Claudia Rolling, Danny Rolling's mother, also testified. Rolling wanted to address the court. . In police audio recordings, he could be heard asking police to accompany him at the request of his manager. I really don't like reporters. He had a promising future ahead of him. "Grandmother is another victim of those crimes.". Hammack would have to arrest him. Humphrey has been jailed on $1 million bond since the beating Aug. 30. Dave Farley, a senior patrol leader, remembers hiking the Appalachian Trail with Ed, his assistant. Family trouble, mental problems and sheer coincidence seem to be the main factors that put Ed Humphrey into legal limbo. Investigators wanted to confirm the details of Rolling's confession, so they arranged a meeting, but Rolling insisted that Lewis be present as well to act as his mouthpiece. He also said he hopes to resume his studies _ but not at the University of Florida. Authorities subsequently cleared Humphrey of any involvement in the murders. But months passed and Humphrey was never charged with the crimes, the Alachua County grand jury deciding that there was no case against him. "In a way, talking about [Manny], as I do sometimes with those who knew him they're kind of alive for that moment, and so, it's comforting. When the discussion turned to a human anatomy class that McGrath was taking, McGrath said, Ed asked her what it was like to cut up bodies and if she ever took skin or body parts home to "mess around with it.". When he was arrested for hitting his grandmother and questioned by state agents, sources say, Ed spoke of someone named "John" and claimed to have knowledge of the Gainesville killings. In Shreveport, Maines found that Julie Grissom's body had been posed in a similar position to some of the women killed in Gainesville. Humphrey reportedly had been in the surf shop "raising hell" with the female patrons, making general threats, saying they didn't know how many people he had killd, and that he would cut their hearts out. He'd seen interviews with his new neighbors on the evening news, and they had said they were afraid of Ed Humphrey. "Knowing what happened, I can't erase that out of my mind, and nobody should have to go through that," said Scott Grissom. "The phone hadn't been installed yet. Anniversaries of the murders come and go, I explained. His public defender, J. R. Russo, said Humphrey's mental state deteriorated while he was jailed. Louisiana drifter Danny Harold Rolling was indicted Friday in the grisly killings of five college students stabbed in their off-campus apartments in August 1990. On Aug. 26, 1990, Emery said Powell's parents arrived at the apartment and banged on the door. It lets him have his old smile back. Humphrey shunned the media, and remained quiet through the years. He was convicted of armed robbery in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi for several grocery store robberies, and spent most of the 1980s in prison. Both parents drank too much. On bad days, witnesses claim, he would act out his military fantasies on the Indialantic boardwalk. said Laurie Lahey, Paules' older sister. They've never even talked to you. A. I thought, 'Here's a guy who's sort of down and I think I'll cheer him up.". He surfed, played soccer and football, and joined the Boy Scout troop that his father founded, eventually becoming an Eagle Scout. So investigators sat with Lewis and Rolling and had Lewis answer questions for Rolling. "Don't take a picture of me with the knife," he says. Like the previous murders, Paules, who'd been raped, was found posed and she had soap on her lower body as well as tape residue on her wrists and mouth. "Every time they'd mention [Tracy's] name, it was like a punch in the head," Lahey said. Some had already begun to move their children out of the city, which is busiest during the school year. WebLived In Palm Bay FL, Indialantic FL, Houston TX, Lyons IL. To girls it makes a difference. "I did that at the time because I read that serial killers like to be in control," Mario Taboada told ABC News. A top official in the case points out the murders were methodical and elaborately planned. "It's a real tragedy for him and his family.". Investigators had found bloodstained gloves at his home. Circuit Judge Theron Yawn said last week he was inclined to order a mental commitment rather than prison for Humphrey. Journalist John Donnelly, who covered the story for the Miami Herald, said the officers noticed the unusual way in which Sonja Larson's body was posed. Don Maines, an investigator on the case with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said they received several tips pointing to Humphrey, then 18. Ed, his grandmother reported, had screamed at her, "You're going to hell and you're going to die." She disagrees. Then, when Ed was about 13, his grandfather died. Acquaintances claimed he went on late-night "missions" through the Alachua County woods. He wasnt interested in doing an interview. For months Edward Lewis Humphrey was the key suspect in the horrific slayings of five Gainesville students. According to another newspaper report, Humphrey's statements to police may be challenged because prosecutors stretched the law to keep defense attorneys away from him after he was arrested Aug. 30 in an attack on Ed said. He said nothing more. On Wednesday, his grandmother, Elna Hlavaty, died at age 80 after suffering a heart attack in Indialantic. "It definitely all started when I was 16," he says now. A judge ordered him removed from the court. He was the youngest of four kids. "And I remember Grandma yelled when she hit her head, and Mom called the police immediately without knowing what was going on. "And honestly, they advised that he'd die much faster in Florida, and I said, 'Well, leave him there. Edward Lewis Humphrey was an early suspect in the case of five grisly murders of college students in Gainesville, Fla. Daniel Rolling was eventually convicted of the killings, but Humphrey was never officially cleared by the police. "Whatever happened to change Ed Humphrey can be found back in October of his junior year," says John Stanford, his Spanish teacher at Melbourne High School. Before moving to Edward's current city of Palm Bay, FL, Edward lived in Melbourne FL and Indialantic FL. Late last summer, an 18-year-old mental patient named Edward Lewis Humphrey became a suspect in the stabbing deaths of five students at the University of Florida, a grisly series of I mean, why don't the girls tell me that? She said she thought of Rolling, who, just a few months after the murders in their community, said something deeply disturbing to her then-husband, Steven Dobbin. "Your honor, I've been running from first one thing and then another all my life," Rolling said. And law enforcement officials felt intense pressure to bring in a suspect. And Ed Humphrey is still a free man with a lingering cloud over his head: suspect. ", Mackenzie answers quietly. His DNA didnt match the semen found at the murder scene. Investigators and prosecutors race for justice in an effort that still affects them 30 years later. He was released from jail 10 months after he'd assaulted his grandmother. His bail, originally set at $10,250, spiked to $1 million. The world is destroying us," said George Humphrey in a statement issued after the death. He enrolled at University of Central Florida in 1995, taking classes around part-time jobs ranging from cleaning dog kennels and swimming pools to assembling tanning beds and working in factories, according to the Orlando Sentinel. "He has been persecuted. "It was important because he was participating in the confession," Hewitt said. He demanded officials exonerate his brother. Her body had also been arranged in a posed position, sitting with her feet on the floor and her torso slumped forward, Donnelly said. These days Ed Humphrey lives at home with his mom in Indialantic. I mean, I was amped. The roommates and University of Florida students, were found dead Aug. 28, 1990, in their Gainesville, Fla. apartment. As concerns of a killer on the loose mounted, police were inundated with calls from concerned parents. JULY 14,1990,1609 HOURS: INDIALANtic police receive a reported trespass at the Crawford Surf Shop, on AlA and 5th Street. A serial killer, cunning and profoundly evil, was on the loose. Hammack stepped inside the wide front door into the living room. The two talked in June at the Krispy Kreme doughnut store where McGrath worked. I hate having my picture taken.". I knocked on his front door with trepidation. I wanted to know whether he still carried the weight of what he had endured almost three decades earlier. He finally moved back to Indialantic with his mother, where things went smoothly until March 1992, when he and some buddies went on a spring break camping trip to Key West. Danny Rolling is talking about the murders now. State Troops Humphrey Lewis' Company (Madison County, Fla.) Military service, Voluntary She briefs him before interviews; she and his attorney decide which questions he'll answer. Brevard sheriffs officials also released reports showing the agency responded to at least 14 emergency calls of Humphrey allegedly attacking his grandmother or mother. Sentencing was set The magnitude of the murders sparked national media attention, and Gainesville police and the Alachua County Sheriff's Office called in agents from around the state to help with the investigation, Maines said. "He just stole that and used that [as] part of his story," Smith said. "I guess I kind of pushed her because she fell and hit her head on that mantle there. 1. He looks around nervously. But at the trial, she testified she had fallen and hurt herself in the dark. "They're gone but their memory has to always endure," Mario Taboada said. Would he answer? He was sent to Florida State Prison, where he met another inmate named Bobby Lewis, who was on death row for killing a drug dealer in the 1970s. There was a large window from the ceiling to about waist high, so they could see his every move. "I kept saying to myself, it's the last thing I can do for her. ED HUMPHREY HAS NO REASON to trust a photographer or a reporter - or the criminal justice system or, especially, the people who recognize him on the street and point and whisper. It was upon revisiting the scene that he decided to decapitate her. Ray Barber, called for backup and with more investigators on the scene, they found Powell dead on the first floor of the apartment. Ed Humphrey and his 79-year-old grandmother had been fighting again. It was a tidy facade, but if you peeked around the corner, things turned messy. Donvan said. But there was one major problem for investigators: Even though DNA testing technology was still in its infancy, investigators were able to determine the suspect's blood type through semen left behind at all three crime scenes. For the families of those students, being there to see him at trial was crucial. It was obvious that he had just woken up. "My husband would just sit and say 'Just tell me she died right away. Legran Hewitt said they dispatched Barber and another officer to Christa Hoyt's home. His premonition came true the next day. Even though three decades had passed, I knew it wasnt going to be easy for Humphrey to talk about his darkest days; a time when his name was linked to grisly crimes. He went from a motivated, friendly student into a deep depression.". ", "It was like, here's a reason he killed the person you loved," she said. The image of him from law enforcement and the news media is that "he's a creature, he's a monster," George Humphrey said. The two had gone bowling, played pool, hung out together. Humphrey's bail was set at $1-millionand he remained behind bars until well after investigators set their sights on a new suspect: Danny Rolling. He was tall, good-looking, athletic, polite. Christopher Slobogin, a professor at the University of Florida Law School, said suspicions about Mr. Humphrey's possible connection with the Gainesville murders increased the likelihood that he would be prosecuted on assault charges that otherwise would probably have been dropped. Good Student and Boy Scout He was sent to Florida State Prison, where he met another inmate named Bobby Lewis, who was on death row for killing a drug dealer in the 1970s. I thought they'd already filled her in on who I was and it just kind of slipped. She was quite shocked.". GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Cindy Juracich was on a trip through the Florida Panhandle in August 1990 when she heard a news report about a grisly string of murders. Humphreys off behavior, Mann said, drew attention to him. "And he said, 'Yeah, I'm the one.'". I walked to my car, trying not to look back, trying not to think about those scars Id seen on his face. Hoyt's stepmother, Dianna Hoyt, said she and her husband, Gary Hoyt, had a "very hard time" processing what happened to their daughter. Edward Lewis Humphrey, 19, was found guilty Wednesday of battery on a person over 65. Smith said Rolling also talked about the best way to kill a deer. And legal experts say that even if Humphrey is innocent, he'll carry the stigma of the killings with him the rest of his days. But more investigative files are expected to be released later this month--evidence that may seem incriminating to Ed. Instead, he got 62 hours of community service at the local Humane Society--which liked him so much it hired him afterward. I am still his friend, and I think what happened to him is wrong. He apologized, cried and told his pursuers: "Please don't hurt me.". Humphrey could not have possibly understood at the time how high the stakes were or the consequences of the suspicion cast on him. "It's hard for me to picture him doing anything discreetly.". Other "He trusts me and I trust him," Pauwels says. The grand jury considered evidence against Humphrey but declined to indict him. On Nov. 15, 1991, Rolling was charged with five counts of first-degree murder in connection to the college students' deaths in Gainesville. Rolling pleaded guilty to all counts but, because he was facing the death penalty, a jury was still required to hear the evidence and make a recommendation on punishment to the judge: life in prison or death. And an odd thing happened: Agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showed up and began questioning him about the murders. Without a response, they asked a maintenance worker at the apartment complex for help. He had used the word happy three times. He'll never change his name, but some day, he says, when he's done with school, he might move somewhere far away. Humphrey, who fit a vague FBI profile of the killer, was never charged with murder but the damage to his reputation had been done; his name, marred. Hewitt said they learned that Rolling had returned to the crime scene after killing Christa Hoyt because he thought he might've left his wallet there. After Lewis told the investigators what Rolling had told him, investigators would then ask Rolling if what Lewis said was correct. "All I want to know [is] what was she thinking. Ed, following his attorney's advice, won't talk about it--or anything else he may have said to police at the time. Scott Grissom, the son of William Grissom, brother of Julie Grissom and father to Sean, said they were killed just a week after his wedding, on his first day back at work from his honeymoon. When does Ed stop being a suspect?". When I got a job, .when I got good grades in school, they weren't calling me. "Their strategy was to keep Ed in jail, to hold him without charging him in the Gainesville case," he says. As they investigated the case, police grew convinced that Ed Humphrey might be their most likely suspect. Maines said they tested the body fluids from the perpetrator in Shreveport and found that this person also had type B blood. The sheriff's office says it kept him there for his own safety--not as punishment--because he'd threatened suicide. "Recon lock and load!" He was a blond, smooth-skinned, affable teen-ager who made good grades, played football and enjoyed surfing with a group of friends in the swells off Indialantic, a town on Florida's east coast. Even today, a spokesman for the new state attorney hesitates: "Is Ed Humphrey still a suspect?Well, hmmm.One would think it ought to be a simple question.". Along with the similarities in which the victims were killed, there were other patterns investigators noted. And he reportedly has been whispering details of the killings to a fellow inmate, who has been telling investigators. They subsequently discovered that Rolling had type B blood just like the suspect in both the Gainesville and Shreveport murders. "It sucked man.". On Nov. 4, 1989, William Grissom, 55, his 24-year-old daughter Julie Grissom and his 8-year-old grandson Sean Grissom were killed in his home in the Louisiana city. And the day after Ed was arrested, an investigator interviewed Sydney McGrath, a college student who had long conversations with Ed about dissecting corpses.