Several unsolved cases are getting a fresh look with the arrest of William Deparvine, the suspect in the murder of a Tierra Verde couple.
By CHRIS TISCH and LEANORA MINAI
Published January 15, 2004
The St. Petersburg man accused of killing a Tierra Verde couple is being investigated in at least five unsolved homicides from Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Sarasota.
Detectives from five to 10 agencies, including one outside Florida, are investigating possible links between William J. Deparvine and the other homicides, all of which occurred in 1989.
Investigators are working on the theory that Deparvine may be a serial killer, said Pinellas County sheriff's Detective Lt. Steve Shipman.
"That is the theory. I think it's pretty strong. I think it's very strong," he said. "Given the circumstances of the current case, it appears to me he wouldn't hesitate to murder somebody to get what he wants."
Hillsborough investigators Tuesday charged Deparvine, 51, with two counts of first-degree murder in the Nov.25 deaths of Richard and Karla Van Dusen. Detectives say Deparvine killed the couple after buying a restored truck from them.
In at least one other case, a couple found slain also had a car for sale. In another, a man was killed after he took a job from which Deparvine was fired.
Unsolved murders now under renewed scrutiny include the deaths of:
John C. Dunbar, 40, of St. Petersburg, whose body was found in a ditch on Fruitville Road in Sarasota on July10, 1989.
Glenn Mills, 41, who was shot outside his St. Petersburg home on Aug.22, 1989.
Sally and Richard Gary Smith, who were killed in their Clearwater home Sept.1, 1989. He was shot and stabbed, and she strangled.
Lucinda McClean, 36, of Sarasota, whose body was found Sept.12, 1989, just yards away from where Dunbar's body had been discovered two months before.
Deparvine's name surfaced in the Dunbar investigation because he knew Dunbar, said Chuck Lesaltato, spokesman for the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.
"He knew the victim somehow and became a person of interest to us," Lesaltato said.
Dunbar's mother said Sarasota detectives told her they suspected an acquaintance of her son's named Bill. She said a Bill often drove by in a blue pickup truck or called for her son. But she never got a good look at him and couldn't remember how he knew her son.
"They said he was already in jail for another crime," said Eunice Dunbar, 75, of St. Petersburg. "If they ever released him, they would rearrest him."
Detectives, who have never said how Dunbar died, also asked his mother whether he had a heart condition. She said they told her "he wasn't cut and he wasn't shot."
Six weeks after Dunbar's body was found, Mills was killed by a shotgun blast to the chest as he left for his job as a project supervisor at a construction company. The man Mills had replaced in that job was Deparvine.
Police said Deparvine had been fired. Because of that connection, police investigated Deparvine but he was never named a suspect or arrested in the slaying.
Now police are looking at Deparvine again, said St. Petersburg homicide Sgt. Mike Puetz. They also will review other unsolved cases in St. Petersburg.
Mills' father, William Mills, 82, said Wednesday that news reports have led him to wonder if Deparvine killed his son.
"As slow as the police may be, they don't forget," Mills said. "They keep the cases open. I'd like to see the guy put away."
Less than two weeks after Mills' death, Gary and Sally Smith were found slain in their Clearwater home. No arrest was ever made in that case, but it has been reopened and Deparvine is the focus, Shipman said.
Deparvine's name came up years ago during the original investigation of the Smiths' deaths.
Detectives learned that Gary Smith, an electrical contractor, had worked on a project in Tierra Verde where Deparvine, who had jobs in construction, also had worked. Detectives don't know if the two men ever met, and Deparvine was so peripheral to the investigation that he never was interviewed.
Like the Van Dusens, the Smiths had a vehicle for sale. A red Nissan sat in their front yard with a for-sale sign on it at the time of their deaths.
In addition, three of the victims died in similar ways. Richard Van Dusen, 58, was shot, while Mrs. Van Dusen, 49, was shot and stabbed. According to death certificates, Gary Smith, 50, also was shot and stabbed. His wife, 35, was strangled.
Shipman said no other links have been found between Deparvine and the Smiths. Investigators plan to retest blood taken from the Smith home to see if it matches Deparvine's DNA.
"There is a very tenuous connection here," he said. "Whether Deparvine had anything to do with the murders of Gary and Sally Smith, we don't know. But because of what we know about him and this (the Van Dusen case), we have reopened this case and are talking to other people."
Sally Smith's brother, who discovered the bodies, said he was pleased to hear the investigation has revved up.
"I had never heard his name before," Bill Stotzer said. "But there are a lot of connections that would lead me, if I were an investigator, to look further. I'm hoping. And it's also nice to know people still care. It's extremely painful and raw in our memories."
In Sarasota, another body was found just 30 yards from where Dunbar's body had been found two months earlier. Lucinda McLean, 36, had been shot, stabbed and strangled, said her mother, Ann Hurrelbrinck of Sarasota.
The murders in the summer of 1989 was not the first time Deparvine had come to the attention of authorities, nor would it be the last.
In 1988, Deparvine was charged with arson after police said he poured gasoline outside a house he owned on the same block where Dunbar lived in St. Petersburg. He started a fire while his tenants, a mother and three children, slept inside. According to records, he wanted to collect the $43,000 insurance on the house. No one was injured.
In 1990, Deparvine was charged with multiple counts of grand theft and forgery when he scammed a 93-year-old woman who rented him an addition to her Coffee Pot Bayou home.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1990 but was out by 1993, when he became the subject of another investigation.
Shipman, the Pinellas lieutenant, said that during the summer of 1993 detectives received a tip that a man was advertising a $14,000 Harley Davidson motorcycle for $4,000. The man placing the ads was using an alias, but detectives learned it was Deparvine.
An informer and an undercover detective met Deparvine, who told them to drive him to Tarpon Springs to pick up the motorcycle. He had expected only one man, however, and seemed nervous, Shipman said.
On the way, Deparvine suddenly called the deal off, saying the motorcycle had been sold. When the undercover agents dropped him off, two more detectives were there waiting.
Inside a bag Deparvine had been carrying they found a .22-caliber pistol. Investigators never found any evidence Deparvine had a motorcycle to sell. Shipman said investigators believe Deparvine planned to scam the $4,000 out of the buyers and maybe shoot them if they resisted.
He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a firearm by a felon and violating probation. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was released from prison in April.
In the Van Dusen case, detectives said Deparvine contacted Richard Van Dusen on Nov.23, asking to look at the 1971 Chevrolet Cheyenne truck Van Dusen had listed for sale in the Times.
Investigators believe that when Deparvine met with the Van Dusens, he killed them and dumped their bodies in a driveway off Old Memorial Highway in Hillsborough County, then took the truck.
Deparvine has denied that he killed the Van Dusens, but DNA tests showed blood matching that of Deparvine and Richard Van Dusen was on the steering wheel of one of the cars the Van Dusens drove to the transaction.
"So you see the similarities that are surfacing here?" Shipman said.
David Gee, chief deputy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, wouldn't say how investigators got Deparvine's DNA, but he said it wasn't on file with the state before the Van Dusen slayings.
"We're trying to develop a timeline on this guy," he said. "We're looking at where he lived in what years and look at what happened in those jurisdictions and see if anything appears to be a fit."
