Luis Nieves is behind bars for the murder of his daughter’s babysitter, Thelma Storrs, whose body was found in Lee County, Florida.
On March 2, 1998, Storrs was reported missing when her friends and family could not contact her. Nearly two weeks later, on March 17, the 35-year-old was found dead.
Her fully clothed, decomposing body was discovered in a pasture used for grazing cows, which was located off Lexington Avenue near Tice Street.
She was identified through fingerprints that were taken three months earlier when she was arrested twice for prostitution, according to Fox News.
Evidence suggested that she had been killed somewhere else before her body was discarded at that location.
Police said, “She appeared to be lifted on a sheet that could have been used as a gurney and transported from some type of vehicle to where she rested.”
Prior to her death, authorities claimed that she traveled down the “wrong path,” as she was apparently addicted to crack and couldn’t hold a steady job.
Authorities said her body was transported to the University of Florida in Gainesville, where an anthropologist would determine her exact cause of death.
According to the News-Press, Storrs died from “wounds to the head.”
Her case went unsolved for 21 years until April 2019, when officers with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office received a tip. It was from a woman who claimed that her father admitted to her that he had killed Storrs.
Storrs had been babysitting his daughter since the age of five.
Authorities said they used the controlled call technique when “the defendant and his now-adult daughter” were on the phone. That’s when Nieves, of Fort Myers, confessed to the murder.
Police arrested Nieves, and he was booked into the Lee County Jail, where he was held on a $750,000 bond, according to Wink News.
He was charged with homicide.
Nieves later pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter with a weapon, which is considered a first-degree felony.
While in court, the victim’s sister said, “The grief and sorrow, I feel and felt of losing my sister, there are no words that can comprehend or say.”
In February 2021, Nieves was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and after he is released, he will be placed on probation for 15 years.
Relatives stated that Nieves’ sentencing doesn’t bring back their sister, whom they miss, but they are happy that this has finally been solved.
Sheriff Carmine Marceno said, “This arrest also serves as a reminder that it is never too late to come forward with information. Cold-blooded killers will not walk free in Lee County.”