‘I felt like it’d always be a mystery’

Investigators confirmed the identity of an unknown man who was fatally shot more than 40 years ago and, in doing so, gave the victim’s family a sense of closure.

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office had a press conference Friday, where Sheriff Gator DeLoach said Unidentified Person 36 was Vietnam War veteran William Irving Monroe III. 

Monroe was “violently murdered four decades ago and left partially buried in a hole in Pomona Park,” DeLoach said, with a press release from his office stating the victim was found Dec. 4, 1980, in the area of Sisco Road and Broward Lake Road. Monroe was shot in the neck, had a hematoma from a fall or blunt force trauma on the right side of his chest, and had a hairline fracture at the base of his skull, DeLoach said. 

While hair and skin samples from the unknown victim were taken during the initial investigation, DeLoach said, it wasn’t until recently that Monroe was identified, which allowed investigators to learn more about him. 

“I can’t express enough gratitude to Capt. Chris Stallings for bringing this case of out of the cold, as well as Mr. Monroe’s brother and son, who since January have worked with us providing information, pictures and documents that have humanized our victim,” DeLoach said during the press conference. 

Putting the pieces together

In March 2023, hair and skin samples were sent to a laboratory owned by forensic genetic genealogy company Othram Inc. in Texas after Stallings reviewed this case and a similar Flagler County case in which DNA was a big factor. 

In June, the results didn’t look promising, DeLoach said, but by September, DNA results made investigators aware of possible family members. After finding some of Monroe’s family in January, the sheriff’s office finally had an answer to a question the agency had been asking since December 1980.

“In January, we received a potential name of our victim, William Irving Monroe III, which is promising because there is no record of Mr. Monroe after 1979,” DeLoach said. “Upon calling Richard (Monroe, the victim’s brother), we began to understand this is not a migrant worker who we once thought, but a person who has ties to Putnam County.” 

During the initial investigation, DeLoach said, detectives interviewed a driver for Simmons Labor Camp in Pomona Park and learned the driver picked up three Black men and a White man from Orlando to work at the camp. The White man, who left the camp Nov. 15, 1980, was wearing a T-shirt with the word “Dallas” on it, the same shirt the victim was wearing when he was found partially buried, DeLoach said. 

By the time of William Monroe’s murder, his family had lived in numerous cities and states throughout the country, Stalling said. Finding the victim’s link to Putnam County was done by delving into public records and news clippings, as well as with the assistance of Richard Monroe, Stallings said. 

After the victim’s brother provided names and last known whereabouts of family members, Stallings found William Monroe’s marriage announcement in Hialeah. Stallings said he also found William Monroe’s name in court records and traffic citations in the 1970s. 

His ex-wife, who authorities said passed away in 2020, had lived in Pomona Park since 1971, which established the victim’s ties to the area.

Stallings said William Monroe’s ex-wife and their children – Michael and Chris Monroe, the latter of whom was killed in a vehicle crash in 1994 – lived in Pomona Park when the victim was killed. 

“So it quickly turned from a migrant worker that came in from out of county with unfamiliar ties to now we actually have somebody that was quasi-local,” Stallings said, describing the victim’s reason for being in Putnam County. “So since that time, we’ve learned that at the time, Michael, his brother, Chris, and Mr. (William) Monroe’s ex-wife, Maria, actually lived in Pomona Park at or around the time that the deceased was killed.”

Mystery solved

Richard and Michael Monroe attended Friday’s press conference, where they described the bittersweet feelings they were experiencing. 

Their loved one is still gone, but they said they were grateful to the sheriff’s office, Othram and other entities – including Veterans Services, which will be providing a headstone to properly display William Monroe’s grave – for providing closure. 

Richard Monroe, who currently lives in Danville, Virginia, has always thought about and prayed for his brother but said his family had not filed a missing person’s report because they didn’t know where to start. Because William Monroe moved around so much, his brother said, no one knew if he was missing or just went to the Caribbean and cut off contact.

William Monroe joined the Marines when he turned 18 in September 1965, his brother said, and was later shipped to Vietnam. After he returned from his service overseas, however, William Monroe’s “demeanor changed” and he became more violent, turned to drugs and had no one to help him, Richard Monroe said. 

Richard Monroe eventually believed his brother was dead.

“I had already assumed that’s what happened,” he said. “Not seeing somebody for 43 years, it was kind of hard. I was just glad to hear that that was the real truth, that he did get murdered. Unfortunately, my parents aren’t here to see it. … I had some portion of closure (before learning what happened to him). If people would ask me about him, I’d say that I think he was deceased.”

Michael Monroe was 8 when William Monroe disappeared but was 7 when he last saw his father. After his father’s disappearance, Michael Monroe said, he went through childhood as a “mad, loner, troubled kid” who felt he could rely only on himself. 

Despite learning what happened to his father, he said the process leading to that revelation allowed him to reconnect with family members, including Richard Monroe, he hadn’t seen since he was a young child. 

Michael Monroe, who still lives in Pomona Park, is glad this mystery has been solved but wishes his son could have met William Monroe. 

“It’s been over 44 years (since I’ve seen my father),” Michael Monroe said. “I’ve sat there and wondered all this time, never having … nowhere to even look. I was only told that he went to the Virgin Islands and he’d never come back basically. 

“I felt like it’d always be a mystery to me, like I would never know. I’m glad to finally (have) some closure to it.”

Still more to go

While DeLoach is glad to have provided some sense of closure, he said there is still more work to be done. This case has always been a homicide case, albeit with an unidentified victim, and the investigation will continue in the hopes of finding out who killed William Monroe.

CrimeStoppers of Northeast Florida is offering a reward to anyone who provides credible information that could lead to identifying a suspect. People can contact the organization by calling 888-277-8477 or by downloading the P3 app. 

DeLoach and Stallings said they’re reaching out to Pomona Park residents and others who knew William Monroe. 

They want to completely close the case by making an arrest or, if the suspect is dead, identifying who they think was the shooter. 

“While this is an exciting moment for us, we also recognize this is a bittersweet moment for the family,” DeLoach said. “We’re very pleased, based on Capt. Stallings’ efforts and the substantial amount of work that he’s put into this case, that we’re able to bring some finality to this case and some closure to the Monroe family.”