SARASOTA - A 47-year-old barber soon will be arrested on a charge of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of a Sarasota art gallery owner in January, police said.
The Sarasota Police Department issued a warrant Tuesday for Elton Brutus Murphy after a DNA sample linked him to the crime scene at Provenance gallery in Sarasota, where the body of owner 61-year-old Joyce Wishart was found on Jan. 21, police spokesman Jay Frank said.
Wishart was repeatedly stabbed and her body mutilated, police said.
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab ran a DNA sample collected at the gallery through its computer database about three weeks ago, police said. It matched Murphy, who was in the database because of a previous burglary arrest in Florida, Frank said.
Sarasota detectives Jim Glover and Dave Grant found Murphy at Harris County Jail in Houston. He was sentenced in February to one year at the jail on a burglary charge, Frank said.
Glover flew to Texas twice to question Murphy, but said he could not discuss the interviews.
Murphy worked as a barber in the Sarasota area about the time of Wishart's killing, police said. They say they do not believe Murphy knew Wishart and have not discussed a motive. No items of value were taken from the gallery at the time of Wishart's death, Glover said.
Records show Murphy has lived at a variety of Tampa Bay addresses in the past decade, including in St. Petersburg, St. Pete Beach and Oldsmar. His ex-wife and two children live in Tallahassee, police said. His criminal history in Florida includes convictions for larceny and trespassing.
The killing shocked those who worked near Wishart's gallery on the city's Palm Avenue, known for its stylish art galleries, trendy boutiques and expensive design shops. People began locking the back doors of their offices and walking in pairs to their cars.
Wishart was a divorced mother of four who managed a marketing and public relations firm in Ohio, but long dreamed of opening an art gallery in a warm sunny place.
She vacationed in Sarasota and bought a stucco home in Manatee County in the late 1990s, carefully tending her lawn in the upscale neighborhood. She worked as marketing director for the Asolo Theatre, saved her money and opened her consignment art gallery in 2001 near the Sarasota Opera House and Ritz-Carlton.
She worked long hours in her gallery, but friends became worried when she didn't show up for a Saturday night ballet performance in January. Her body was discovered the following Wednesday when a maintenance worker unlocked her door after responding to complaints of a foul odor inside.
Police say they plan to formally arrest Murphy in coming days and bring him to Florida, which could take two months.
