Donna Martin (8 of Hearts, Florida)
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Who was Donna Martin and what happened to her?
Our card this week is Donna Martin, the Eight of Hearts from Florida. Donna Martin was stabbed and killed in her own home in South Florida back in 1999. And police believed that the man who may have killed her was the very same man who had turned Boca Raton into a hunting ground. But police have been unable to pin Donna's murder on him. That suspect even went to prison for other crimes, but now he's a free man. And police believe solving Donna's murder could help save other women in Florida. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck. When Donna Martin hadn't shown up for work by lunchtime on Tuesday, January 12th, 1999, her colleagues at ADT Security Services were pretty worried. She had relocated to join the company in Boca Raton, Florida, less than two years before. And they knew her well enough to know that it wasn't like her to go AWOL. So one of her co-workers volunteered to stop by Donna's apartment and check on her. It was 11.45 a.m.
when she made it to Donna's apartment and from the very first moment she saw the front door slightly ajar, she knew that whatever kept Donna from work wasn't good. She pushed the door open to reveal a quiet living room. Too quiet. She made her way toward the kitchen and reached for the light switch to better see, but when the bright light washed over the kitchen, she saw a horrifying sight. Donna was on the floor next to the fridge, covered in blood, and still wearing the green suit she'd worn to work the day before. Frantic, the colleague called for help, but when paramedics arrived, they quickly realized there was no hope of reviving Donna. Retired Detective John Van Houten, who everyone on the squad calls Hootie, was the lead detective on Donna's case for many years.
I mean, even starting from day one. He told our reporters that when he first entered Donna's apartment, it was clear that she'd been stabbed. And he was pretty sure he knew with what. And that theory came from the fact that a knife in her kitchen was missing.
What evidence was found at Donna Martin's crime scene?
The knife was taken from a butcher block, which was on top of the refrigerator. And I don't remember if we found the knife, Bill.
We never found the murder weapon.
No. That second voice you heard was Sergeant William Springer, who also worked on his case for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. You'll hear both men talking back and forth quite a bit throughout this episode.
It was one of the larger knives. And if I remember right, the wound was down between her collarbone. It went down, hit the aorta, and she bled out right there.
Although paramedics had moved Donna from the kitchen to the living room by the time police arrived, the pool of blood in the kitchen made it clear where the stabbing had taken place. And both detectives agree that the evidence pointed to a surprise attack.
She has nylons on, underwear, bra, everything, and everything is intact. In my opinion, and the observation, there was no signs of a struggle. She never saw it coming.
And she was a petite woman. She was a small-framed woman. And so she just folded. It was a very cold-blooded thing.
The rest of the apartment revealed little else. A sliding glass door had been left partially open, but detectives believed Donna had left it that way herself to allow her cat to come and go. There was a missing pillowcase from one pillow in Donna's bedroom, but the bedroom itself appeared otherwise undisturbed. Detectives gathered as much evidence as they could, taking knives, clothing, sampling blood smears in the apartment and dusting for prints. But none of the evidence gave them any leads. There were no unidentified fingerprints and all the blood that they found was Donna's. But there was other evidence at the scene that helped investigators at least establish a timeline. For one, Donna's body was in full rigor and lividity had set in when she was found, suggesting that she'd been dead for at least six hours. They also found a styrofoam clamshell container filled with wings open wide on the counter on top of a plastic bag, along with a receipt for the wings showing that they were picked up on Monday from a local spot
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who was Donna Martin and what happened to her?
0:04–2:48
2
What evidence was found at Donna Martin's crime scene?
2:48–6:13
3
What was Donna Martin's last known movements and who was the man she met?
6:13–11:05
4
What similarities exist between Donna Martin's case and other attacks in Boca Raton?
11:05–13:51
5
Who is David Miller and what is his criminal background?
13:51–18:55
6
Why is David Miller considered a prime suspect in Donna Martin's murder?
18:55
7
What was the involvement of Donna Martin's family in the investigation?
12:15–38:37