St. Petersburg
, Florida
- Homicide investigators know that the odds are sometimes stacked against them.
Evidence processing is not as easy as it looks in hit shows like CSI.
Longtime detectives will tell you they work longer then an hour to wrap up a crime with a neat bow, like they do on television.
It just doesn't happen that way.
In fact, the hours turn into days, the days into months, and the months into years when it comes to solving some cases.
Sumter
County
detectives in the criminal investigations unit have an incredible record, however, when it comes to solving cold cases.
In the last sixteen years, the unit has only had two unsolved crimes.
One of them is the story of Robert Lee Preston and, ironically, his murder didn't even happen in Sumter County.
Robert was from St. Petersburg.
"
All the stuff you see on CSI is not going to solve this crime. It's going to take somebody telling us what we need to know," says Commander Gary Brannen.
Brannen and his team of detectives pride themselves on solving cases quickly. However, they say Robert Preston's story has them perplexed.
First of all, they admit Robert was no angel.
"
We believe that he got in debt to the wrong people [in St. Petersburg] and all of the chickens came home to roost that night," Brannen says.
Robert was known, they say, to borrow money and never pay it back. In fact, he often took money that wasn't his, detectives tell us. So much so, that Robert ended up begging for his life on his own cell phone in May 2006.
The 30-year-old was shot in the back, loaded up in a car, and then dumped alongside I-75 near the Bushnell exit.
Brannen tells us, "This is a very solvable case. There are people who know something about it. They have the answers we need and now it's just up to them to come forward."
Commander Brannen says, since 1994, his investigative unit has seen only two unsolved cases. Now, he and his team are interviewing people who knew Robert and even those behind bars.
"There are people in St. Petersburg who know what happened to Robert and who did it," Brannen reiterates.
If you know who killed Robert Lee Preston, call Crime Line in Sumter County at 1-800-423-TIPS. To visit the Crime Line website, click here.
