In August 1979, a Florida deputy instructed authorities that his spouse fatally shot herself at their residence south of Tampa.
A number of months later, the identical patrol deputy, John Greer, stated he found the physique of one other girl — a retailer clerk who’d been fatally shot.
But in an interview with authorities a long time after their deaths, Greer admitted to killing each girls, recognized Tuesday by the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office in a information launch as Jackie Greer and Adele Easterly, 25.
John Greer made the admission to investigators in April 2023, whereas dwelling at an prolonged care facility in Tennessee, the sheriff’s workplace stated. He died March 2, 2024, at age 77, in response to the discharge.
“I’ve all the time stated that we are going to not cover from our previous, regardless of how darkish,” Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell stated in an announcement. “This case exhibits that we are going to all the time search the reality, even once we might not like what we discover.”
John Greer resigned from the sheriff’s workplace in October 1980 amid an inner investigation that the discharge stated might have been prompted by Greer’s actions with one other girl, who will not be recognized within the launch. That girl’s husband instructed the sheriff’s workplace on the time that Greer had been following his spouse and attempting to have intercourse along with her.
The girl died on Sept. 29, 1980, in what the sheriff’s workplace described as a attainable suicide.
John Greer reported his spouse’s loss of life slightly over a yr earlier, on Aug. 27, 1979. He instructed responding deputies that he was awoken by a “pop” and noticed smoke coming from a closet within the couple’s Port Charlotte residence, in response to the discharge.
Inside, Greer instructed the deputies, he discovered his spouse’s physique, the discharge states.
“Although investigators suspected one thing was not proper concerning the incident, there was no proof to show the case was something aside from suicide,” the sheriff’s workplace stated.
Seventy-one days later, at 1:40 a.m., John Greer radioed dispatch and reported discovering Easterly’s physique at a farm retailer within the close by metropolis of Punta Gorda, in response to the discharge. The medical expert’s workplace discovered Easterly had been shot twice with a 12-gauge shotgun — as soon as within the head and as soon as within the again, the sheriff’s workplace stated.
A pal of Easterly’s later instructed investigators that the clerk had dated a deputy she believed was Greer however had turn into petrified of him, in response to the discharge. The pal recalled Easterly describing the deputy’s account of his spouse’s loss of life as an unintentional taking pictures that occurred after an argument.
Decades later, after the sheriff’s chilly case unit put out a launch searching for details about Easterly’s loss of life, a girl who’d been in a youth program on the sheriff’s workplace instructed investigators that Greer repeatedly sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her, in response to the discharge.
During one assault after Easterly’s loss of life, the discharge states, the lady stated Greer invoked the useless girl’s title: “Ask them useless b—-es like Adele Easterly what occurs once they say no to me.”
The launch doesn’t say whether or not investigators questioned Greer in 2023 concerning the girl’s allegations and a spokesperson for the division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Thursday night time. The launch states that detectives interviewed a number of former staff within the sheriff’s workplace and folks related to the youth program and obtained statements that supported among the girl’s account.
After detectives developed possible trigger for Greer’s arrest, they situated him in Tennessee and questioned him on the long-term care facility.
At the time, the discharge states, he was bedridden and couldn’t stick with it lengthy conversations, however he appeared to know the questions and answered within the affirmative when requested instantly about whether or not he’d shot his Easterly and his spouse.
The detectives had been unable to find out if Jackie Greer’s taking pictures was intentional or an accident, in response to the discharge.
The sheriff’s workplace stated it can proceed to research Greer, who labored for different legislation enforcement companies after leaving Charlotte County, to find out if he’s linked to different crimes.
