Autopsy reveals 'quiet,' 'nice' man was murdered

People who knew the Pasco parts dealer wonder who had reason to kill him.

By ERIN SULLIVAN, Times Staff Writer
Published September 16, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Lee Johns, who was found murdered at his salvage yard business, Park Auto Salvage located at 18145 State Road 52 in Land O Lakes. Police have no leads on his killer.

LAND O'LAKES -- The junkyard man who looked like Santa Claus died Friday afternoon, and when deputies found his body in the hot sun, they thought he might have had a heart attack and hit his head as he fell to the ground.

It made sense. Lee Johns was 69 and overweight, which, packaged with his long, white beard and rosy cheeks, gave kids the urge to tug on his shirt and ask him if he was Santa. People who knew him said he was kind - if someone needed a part of some kind and didn't have much money, Johns would give it to him cheap or for free.

"He was a nice guy," said Les Stafford, who is 48 and has been buying car parts from Johns since he was a teenager. "It's a shame."

Johns ran Park Auto Salvage on State Road 52 in Land O'Lakes for a few decades and lived in a small trailer next door. He fed and cared for a colony of 40 cats who lived in the sea of rusted out buses, trucks, cars and other stuff slowly being reclaimed by nature inside a brown 8-foot fence around the shop's perimeter. Johns kept to himself and had no family in the area, though people say he has a son in New Jersey. Johns would say hello to guys at the coffee shop or at the paper rack, but not much else. He didn't have an arrest record in Florida. He dealt in cash, so records of any kind on him are hard to come by. Johns lived on the fringe, but in a seemingly harmless way.

Who would want this man dead?

So investigators from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office suspected he passed away from natural causes, but taped off the scene just in case. But then the autopsy report came back Saturday and changed everything.

Johns was murdered.

Authorities will not say how he died, only that he had head trauma. "Homicidal violence," is what it says on the report.

Doug Tobin, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said they suspect it happened during a robbery, as some items were missing - though Tobin will not say what items those are. Johns was found by a customer around 3:20 p.m. Friday. His body was near a crane, close to the fence, on the gray, sandy ground.

Because the fence is so high, investigators believe the murderer must have entered and exited through the gate on State Road52. Anyone who saw a car or pedestrian come in or out of the property between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. is asked to call Detective Jason Hatcher at 727 844-7711.

And anyone who knows how to get in touch with Johns' son is asked to help deputies find him so he can be notified of the death.

Erin Sullivan can be reached at esullivan@sptimes.com or (813) 909-4609.

[Last modified September 16, 2007, 00:46:50]