Convenience Store Killer: The Murder of Julie Estes
The 21-year-old died in 1985 and the mystery of her death was eventually solved by forensic evidence from the most unusual of sources.
It was 1985, and 21-year-old Julie Estes had just moved to Jacksonville, Florida with her new husband Rod. He had found work driving a truck and she had taken on a role at a local convenience store to help make ends meet.
Working afternoons and late shifts at the Lil’ Champ probably wasn’t Julie’s idea of a dream career, but the couple needed the money and so she found herself serving customers until 11:00 PM some evenings out on the Kings Road South.
What Julie couldn’t have known was that taking the job would put her in the sights of one of the area’s most dangerous ever offenders — and that he would go unpunished for killing her for more than 20 years.
A mystery leads to a tragic discovery
On October 22nd 1985, an observant passerby driving near the Lil’ Champ in Jacksonville noticed that the lights on the store were all out and the parking lot was empty. This was unusual, since it was only 10:30 PM and the branch normally stayed open another half-hour.
