Children on the school bus the day Jennifer Odom disappeared reported a “faded blue truck,” later linked to Jeffrey Norman Crum, who lived in the area at that time, the Associated Press reports. Before the 1992 attack on the 17-year-old Florida teenager who survived, Crum had a criminal record including robbery and sexual battery, among other charges. Referring to Crum, Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said (via the Miami Herald), “This is not someone who should be taken lightly. This is a bad guy who enjoyed violence.”
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Despite that blue truck lead, investigators were unable to identify who was responsible for Odom’s death, and the case went cold until an advance in DNA technology known as familial searching offered investigators a break. Crum stood trial for the 1992 attempted murder of the 17-year-old Florida teenager in 2015 thanks to a DNA sample gathered at the scene of the crime, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Crum’s DNA was reportedly never on file with law enforcement, but through familial searching, that DNA sample was linked to Crum’s son, who was in prison at the time. The DNA also matched other members of Crum’s family.
