Police arrest suspect in Florida woman’s 1999 murder

July 20 (UPI) -- The Sanford Police Department in Florida announced the arrest of a man suspected of the 1999 murder of Sherry Holtz, 50, after she was last seen alive at a local bar.

Gary Durrance, 74, was arrested Thursday and has been charged with second-degree murder, Sanford Police public information officer Bianca Gilett told media Friday.

Durrance was Holtz's boyfriend at the time of her death.

"Twenty-four years ago, Sherry Holtz was brutally murdered and left behind in the woods as if her life had no value," Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith said Friday in a prepared statement .

"This was someone's mother, someone's daughter," Smith said. "Durrance will not face justice for the horrible and despicable things that he did."

Someone collecting cans in a wooded area along South Orlando Drive in Sanford found Holtz's lifeless body on Dec. 4, 1999, and reported it to local police.

Responding officers found Holtz's body on a concrete slab with her neck cut.

A medical examiner determined she suffered strangulation, blunt force trauma and sexual battery.

Investigators found a knife covered in human blood and administered a sexual assault kit but could not get a suitable DNA sample to test given the limitations of DNA testing in 2000.

They saved DNA samples that subsequent advancements in DNA testing could analyze.

Sanford police investigators in May 2023 submitted some of the DNA evidence to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which on Thursday confirmed the blood on the knife is Holtz's and the DNA on its handle is Durrance's.

Durrance in 1999 denied seeing Holtz the night she was murdered, but investigators determined she and Durrance argued on Dec. 2, resulting in Durrance kicking Holtz out of their residence.

Durrance's roommates at the time confirmed he was home the evening of her murder but could not account for his whereabouts for the entire night.

The bar where Holtz last was seen alive was located about half a mile from where her body was found the next day.

Witnesses told police she left sometime between 7 p.m. and 11 with two others.

Durrance allegedly told some witnesses he had seen Holtz's body and was at the crime scene the night she was murdered.

He allegedly made those comments before Sanford Police had announced her murder.

The physical evidence and witness statements enabled Sanford police to obtain a warrant and arrest Durrance, whom they located in a wooded area in Volusia County near Veteran's Memorial Parkway.

Durrance is being held at the Seminole County Jail while awaiting trial.