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Family of slain grandmother asks for help
By MIKE BRASSFIELD, Times Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG -- Patricia Hodges' life revolved around her nine grandchildren. She babysat them, doted on them and took them to the park to play. But for the past year, Hodges' grandchildren have had to do without her. Mrs. Hodges, 64, was slain one year ago in her apartment at 6100 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N at the rear of a Prudential Insurance building. The case remains unsolved despite a $10,000 reward. On Friday, Mrs. Hodges' family pleaded with the public for help, and police released a piece of new information: The killer was trying to rape her. "We need to get this person off the street. If this person is going to do that to a 64-year-old grandmother, he'll do it to anybody," said Stacey Gertsch, 39, one of Mrs. Hodges' five grown children. "We're hoping that someone who knows something about this will come forward now, even if it's the slightest bit of evidence, even if they heard it second hand," Gertsch said. "Give the detectives a call and let them do their job." Mrs. Hodges, who was retired, was found dead on April 18, 2002, in the apartment where she had lived alone for three years. Detectives say she was either stabbed or cut with a knife. Her door was locked, and there was no sign that anyone had broken in. Police have no suspects and few leads, said Sgt. Mike Puetz, head of St. Petersburg's homicide squad. Homicide detectives are now saying the motive for Mrs. Hodges' killing was an attempted sexual assault. It was not a robbery; nothing was missing from Mrs. Hodges' apartment. For strategic reasons, detectives won't say whether Mrs. Hodges was actually raped. They prefer to be secretive about some of the facts of this case to help gauge the truthfulness of any potential witnesses who come forward. "The more we put out there, the less we have the ability to gauge that," Puetz said. "With some sources of information, credibility is always going to be an issue. It might be in our best interests not to say everything we know." Mrs. Hodges' children had been trying to get her out of her apartment because it was in a busy commercial district with a lot of pedestrian traffic at night. "It's been a hard year -- a year of birthdays and holidays without her," Gertsch said. "We're hoping and praying that something will happen, but there's not much to pin our hopes on. It's been a year of hell." The $10,000 reward is being offered partly by Mrs. Hodges' family and partly by the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation. The fund is named after Carole and Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso, who were missing and found murdered near Yosemite National Park in 1999. Police ask anyone with information on Mrs. Hodges' slaying to call St. Petersburg police Detective Mike Kovacsev at (727) 892-5129 or the city's police communications desk at (727) 893-7164.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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