JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A renewed call for information earlier this year in the 1987 murder of a 20-year-old Jacksonville mother reignited the cold case, eventually leading to information that helped the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office make an arrest, the executive director of First Coast Crime Stoppers said.
Chase Robinson told News4JAX on The Morning Show that the idea behind the “innovative” digital news conference series that highlighted Melissa Ellison’s case in January is to give families like Ellison’s a platform to share the human faces and feelings behind cold cases.
“It was because of this press conference that we reached the right target audience, and it allowed for information to come forward to allow JSO to make an arrest in the case,” Robinson said. “We really felt that this had an impact in our community.”
Ellison, also known as Missy Taylor to many, was an Ed White High graduate who was home with her 13-month-old daughter, Casie, three days after Christmas in 1987, when a man broke in and beat her to death with a charred log that came from inside her fireplace.
Police say that man has now been identified as 70-year-old Gary Edward Glowacz.
After Thursday’s long-awaited arrest announcement, Casie Ellison said she can now “see the world differently.”
“I know that it’s never going to bring my mom back, but it does have a ridiculous release of closure,” said Casie, who was found unharmed in the home by her mother’s roommate after the killing.
According to his arrest report, Glowacz actually made a call himself to Clay County Sheriff’s Office dispatch on July 8 of this year, about six months after First Coast Crime Stoppers held the digital news conference on Ellison’s case. Glowacz was later arrested.
Casie Ellison shared emotional words during that January digital news conference.
“Silence does not change facts. And living a normal life does not undo taking someone else’s. If you know something, say it. If you heard something, report it,” Casie said. “If someone told you something years ago, submit it. Crime Stoppers exists for this exact reason.”
Robinson agreed, saying that bringing closure to families and safety to communities is why First Coast Crime Stoppers was created.
But the real key to the success of Crime Stoppers, Robinson said, is the ability to provide complete anonymity to anyone who submits a tip, no matter how they provide it, because the nonprofit organization does not fall under the same public records laws as law enforcement agencies.
“When someone contacts Crime Stoppers, they are anonymous, not (just) confidential. We don’t have a database of names, addresses, IP addresses that could ever be leaked out to the public or made known,” Robinson said, explaining that they simply do not collect that information. “So if Crime Stoppers doesn’t know who you are, law enforcement won’t know who you are, and therefore the community won’t know who you are.”
In fact, those who submit tips are so anonymous that Crime Stoppers has no way to contact them to let them know if a tip led to an arrest.
“When you submit a tip, you’re assigned a randomized tip number. That’s the only thing that links you to the information that you provided,” Robinson explained. “That’s how you must reach out to Crime Stoppers to check the status of your tip, because we don’t collect any identifiable information.”
To submit a tip to First Coast Crime Stoppers, you can call 1-866-845-TIPS or dial **TIPS on a mobile device.
You can also share tips at FCCrimeStoppers.com or by using the P3Tips mobile app.