BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Seven months after Broward County deputies identified the victim of a nearly-25-year-old cold case murder, they now believe they’ve identified the killer.
Eileen Truppner was simply known as “Jane Doe” from the time of her Dec. 1998 murder until Broward Sheriff’s Office detectives identified her in May.
In the evening hours of Dec. 18, 1998, deputies said someone dragged Truppner’s body into the sawgrass in a remote area off U.S. 27, north of Interstate 75. Detectives believe the 41-year-old mother of two had also been raped.
That someone, deputies said, is believed to be Lucious Boyd, a 64-year-old convicted murderer, rapist and suspected serial killer already on death row for the killing of Dawnia Dacosta, whose body was discovered in Oakland Park in 1998, about two weeks before Truppner’s homicide.
“Even though they have the person in custody, that person is going to get justice,” Nancy Truppner, the victim’s sister, said at a news conference announcing the indictment Tuesday.
“With the advent of genealogy, we reprocessed the evidence to try to get the material we needed to identify the victim and, in the course of that processing, we were able to link Lucious Boyd to her murder,” BSO Detective Zack Scott said.
While Boyd’s death sentence looms, Sheriff Gregory Tony said BSO’s homicide cold case unit will not stop looking into several other cases he may be linked to, regardless of how much time has passed.
“Justice has no expiration date,” Tony said. “If you commit a crime, a brutal murder or a rape, whether it be 20 years ago or tomorrow, we are going to track you down and bring you into custody.”
Tony added that anyone who had contact with Boyd in the 1990s should contact the sheriff’s office. He is believed to be connected to several other murders where he preyed on vulnerable women.
“She was a good person,” Nancy Truppner said of her sister. “She did not deserve to die the way she died. Brutalized.”