FEBRUARY 19TH OF 2020 marked the 27th anniversary of the abduction & murder of 12-year-old Jennifer Odom. Many times we see a case go cold & then it ends up being shelved OR worse, shoved into a black hole of a storage facility. Over time, what evidence was collected deteriorates OR is lost & any hope of solving the case becomes lost as well.
PART OF THOSE efforts have included investigating persons of interest. While working on this post, I found that there have been more POIs investigated than I originally thought & the stories behind them are insane! So insane, in fact, that I decided to cover them over a series of posts as to do so in 1 would result in a post that would be a close runner-up to a Steven King novel!
PERSONS OF INTEREST
AFTER 27 YEARS, there have been a number a of suspects…OR maybe I should say “Persons Of Interest.” Whether these POIs landed on the radar via tip OR by some other means, it has been the job of law enforcement to seek them out, investigate them & either clear OR take a closer look at each. Below are some of the POIs that the public has been made aware of.
THE INFAMOUS BLUE TRUCK
SINCE DAY ONE, everyone has been talking about the blue pickup truck seen slowly following Jenny home. Neither the truck OR its driver has ever been located. Here’s what is known about the truck:
• MID TO FULL SIZED PICKUP TRUCK
• OLDER MODEL (Could resemble GMC – possibly late 70’s to mid 80’s)
• EITHER LIGHT BLUE OR FADED BLUE COLOR
• RECTANGULAR SIDEVIEW MIRRORS
• A TRAILER HITCH WITH WIRES HANGING
• A SILVER BACK BUMPER (Not Chrome)
• POSSIBLE MISSING REAR HUBCAP
• DAMAGE TO LICENSE PLATE
• APPEARED TO BE IN ROUGH SHAPE
• PIPES AND/OR LADDERS ACCROSS THE BED (it’s not made clear if they were secured in racks mounted to truck OR just lying in bed)
NOT MUCH HAS been reported (at least publicly) regarding the driver of the truck. After doing a significant amount of digging, I was able to find a detailed account of the case that happened to mention that a description of the driver was actually given by the same kids that told police about the truck. The description is as follows:
• WHITE MALE
• APPROXIMATELY 40 TO 49 YEARS OLD
• SHOULDER LENGTH BROWN HAIR
BOTH THE DESCRIPTION of the truck as well as the driver are vague (as shown in the random sketches pictured above & below) and, in my mind, could potentially pose a problem for 2 reasons:
1. THERE ARE PROBABLY HUNDREDS OR MORE WHITE MALES FITTING THAT DESCRIPTION IN PASCO & HERNANDO COUNTIES.
2. BOTH COUNTIES ARE RURAL, FARMING COMMUNITIES WHERE BEAT UP, FULL SIZE PICK UP TRUCKS ARE AS COMMON AS AIR.
IF EVER THE saying “Searching for a needle in a haystack” EVER applied to anything, it would be this…At least until over a decade later. For now, put a pin in this because I promise that we WILL circle back around to it later in the timeline.
IN THE NEXT post, we’re going to dive into a man that appears very different from the other POIs on the list. He has NO criminal record, has money & was significantly older than the others at the time of Jenny’s murder. He is Al Kiefer, Jr….
**ANYONE WITH ANY INFO ON THE ABDUCTION & MURDER OF JENNIFER ODOM SHOULD CONTACT THE HERNANDO SHERIFF’S OFFICE AT:
PHONE: (352) 754-6830
OR
EMAIL: unsolved@hernandosheriff.org
ANONYMOUS TIPS:
EMAIL: www.HernandoCountyCrimeStoppers.com
OR
PHONE: 1-866-990-8477
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