PUNTA GORDA, Fla. ( WFLA ) — A former Florida sheriff’s deputy has been identified as the suspect in a 1979 cold case that left a store clerk dead, authorities announced Tuesday.
The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office named former Road Patrol Deputy John J. Greer as the suspect in the death of 25-year-old Adele Easterly.
Greer reported finding Easterly dead in the Farm Store in Punta Gorda, 25 miles outside of Fort Myers, in the early morning hours of Nov. 5, 1979.
A medical examiner discovered that Easterly was shot twice with a 12-gauge shotgun — once in the head and once in the back.
Suspicions poured in over Deputy Greer throughout the years given earlier investigations and other “strange behavior,” but no substantial evidence backed up the suspicions, the sheriff’s office explained.
Months earlier, in late Aug. 1979, Deputy Greer — who was off-duty at the time — called to report that his wife, Jackie Greer, shot herself at their Port Charlotte home. A lack of evidence could not prove his involvement in this incident.