Suspect Makes 1 Mistake That Helps Police Solve 20-Year-Old Cold Case of Murdered Mother
After 20 years of getting away with murder, a 51-year-old Florida man is facing first-degree murder charges for the killing of Sondra Better in 1998.
Better, 68, was stabbed and bludgeoned to death while working at Lu Shay’s Consignment Shop in Delray Beach, Florida, on Aug. 24, 1998.
Despite fingerprints and blood samples found at the scene, police could not locate the person responsible for Better’s death.
“We had the physical evidence, but the person responsible for this heinous case seemed to just disappear,” Delray Beach Police Chief Javaro Sims said during a press conference.
But in Dec. 2018, Todd Barket, 51, from Brandon, Florida, submitted his fingerprints to a potential employer for a nursing assistant job.
Barket’s prints were an exact match to the prints police had entered into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System database.
Brandon, Fla. man accused of violent 1998 killing of consignment shop clerk @DelrayBeachPD
say. Killed was Sondra Better, 68. A job application that required fingerprints led to arrest of Todd Barket, 51, detectives say.https://t.co/yS0L3fyROY pic.twitter.com/xxP2DPbOiy— Linda Trischitta (@LindaTrischitta) March 28, 2019
Capt. John Crane-Baker, with the Delray Beach police department’s Criminal Investigation Division, said that when police showed up at Barket’s door, he seemed to know exactly why they were there.
“He did not seem surprised,” Crane-Baker told The Palm Beach Post, adding that when police told Barket they were there on account of Better’s 1998 murder, the suspect shrugged and said, “OK.”
Robert Stevens, the lead detective who worked the case for 10 years before retiring in 2007, said he never forgot about the case and the woman who still did not have justice.
“Anybody that works homicides will attest that once you get a case where there’s a true innocent victim, it’s hard to let it go,” Stevens told CNN Wire.
Better’s husband, Seymour Better, has passed away, but Better’s three adult daughters are living in Florida and the New York area.
Crane-Baker encouraged families who are also facing the pain of unsolved crimes not to lose hope.
“For those that are victims of crimes that have not been solved immediately,” Crane-Baker said, “this just goes to show that police departments don’t give up.”
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