FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A convicted felon on death row who is a suspect in serial killings appeared in Broward County court on Tuesday to face charges for yet another murder in 1998.
Lucious Boyd, a convicted felon on death row, stands accused of killing Eileen Truppner, 41, of Puerto Rico, a mother of two who a boater found dead in a grassy area on Dec. 18, 1998, in Broward.
For more than two decades, Truppner’s body went unidentified. In May, detectives used new technology to solve the cold case. She had died by strangulation.
“It hurts like it was yesterday,” her sister, Nancy Truppner, said.
When a grand jury indicted Boyd for Truppner’s murder on Nov. 29, he had already been sentenced to death for the murder of Dawania Dacosta, 21, a nursing student who was abducted and killed about two weeks before Truppner’s rape and murder.
Sheriff Gregory Tony said Boyd, 64, who was arrested in 1999, was a suspect in other cases. Detectives considered Boyd as a suspect in the murders of Danielle Zacot and Melissa Floyd, and the disappearance of Patrece Alston.
At the courthouse, Amber Barry was distraught. She said Boyd was a suspect in the murder of her sister, Gina Marie Moore, in 1998, in Fort Lauderdale.
“He scared me,” Barry said through tears adding detectives had told her Boyd refused to reveal information about crimes.
Boyd, who is awaiting execution, pleaded not guilty to charges related to Truppner’s murder. His next court hearing in the case is on April 11.