SANFORD, Fla. – The Sanford Police Department offered an update Friday on a cold case that had gone unsolved some 25 years.
Gary Durrance, 73, has been arrested in the 1999 killing of 50-year-old Sherry Holtz, officials said.
Holtz’s body was found Dec. 4, 1999, behind a business in the 2800 block of South Orlando Drive in Sanford, police said in a news release. Though her neck had been cut — what investigators determined was the cause of her death — there was also evidence of blunt force trauma, strangulation and sexual battery, the release states.
“This was, there’s no other way to describe it but a brutal homicide, OK? She was found laying on her back on a concrete slab approximately 20 feet into the wood line. Her clothing was pulled off, exposing most of her body,” Sanford police strategic communications manager Bianca Gillett said at a news conference Friday. “(...)A sexual assault kit was performed at the time. It was negative for any DNA evidence found during that processing of that kit. There was also a lock-blade knife located near the body. There was human blood present on that knife, it was sent away for testing at the time — actually in 2000 — and the test indicated that there was human blood. However, the samples were so small at the time, they were not sufficient in size for testing.”
From there, the evidence was preserved, leading to this week’s results in the case, officials said.
Durrance, Holtz’s long-time boyfriend at the time of her death, was arrested Thursday after modern-day DNA testing confirmed he was holding the knife that was found near Holtz’s body, police said.
Holtz was last seen Dec. 3, 1999, at a bar along Park Drive, almost half a mile away from where she was found dead. She and Durrance lived together as a couple with roommates, who told investigators that Durrance kicked Holtz out after an argument the day prior to her disappearance.
“Roommates had stated that night that Gary Durrance was in the house on Crow’s Bluff the night of the homicide. However, they couldn’t put him there for the whole night,“ Gillett said. “Some of the indications were that he left late on the third or early on the fourth at some point and returned between 2:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. on the fourth, so we’ve got gaps in that alibi. Durrance, however, had told investigators that he had not seen Sherry since the first.”
Holtz and Durrance had a history of domestic violence incidents, officials said.
“Back in 2000 (and) in the early 1990s, DNA, looking for DNA, wasn’t as prolific as it is today. One of the things that we have had the opportunity to look at over the past 20 plus years is how DNA has helped us, throughout the country, resolve crimes. In May of last year, investigators resubmitted the information to Florida Department of Law Enforcement, FDLE. June of this year, (they) received a hit indicating that they were able to identify that the blood that was found on the knife there belonged to Sherry Holtz, and that there was additional DNA that belonged to a long-time boyfriend by the name of Gary Durrance,” said Sanford police Chief Cecil Smith. “(...)An arrest warrant was issued on July 18 and Mr. Durrance was arrested in Volusia County with the assistance of the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. He is presently in Seminole County Jail today.”
Durrance faces a charge of second-degree homicide, records show.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: