The Tallahassee Democrat reported last week that a friend of two brothers from St. Thomas facing double murder charges in Orlando has implicated them in the September 2000 slaying of an 18-year-old Tallahassee woman.
Elvis Francis, 17, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Monique Washington. His brother, David Francis, 20, was charged as an accessory after the fact and tampering with physical evidence.
Washington's remains were found in a wooded area in Wakulla County a month after her disappearance on Sept. 10.
The two were arrested and jailed in December 2000 in connection with the deaths of Orlando-area resident Helena Mills and her niece Jo Anna Charles, both also originally from St. Thomas. Mills and Washington were strangled and their cars stolen, according to Florida law enforcement officials.
According to a March 27 report in the Tallahassee newspaper, 20-year-old Tamika Jones, a friend of Washington and the Francis brothers, eventually broke down and confessed last month under questioning by Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents and investigators from the Leon County and Wakulla County sheriffs' offices.
Jones said Elvis Francis allegedly told her he was going to kill Washington, according to court documents cited by the Democrat. Francis allegedly strangled Washington with the power cord from a VCR. Jones reportedly pawned the VCR later. She is charged as an accessory.
Investigators said the Francis brothers apparently headed south to Orlando, where their mother lives.
Mills and Charles were found dead in the bathroom of Mills' apartment in the Orlando area on Nov. 6.
According to a Dec. 11, 2000 report in the Orlando Sentinel, Det. Reggie Campbell of the Orlando police homicide unit said the Orlando victims were attacked and strangled in Mills' home in the Rosemont neighborhood and were robbed of a video-game machine and a medallion with Jo Anna Charles' name on it. Police later recovered the items, which had been pawned, the Sentinel reported.
Mills knew the Francis brothers' mother, Gleneth Byron, from their high school days on St. Thomas, according to the report. Byron had recently moved to Orlando to be near her friend Mills.