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By LEANORA MINAI
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 26, 1999
The news reached Sherry Brannon's parents by radio Monday as they drove home to St. Petersburg after hanging the 40th pink bow not far from where their daughter and two granddaughters were murdered.
An arrest may come this week in the unsolved triple slaying of Brannon, 35, and her daughters, Shelby, 7, and Cassidy, 4, the Manatee County sheriff announced Monday afternoon.
"Detectives are confident that new evidence and information may provide positive results in the closure of this case later this week," Manatee Sheriff Charles B. Wells said in a prepared statement.
Wells said "major developments" have evolved. He could not be reached late Monday to comment on the announcement.
Mrs. Brannon's parents, Robert and Dolly Meyer, said they were so stunned by the long-awaited news they almost pulled the car over on the highway after it was broadcast on the radio.
"I've never been this excited before in my life, other than when my wife had the twins, Mary and Sherry," Robert Meyer said. "But this is a close second. We're just so anxious to find out who it is, and why it was done."
Meyer said he has not been told who authorities plan to arrest.
Before an arrest can be made, authorities are waiting for more information and results of lab tests on the new evidence.
Dave Bristow, a sheriff's spokesman, refused to say what kind of evidence or information has been developed.
"Just stuff that's come up in the last several days," Bristow said.
Bristow also declined to say how many people will be arrested and whether or not the suspect or suspects have been told an arrest is imminent.
Bristow said Monday that Brannon's estranged husband, Albert Dewey Brannon Jr., is still being investigated in the case.
"We're not varying on that," Bristow said. "It's the same. Status quo."
Brannon's divorce lawyer, Julian Finley Broome Jr., could not be reached late Monday for comment.
Mrs. Brannon, who worked as a nurse at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, filed for divorce Aug. 13. She didn't want to sell the family's $350,000 house in Manatee County.
Dewey Brannon has told police he found his wife and daughter, Shelby, dead in the house Sept. 16 -- Mrs. Brannon's 35th birthday. The other daughter, Cassidy, died later at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg.