar factory.

Fletcher raped her, strangled her, then left her body in a cemetery in a hotel-style blanket, though this time he was caught and sent to prison.

Fast forward to 2011, a detective in Pinellas County got a DNA hit on Fletcher connecting him to a similar crime, the rape and murder of 14-year-old Gina Justice, who disappeared in 1971.

Fletcher told a detective who visited him in prison to investigate that he was involved in another killing in Florida but refused to offer further details. Two former wives of Fletcher also told police investigating the case that the man was abusive and violent, and they feared he would kill them.

He pleaded guilty to the Justice killing in 2013.

By then, forensic technology had advanced to the point where detectives could take another crack at the Shelton case.

Her body was exhumed in 2015 for DNA testing, and by 2024, police were able to match her remains to a living relative.

"We never give up and these things take time,” Nienhuis said at the press conference, adding that Fletcher may not technically qualify as a serial killer.

“We don’t want them to take 52 years, but we’ve got to play the hand we’re dealt. In 1972, when we found a body in the woods wrapped in a blanket, that was a very difficult case to solve in the 1970s. It’s a little bit easier to solve today, but it’s still very, very difficult and the faster we can get those leads the easier it is to solve them.”