Cold case arrest made in Florida woman’s killing nearly 25 years later

Police in Florida arrested a man Thursday who they say is responsible for the 1999 killing of a woman, closing the homicide case nearly 25 years after it occurred.

Sherry Holtz was found dead in a wooded area in Sanford, Florida, on Dec. 4, 1999, Sanford Police Department officers said at a Friday news conference. A person walking through the woods collecting cans found Holtz’s body, said police spokesperson Bianca Gillett.

Holtz, a Sanford resident, was 50 years old when she died, Gillett said.

When her body was discovered, authorities found her throat cut and evidence she had suffered blunt-force trauma, strangulation and sexual battery. Gillett said she was found with her clothes pulled off, “exposing most of her body.”

“There’s no other way to describe it but a brutal homicide,” Gillett said, adding that Holtz was found on her back on a concrete slab.

A bloody lock-blade knife found in the area of Holtz’s body was sent for testing in 2000, Gillett said. Results indicated the blood on the knife belonged to a human, but, because the samples were so small, they were unable to perform DNA testing at the time.

A sexual assault kit was negative for DNA, Gillett said.

The evidence was preserved and the case was reopened in May 2023, officials said, when DNA evidence was resubmitted to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for further testing.

Last month, the blood on the knife was determined to be Holtz’s and additional DNA found on the knife belonged to a longtime boyfriend of hers, officials said.

Police identified the boyfriend as Gary Durrance. He was arrested Thursday in Volusia County and booked into the Seminole County Jail on a charge of second-degree homicide.

At the time of her death, Holtz was living in a house in Sanford with Durrance and three other roommates, Gillett said. After interviews with all of the housemates, authorities determined Holtz and Durrance had gotten into an argument, prompting Durrance to kick Holtz out of their home on Dec. 2, 1999 — one day before she was killed.

Gillett noted that between 1996 and 1999, Sanford police had responded to a number of domestic violence incidents involving Holtz and Durrance.

Holtz was last seen on Dec. 3 at Uncle Nick’s Bar in Sanford, Gillett said. Witnesses said she left the bar sometime between 7:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

The roommates told police at the time that Durrance was home the night Holtz was killed, but couldn’t place him the whole night. There were also indications he had left the house at one point, leaving gaps in his alibi, Gillett said.

Durrance told investigators he had not seen Holtz since Dec. 1, Gillett said.

After the investigation was reopened, witnesses were reinterviewed and said when Durrance returned home, he said he had seen Holtz’s dead body and assisted with the crime scene. But, Gillett said, he made those comments before Sanford police had been notified of her death or found her body.

Officials believe Durrance is the sole suspect. After his arrest, Durrance admitted he was involved in Holtz’s killing, Gillett said.

“We are absolutely positive that the right man is behind bars,” she said.

Sanford Police Chief Cecil E. Smith said Friday, “We just kind of hope that this brings some peace to the family, knowing that the individual who was a longtime boyfriend … will spend the rest of his natural life in jail and have the opportunity to face justice for the things that he has committed to Sherry.”