Nearly four decades after a woman’s body was discovered on a Florida block, deputies identified the person they believe killed her.
On Sept. 9, 1985, the “lifeless” body of 38-year-old Annie Mae Ernest was found in an open area of a neighborhood block, according to a Jan. 11 news release from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Her death was ruled a homicide, deputies said, and soon after the department identified a person of interest.
Deputies said they questioned Robert Vance, one of Ernest’s “last known contacts” before she died, the sheriff’s office said.
“Detectives interviewed Vance, who freely admitted to socializing with the victim, but also stated he was not involved in her death,” the sheriff’s office said. “At the time, Vance agreed to take a polygraph examination, however, he failed to show up at the agreed upon time the following day.”
Hoping to find him, deputies said they went to his apartment and found it abandoned, and follow-up searches yielded no results.
One thing they learned was that “Robert Vance” was an alias, and his real name was Robert Richard Van Pelt, the sheriff’s office said.
Ernest’s case went cold as Van Pelt remained missing, according to the sheriff’s office, and an attempt to reopen the case in 2008 got investigators no closer to the truth.
In 2023, one of Ernest’s family members reached out to Project: Cold Case, a nonprofit based in Jacksonville that provides “long-term support to families of unsolved homicides through specific services and awareness,” according to its Facebook page.
The group encouraged the family to ask for an update in the case, the sheriff’s office said, and the department began to review the facts and evidence with “modern technology and databases.”
Investigators learned that Van Pelt “fled” to Tampa when he left his Jacksonville apartment, the sheriff’s office said, and took on another alias: John Leroy Harris.
When they searched modern databases for Harris’ name, they found an incident report from the Tampa Police Department dated 1988, the sheriff’s office said.
Harris was accused of shooting a woman in Tampa, deputies said, and the woman survived.
Harris took his life following the shooting, according to the sheriff’s office.
With the help of an “in-depth fingerprint analysis,” investigators learned all three names — Robert Vance, John Leroy Harris and Robert Richard Van Pelt — belonged to the same 39-year-old man, deputies said.
The cold case unit presented the findings to the State Attorney’s Office, and “if Van Pelt were alive today, he would be charged with the murder of Annie Mae Ernest,” the sheriff’s office said.
In December, the case was listed as “Exceptionally Cleared – Death of Offender,” according to the sheriff’s office.
“My brother and I are so thankful to have our mom’s case resolved. We never gave up hope in the 38 years since this happened that the person responsible would be identified. We have found peace in knowing that he has not been able to hurt anyone else since taking his own life in 1988,” Project: Cold Case told WTLV-WJXX on behalf of Ernest’s child.
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