ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — Thirty-three years ago, investigators in St. Lucie County came upon a badly decomposed body in a citrus grove.
It was a homicide, but for three decades, no one had been arrested.
But now, that cold case has been closed.
Out on Route 70, way west of town, it looks about the same as it did in 1988. That’s when a man mowing a citrus grove came upon a body.
Detectives thought they knew who it was, Rocky Taylor, 25, and had an idea who might be responsible. But investigators couldn’t positively identify Taylor at the time.
"He had no ID on him. They met up with friends of his to see if they could ID clothes he usually wore," said Det. Paul Taylor with the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office's Cold Case Unit
Through online sleuthing, Taylor last year tracked down two brothers who agreed to submit to DNA testing. The samples were sent to a Texas lab in early 2020.
"Unfortunately, at that point COVID hit and that lab shut down," Taylor said.
A few weeks ago, the lab reached out and the pieces fell into place.
"Once they ran those two DNA profiles, it came up that he was positively identified as Rocky Lane Taylor," Taylor said.
But the main suspect, a former boyfriend of Rocky Taylor, died of cancer in 2015.
"I would have loved to have made an arrest on this. I think we had the evidence to convict this guy. Time wasn’t on my side with this one," Taylor said.
Det. Taylor has been a one-man cold case unit. But recently, a second man has come on board to volunteer his time.
"So far, what I’ve done in the last month and a half or two months is just read," said retired State Attorney Bruce Colton.
Colton retired this year after 35 years in the office. As someone with a hand in convicting some of the Treasure Coast’s most notorious killers, Colton has a history with some of these cold cases.
"One of the things I found interesting is that even back in the 70s and 80s, they were doing pretty complete investigations," Colton said.
Colton said Det. Taylor’s work on the Rocky Taylor case was impressive.
"He’s done a great job putting these together. I think that says volumes and now he’s been able to have two that he’s cleared," Colton said.
"It is nice to close them," Taylor said.
Det. Taylor found that the victim's remains were still in a lab in Gainesville, so he coordinated it so the family could collect them. Taylor’s surviving siblings held a memorial service on Wednesday.
"33 years to the day, they’re having a celebration of life in Alabama," Taylor said.
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