Murder Arrest May Solve Mystery
Repo...@school.com
Murder Arrest May Solve Mystery
March 29, 1999
Reuters
(FORT LAUDERDALE) -- The arrest of a murder suspect may provide clues
that lead
police to the missing daughter of a Broward County Sheriff's deputy.
Detectives
have charged 39 year-old funeral home employee Lushious Boyd with the
December
fifth rape and murder of Dawnia Dacosta in Deerfield Beach.
Investigators say a
D-N-A test linked him to Dacosta. In an un-related case, Deputy Barry
Alston's
19-year-old daughter Patrece was last seen alive with Boyd in Winter
Haven last
June. Boyd has a criminal history that includes other rape, kidnapping
and
murder arrests. But none of the charges stuck when he went to trial in
Fort
Lauderdale.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of yesterday's Associated Press news
wire:
Mortician's son charged in nursing student's death
Sunday, March 28, 1999
Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE - The son of a funeral home director has been charged
with
sexually assaulting and killing a nursing student who was kidnapped as
she
walked along a highway to get gas for her stalled car.
Two days after the disappearance of Dawnia Dacosta, 21, along Interstate
95,
she was found dead near a garbage bin, sexually abused and wrapped in a
sheet.
Broward County Sheriff's deputies arrested Lucious Boyd, 40, on murder,
kidnapping and sexual assault charges. He was picked up Friday in the
parking
lot of the family business, the James C. Boyd Funeral Home.
Detectives said they discovered witnesses who led them to Boyd while
working
another murder case in Lauderhill.
Witnesses told officials they saw a van near the spot of Ms. Dacosta's
disappearance on Dec. 5. One person said the van was a dark teal color.
Another
said it had a sign with the word "hope" on the door.
In late January, detectives saw a teal van with such a sign parked in
front of
the church-run Generation of Hope Day Care Center in Lauderhill.
Detective Glenn Bukata said the van was registered to the center, where
Boyd
was a part-time maintenance worker and where his family said he attended
church.
A minister told detectives he lent the van to Boyd on Dec. 4, and Boyd
did not
return it until midday Dec. 7.
"By then, the body had been dumped in Oakland Park," Broward Sheriff's
Office
Capt. Tony Fantigrassi said.
A DNA sample from Boyd obtained during a previous arrest was compared to
semen
found on Ms. Dacosta's body and on Thursday detectives found a match.
"I would say the odds of it not being him are in the high 100 millions
or even
billions," said Lynn Baird, a DNA specialist for the Sheriff's Office
crime
lab.
It's not the first time Boyd has faced murder and sex charges. In
October 1993,
he was arrested on first-degree murder charges in the multiple stabbing
death
of Roderick Bullard, 31, following a dispute about a car.
The charge was dropped to second-degree murder. His attorney argued
self-defense, and a jury acquitted him in 1994.
Investigators said Boyd had been accused of sexual battery or aggravated
sexual
battery four times since 1997 and acquitted in at least three of those
cases.
He also was accused of kidnapping and armed kidnapping in 1997 and 1998.
Those
cases, tried at the same time, also resulted in acquittals.
Boyd also is wanted for questioning in the June disappearance of Patrece
Lashelle Alston, 19, a girlfriend who was last seen with him in Winter
Haven,
police said.
According to Fort Lauderdale police detectives, he left with her on a
vacation
but returned alone, saying he had lost track of her and thought she had
returned home on her own.
"I feel like a ton of weight came off my body," said Daphne Bowe, Ms.
Dacosta's
mother. "I believe they got the right person."
-----------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 3/27/99 online edition of The
Ft.
Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel newspaper:
Mortician's son jailed in murder of nursing student
By TESSIE BORDEN Staff Writer
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Broward sheriff's detectives on Friday morning
picked
up the often-arrested but never-convicted son of a local funeral home
director,
charging him with the murder of nursing student Dawnia Dacosta.
Lucious Boyd, 40, was arrested on Friday morning in the parking lot
of James
C. Boyd Funeral Home, his family's business on Sistrunk Boulevard. He
was
charged with murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in the case of
Dacosta, 21,
who disappeared on Dec. 5 as she walked along Interstate 95 to get gas
for her
broken-down car.
She was found dead two days later near a garbage bin, sexually
abused and
wrapped in a sheet. Detectives happened on clues to the suspect while
working
another murder case in Lauderhill.
"I feel like a ton of weight came off my body," said Daphne Bowe,
Dacosta's
mother. "I believe they got the right person. They knew what they were
doing."
Detectives said they found Boyd through a van that witnesses saw near
the
scene of Dacosta's disappearance. One witness said the van was a dark
teal
color. The other said it had a sign with the word "hope" on the door.
In late January, detectives saw a teal van with such a sign parked in
front
of the church-run Generation of Hope Day Care Center in Lauderhill.
Detective
Glenn Bukata said the van was registered to the center, where Boyd was a
part-time maintenance worker and where, according to his family, he
attended
church.
A minister there told detectives he lent the van to Boyd on Dec. 4, a
day
before the murder. Boyd did not return the van until midday Dec. 7, the
minister said.
"By then, the body had been dumped in Oakland Park," Broward
Sheriff's
Office Capt. Tony Fantigrassi said.
Detectives then compared a DNA sample from Boyd obtained during a
previous
arrest with semen found on Dacosta's body. On Thursday, they got the
results:
It was a match.
"I would say the odds of it not being him are in the high 100
millions or
even billions," said Lynn Baird, a DNA specialist for the Sheriff's
Office
crime lab.
Police knocked on the door of the funeral home about midmorning
Friday. When
Boyd came out and asked them what they needed, police arrested him. Boyd
did
not resist but said he knows nothing of Dacosta, according to Bukata.
"He says he's never met her before, never had contact with her,"
Bukata
said.
It's not the first time Boyd has faced murder and sex charges. In
October
1993, he was arrested on first-degree murder charges in the multiple
stabbing
death of Roderick Bullard, 31, as a result of a dispute about a car. The
charge
was dropped to second-degree murder. His attorney argued self-defense,
and a
jury acquitted him in 1994.
Detectives say Boyd has been accused of sexual battery or aggravated
sexual
battery four times since 1997. In at least three instances, a jury
acquitted
him. The disposition of the fourth arrest, from July 1997, was not known
on
Friday night. He also was accused of kidnapping and armed kidnapping in
1997
and 1998. Those cases, tried at the same time, also resulted in
acquittals.
In addition to the Dacosta case, Boyd is wanted for questioning in
the June
disappearance of Patrece Lashelle Alston, 19, a girlfriend who was last
seen
with Boyd in Winter Haven. According to Fort Lauderdale police
detectives, he
left with her on a vacation trip but returned alone, saying he had lost
track
of her and thought she had returned home on her own.
Detectives recently tried to question Boyd about Alston, who has
never been
found. But his attorney refused to allow him to talk to them, police
spokesman
Mike Reed said.
"I wrote them a letter. I never heard anything more about it," said
Robert
Buschel, who has represented Boyd in two sexual battery cases.
The first was a May 1997 case in Plantation in which a woman told
police he
raped her in a car behind his house. Buschel said he was able to prove
that the
victim, a friend of Boyd's sister, had been taking prescription drugs
and
alcohol and spent the entire day with Boyd. Buschel said the woman was a
tae
kwon do champion who could have fought back his advances.
The second case involved a woman who Buschel said was a prostitute
and who
threatened Boyd with a knife after he offered her a ride and they went
to a
park.
Buschel said he had not heard about Boyd's latest arrest and had not
been
contacted to represent him. He declined to comment further.
But Boyd's sister-in-law, Debbie Boyd, said the family is concerned.
"We've always supported him," she said. "We're supporting him now.
Not if he
did anything wrong, we don't support that. But we're in support of him."
Debbie Boyd said she feels as if her brother-in-law has been made a
target
of law enforcement officers.
"It's just one thing after another," she said.
Bowe said she was surprised to learn that Boyd, a member of a
prominent
family, had been arrested in her daughter's murder.
"To think it's Boyd," she said. "Everybody knows this man works at
the
funeral home. We know Boyd Funeral Home. Who doesn't?"
Bowe said the arrest marked a step toward justice and affirmed her
faith.
"While they were working on the case, sometimes I'd think, 'My God,
aren't
you going to answer our prayer?'" Bowe said. "But he does answer -- at
the
right time. And this is the right time."
--------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 3/28/99 online edition of The
Ft.
Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel newspaper:
Murder suspect key to missing answers
3/28/99
By TESSIE BORDEN Staff Writer
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Patrece Alston's friends and family believe
Lucious
Boyd lied to police about what happened to the young woman during a trip
to
Winter Haven last summer. And they hope his arrest on murder charges in
another
case will bring them closer to the truth.
Boyd, 40, the son of a prominent funeral home director, was arrested
Friday
in the rape and murder of nursing student Dawnia Dacosta in December.
But police also want to talk to him about the disappearance in June
of
19-year-old Alston, Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne said.
Patrece Alston is the daughter of Deputy Barry Erwin Alston,
spokesman Jim
Leljedal confirmed on Saturday. He declined to comment further on the
case,
which is being investigated by Fort Lauderdale police. Barry Alston
could not
be reached for comment.
Police have not named Boyd a suspect in the Alston case, saying only
that
they would like to talk to him about it. His attorney declined to
comment on
the case.
Sharanda Morgan, Patrece Alston's friend, and Shawanna Alston, her
sister,
on Saturday said Boyd has told inconsistent stories about her
disappearance.
Patrece Alston vanished on June 27, 1998, after she left with Boyd on
a trip
to Winter Haven. Detectives have said that when Boyd returned to Fort
Lauderdale, he returned alone. When questioned, he told them he had
separated
from Alston in Winter Haven and thought she had returned to Fort
Lauderdale
with two other men.
But the story he told Shawanna Alston and Morgan differs
significantly, the
women said Saturday.
"He told us he came back with her and dropped her off at the green
store and
never saw her again," Morgan said Saturday. The green store is the
United
Grocery, a neighborhood store just down the street from the northwest
Fort
Lauderdale home Patrece Alston shared with her mother and sister.
Fort Lauderdale detectives tried to question Boyd again, but he
refused to
talk to them through his attorney. The case languished, and Patrece
Alston is
still missing.
Morgan last saw Boyd and Alston together on the morning of June 27.
She said
Boyd and Alston stopped by her house about 7 a.m., with Alston at the
wheel of
Boyd's green Mazda 626. Morgan said Alston got out and came to the door,
but
Boyd remained in the car, reclining in his seat.
Morgan said that Alston told her they were going to Winter Haven to
pick up
some materials having to do with Boyd's family business, the James C.
Boyd
Funeral Home on Sistrunk Boulevard.
"I asked her when they were going to be back, and she said that same
day,"
Morgan said.
But Alston did not return that day, or any other.
A couple of dayswent by. Shawanna Alston called Morgan and asked if
she had
heard from "Trecey," as her sister was known. But Morgan knew nothing of
her
whereabouts. The two said they called Boyd at his Pompano Beach home,
and he
told them he last saw her when he dropped her off in front of the store.
They
think he was lying.
"Trecey would have called her family," Morgan said. "If there's one
thing
she did, it's call her family."
The family reported Patrece Alston's disappearance to the police. But
Morgan
and Shawanna Alston did their own investigating.
Morgan said they found out that in the days after he returned, Boyd
had his
car detailed twice at a shop on Northwest 27th Avenue.
"He took it back because they didn't do it right the first time,"
Morgan
said.
A few weeks later, he got rid of the car, Morgan said.
Worried family members began posting fliers in their neighborhood.
They even
went to the funeral home to ask for a picture of Boyd, Morgan said. She
said
his family told her they couldn't believe she was asking for it. She
said they
also told her they never sent Boyd to Winter Haven to pick up anything.
Boyd has been arrested several times, on charges including murder
and
sexual battery. But sheriff's officials said he never spent time in
jail: He
was either acquitted at trial, or the charges were dropped or
downgraded.
Morgan said Boyd had a reputation in the neighborhood.
"Everybody knew how Lucious was," Morgan said. "Everybody in the
neighborhood knew about him. That's why I couldn't believe she was going
somewhere with him by herself."