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Sheriff Gator DeLoach holds a picture of Lorenzo Hudson, the suspect of a 2015 cold case murder, during a press conference Tuesday in Palatka. -
State Attorney Mark Johnson, left, and Sheriff Gator DeLoach answer questions from the media Tuesday during a press conference in Palatka -
Lorenzo Hudson -
Shaquierra Pinckney
A grand jury indicted a suspect Monday in the seven-year-old murder of a Daytona Beach woman whose burned body was found in an East Palatka cemetery.
On Tuesday, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and State Attorney’s Office named Lorenzo Hudson, 42, as the suspect in the death of 22-year-old Daytona Beach resident Shaquierra Pinckney, whose body was found in Gethsemane Baptist Church Cemetery in September 2015.
Pinckney had two children and was about four months pregnant when her severely burned body was found, reports stated.
“One of our most important functions was to serve as a voice for Shaquierra and those like her, who was silenced when her life was brutally taken,” DeLoach said during a press conference Tuesday. “She will never be forgotten by me or my detectives, who worked tirelessly to bring Hudson one step closer to justice.”
Hudson was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder, abuse of a dead human body and tampering with physical evidence, according to the state. Hudson is currently serving a five-year prison sentence at the Okaloosa Correctional Institution in Crestview for burglary and theft charges in 2018, DeLoach said.
His sentence will continue to run until December, which was to be his release date. Hudson will be transported to Putnam County for arraignment, State Attorney Mark Johnson said at the press conference. Where he will be housed after that, Johnson said, will be determined by “other officials.”
Johnson said the State Attorney’s Office will decide “in the upcoming days” whether to pursue the death penalty against Hudson.
Workers preparing for a funeral at the Gethsemane cemetery found Pinckney’s body Sept. 4, 2015, two days after her family reported her missing to the Daytona Beach Police Department, the Palatka Daily News reported.
Authorities believed Hudson tried to set Pinckney’s body on fire to cover up a crime.
St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office deputies found Pinckney’s 2001 Honda Accord in Hastings on Sept. 18, 2015, DeLoach said Tuesday.
The State Attorney’s Office confirmed Tuesday that Hudson contacted Pinckney after she placed posts on an escort section of BackPage.com on Aug. 30, 2015. The state said Hudson killed her and then burned her body.
Gethsemane Baptist Church Cemetery is “less than 1 mile away from where the defendant grew up in East Palatka,” according to the State Attorney’s Office statement.
DeLoach said the case could not have gotten this far without the help of Daytona Beach and St. Johns County authorities as well as the State Attorney’s Office.
“I don't think that enough can be said about the collaborative effort and the cooperation that took place to bring this case to fruition,” DeLoach said. “Although Shaquierra will never be with us again, her memory will live on in our hearts. And we're thankful for all of those who took part in this investigation and worked tirelessly to bring it to close.”