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| Florida's version of CSI | Cold Case Task Force HQ (1990's) |
The Aftermath
It was a Christmas card from retired deputy Fred Thompson to his former boss, Sheriff Neil Perry that finally brought William Darrell Lindsey to justice. It is a testament to the close-knit ties of life in a small town and the persistence of law enforcement. A newspaper clipping enclosed in that Christmas card reached the St. Johns County Cold Case Homicide Task Force in January of 1997. The months of research and interviews that followed resulted in Lindsey being extradited from Ashville, NC to St. Augustine, FL ten months later. The cooperation between the Buncombe County Sheriff's office and Sheriff Perry's task force ensured that Lindsey would be tried for six murders. In July of 1999, William Darrell Lindsey plea bargained his way out of a death sentence and was given 30 years in Florida's Cross City Correctional Institute. He is due to be released on December 11, 2025 at the age of 90. His inmate photograph (DC # V08350) shows a grandfatherly man decaying from illness. Only the eyes reveal the madness within. At seventy-one, his words to detectives handling his case still ring chillingly true:
"You've got to understand that there's a good Bill and a bad Bill. Good Bill is a decent person...Bad Bill is a person society needs to be afraid of."
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