Elisa Nelson
The Long Wait
Florida Governor Rick Scott announced that he has
signed a death warrant for child-killer Larry Eugene Mann. The murderer is scheduled to die by lethal
injection on April 10th at Florida State Prison in Starke.
The following description of the crime and its
aftermath is taken from court documents.
WARNING: The details are gruesome.
“Elisa Nelson was 10 years old and attended Palm
Harbor Middle School, which was seven or eight blocks from her home. On
November 4, 1980 Elisa had a dental appointment to have braces put on her
teeth, and so she went to school late after her visit to the dentist. Elisa
left home for school on her bicycle between 10:15 and 10:30. She had an excuse
note her mother had written for her to explain her tardiness. Elisa Nelson was
seen riding her bicycle on Nebraska Avenue toward 15th Street, the street on
which her school was located, at around 10:30 that morning. Around 4:00 on the
afternoon of November 4, 1980, Wendy Nelson called the Pinellas County
Sheriff's Office and reported her daughter missing. A deputy was dispatched to
take a report, following which a search was begun. Elisa's bicycle was found
that day, lying on its side in a ditch or ravine area a little bit north of the
middle school. The search continued around the area where the bicycle was found
until midnight, when it was called off.
“The search began again the next morning, and
Elisa's body was found around 8:00 or 9:00 lying face down in a wooded area
next to an orange grove. She was fully clothed except for her sneakers, which
were off to the side of the body. Her jeans were closed. There were several
areas of blood within a few feet of her head, which was in a shallow
depression. Her left arm was behind her back, and there was a piece of vine
around it. The cause of her death was a skull fracture, inflicted by some type
of blunt object. There was a lamp post or pole with concrete on the bottom of
it about six feet from the body that weighed 45 to 50 pounds, had blood on it
of the same type as Elisa Nelson's blood, and was consistent with having
inflicted the injury Elisa suffered. Hairs consistent with Elisa's hairs were
found on the pole, and on concrete chips recovered at the scene. It would have
taken a great deal of force, similar to an auto accident, to have caused the
injury to the skull. The associate medical examiner, Dr. Corcoran, opined that
Elisa was still alive and breathing at the time her skull was crushed. In
addition to the skull fracture, there were five wounds to the neck that would
have been inflicted with a sharp instrument, and which Dr. Corcoran believed
were inflicted first. These included a cut on the left side of the neck that
was about four and one half inches long, and a cut on the right side of the
neck that was about three and one quarter inches long. These would have cut the
external jugular veins and gone into the muscle, but not to any significant
distance. The other three wounds to the neck consisted of two smaller cuts and
a tiny puncture wound.
“If left untreated, the wounds to the neck probably
would have ultimately resulted in death; they may or may not have actually
contributed to Elisa's death. One would remain conscious for a matter of
minutes up to roughly half an hour after receiving the wounds to the neck,
however, the blunt trauma to the head would have caused immediate
unconsciousness. Elisa also had a recent bruise on her chin, which would have
been caused while she was still alive, and which was consistent either with a
blow or a hand over the mouth. Finally, there were four bruises on each of her
legs, all of them less than an inch in diameter, some of which were recent, and
some of which were several days old.
“On November 8, 1980 deputies of the Pinellas County
Sheriff's Office received a radio call to go to [Larry Eugene Mann’s] residence
in Dunedin, where they were given a note by Appellant's wife, Donna, that she
had found under a shirt on the front seat of Appellant's pickup truck. It was
the note Wendy Nelson had written for her daughter to take to school on
November 4. The investigation intensified at that point. The sheriff's deputies
proceeded to Mease Hospital to question Appellant, who was being treated there
as a result of his attempted suicide on November 4, but "there was no
statements given.'' The deputies also secured a search warrant for the Mann
residence and Appellant's truck. Appellant was arrested on the basis of
probable cause on November 10. Two fingerprints found on Elisa Nelson's bicycle
were identified as matching Appellant's known prints. A hair found in vacuum
sweepings taken from the floor of Appellant's truck and hair from auto floor
insulation removed from Appellant's garage matched the hair of Elisa
Nelson.
“Tires on Appellant's truck were similar to tire
impressions the sheriff's deputies found in the area where Elisa Nelson's body
was found. Foam rubber seized at Appellant's house was similar to foam secured
from Elisa's body.”
Mann was sentenced to death on March 26, 1981, and
later resentenced on January 14, 1983, and March 2, 1990.
Courts and lawyers have a way of subverting justice,
so it remains to be seen whether Larry Eugene Mann will actually go to sleep on
a state gurney.
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