Police say they may have solved a murder case in Florida that happened 17 years ago and have arrested the suspect as he was released from a federal prison.
The murder happened back in November 2001, on a street called “Sanctuary Drive” in New Port Richey.
Police found Simon Clarke dead, near a home construction site, beaten to death with a baseball bat.
Police back then focused on Randy Petersilge, but they didn’t have enough to make an arrest.
Detective Joe Ioppolo from the New Port Richey police department got the cold case in 2016, worked, digging through old files, and eventually got a grand jury to indict Petersilge.
“I was lucky enough to locate some witnesses when I was assigned the case. They were a little more forthcoming than they were during the original investigation,” said Ioppolo.
It’s been 17 years, but New Port Richey police say they are confident they’ve solved this case.
