By CHASE SQUIRES
© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 23, 2001
TAMPA -- Detectives are used to highs and lows, no matter how big the case, authorities said Friday.
So when their first crack at solving the 1997 killing of 9-year-old Sharra Ferger went sour and the suspect was cleared, they dug in and moved on, they said.
The payoff came Thursday with the indictment of two new suspects. This time, after questioning hundreds of witnesses with a team of up to 30 county and state detectives, "We're pretty confident," Pasco County sheriff's Sgt. Charlie Calhoun said.
A state expert said Friday that the DNA evidence is solid.
While officials avoided disclosing details of Thursday's sealed indictment accusing two men in Ferger's death, detectives from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Sheriff's Office said they were pleased with the results and are preparing for trial.
"This has been a relentless pursuit," Calhoun said.
The grand jury on Thursday indicted Gary Elishi Cochran, 35, an uncle of Ferger's, and Gary Steven Cannon, 20, a family friend. The two have been at the center of the investigation since at least April 1999 and were publicly named as suspects in the fall of that year.
The indictments remained sealed Friday because Cannon and Cochran, both in state prisons on unrelated charges, had not been formally served with the arrest warrants in the Ferger case. Authorities did not know when the warrants would be served on the two men or when the pair would be brought to Pasco to answer to the charges.
Calhoun and FDLE Special Agent John Halliday credited each other for the cooperation that led to the indictments. Halliday said he was on the scene from the day Ferger's body was discovered in a field near her Blanton home in 1997. He worked alongside Pasco Detective James Bucenell.
"I have a very, very strong, good feeling about working with the Sheriff's Office in Pasco County," he said. "They have made me feel since October of 1997 that I was almost a member of their department."
Halliday said with five to eight FDLE agents, a pair of DNA experts and up to 20 deputies working on the case for more than three years, authorities interviewed hundreds of witnesses and combed through pieces of evidence to patch together a case that depends not just on one piece.
It was a sole piece of evidence that wrongly put Ferger neighbor Dale Morris Jr. in jail in 1997 and held him there until February 1998, when he was cleared by DNA testing.
In building that case, detectives focused on a bite mark on Ferger's body and depended on two forensic dentists to match the mark to Morris' mouth.
When Morris was cleared, Calhoun said detectives resolved to find the killers rather than lose hope.
"The people who work these kinds of cases, we're used to highs and lows," Calhoun said. "We never give up hope on any case."
Morris is suing the Sheriff's Office.
This time, Halliday said, there is a lot more to the case.
"It wouldn't be just a stand-alone situation," he said. "There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle, so to speak. It's not just any one thing."
Throughout the investigation, Calhoun said detectives stayed in contact with Ferger's father, John Lee "Jay" Parsons.
Melissa Suddeth, supervisor of the FDLE's Tampa crime lab, examined key pieces of evidence and said the genetic blueprints she identified are "not a common frequence" in the population.
"I'm very comfortable with the DNA evidence that we recovered," she said.
She wouldn't discuss what was examined, but Halliday said detectives took samples of hair and saliva from numerous neighbors in Ferger's east Pasco neighborhood. Cannon's mother said investigators told her they matched her son's DNA to a hair found on the girl's body.
Around Ferger's neighborhood, residents said they were relieved by the indictments. But things long ago returned to normal, they said. It was only Thursday's latest news that brought back the familiar hordes of newspaper and television reporters.
Jessica Rayburn lives in the house where Sharra used to live. Rayburn said she has never been afraid of the girl's killers. She is more concerned about the effect the publicity had on driving away residents.
"I think it ripped the neighborhood apart," she said. "Look at all these houses that are up for sale."
Up the street, Kim Bryant said she remembers Sharra and her mother, Karen. Knowing there will be arrests put her at ease.
"We bought an alarm system right after that," she said. "Who wants a child killer out there?"
But in the years since the murder, life has returned to normal, Bryant said.
Less than 100 yards away, at the end of Bryant's street, is an unofficial memorial to Sharra.
Draped over a cross bearing Sharra's name was a collection of fading ribbons, an amulet reading "Jesus" and a golden wristband someone had left behind. Attached to the cross Friday was a shiny new helium balloon reading "I love you."
A fresh bundle of flowers had been placed at the foot of the cross. The card on the bouquet was signed with the names of family members "Daddy Jay," "Momma Torina" and others. The words blurred in the afternoon rain.
"Always in our thoughts and on our minds," the card read. "We will never forget. . . . We love and miss you."