ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A man accused of killing a Winter Park caretaker who was found dead days after she was reported missing will face the death penalty in his first-degree murder trial, according to the office of Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala.
Ayala's spokeswoman announced that a grand jury indicted suspect Scott Nelson, 53, on Tuesday and that a notice to seek the death penalty had been filed against him.
Nelson is facing charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery in connection with the death of Jennifer Lynn Fulford, 56, who was found dead in an area off Apopka-Vineland Road on Sept. 30.
Fulford was reported missing on Sept. 27 after she didn't pick up her boss' son from school like she was supposed to, according to an affidavit. Fulford's boss found her purse on the bathroom floor at his home, but her debit card, cellphone, ID and other personal items were missing, the report said.
Surveillance footage from a Wells Fargo in Winter Park showed Nelson using Fulford's debit card to withdraw $300 from an ATM and then again at another Wells Fargo in Jacksonville on Sept. 29, according to the affidavit.
Nelson was arrested at a Jacksonville motel, officials said.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that Fulford's wrists and ankles were bound and she was stabbed and suffocated before being dumped in the woods.
The case against Nelson is the third time Ayala has sought the death penalty since losing her legal battle to Gov. Rick Scott over his authority to remove first-degree murder cases from her office against her will.