Convicted Florida Murderer Identified as Likely Perpetrator in 52-Year-Old Cold-Case Killing of Wife — Whose Body Remained Unidentified Until Now
Florida Police have reportedly solved the murder of a woman who was found slain in 1972, authorities announced. Peggy Joyce Shelton's body was discovered by police near a highway in Hernando County, wrapped in a hotel-style twin-size blanket, The Independent reported. She remained unidentified for decades.
Leads led to dead ends and the case went cold.
Then, in July 2024, Sheriff Al Nienhuis announced the victim had been identified, and that her husband, Jerry Lee Fletcher, is believed to be the alleged killer in this case, FOX reported. Authorities said records indicated that Shelton married Fletcher in Hillsborough County on December 18, 1971.
Authorities could not identify the body for decades, because the victim had no criminal record and was not reported missing, as per the Sheriff, FOX reported. Nienhuis added that Fletcher’s family owned a motel on Nebraska Avenue in Tampa from 1970-1973. Prior to marrying Shelton, Fletcher allegedly lived in the motel.
The blanket in which the victim was wrapped in, was similar to the ones used in the motel, FOX reported.
Fletcher was apprehended by police on February 18, 1972, for the suspected abduction and rape of a 16-year-old Tampa girl, FOX reported. He was not found guilty in the case and set free. He then left Florida and moved to Illinois for work. Though Fletcher eventually remarried, he did not list Shelton as an ex-wife in the documents.
In 1973, Fletcher killed a 13-year-old girl he encountered while being employed as an industrial painter at a Caterpillar factory, the Independent reported. Fletcher raped the girl and then strangled her to death, leaving the body in a cemetery. Officials caught him and sent him to prison.
In 2011, DNA evidence connected Fletcher to the rape and murder of 14-year-old Gina Justice, who disappeared in 1971, the Independent reported. In 2013, he pleaded guilty to killing Justice. Detectives visited Fletcher in prison, where he confessed to murdering another person in Florida. He died in prison in 2014, while serving his sentence.
In 2015, Shelton's body was exhumed for DNA testing, and by 2024, authorities were able to match the samples with a living relative, The Independent reported. Further investigation into Shelton's background led investigators to Fletcher.
"We never give up and these things take time," Nienhuis said at the press conference, The Independent reported.
"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," said Neinhuis, the outlet reported.