Questions still unanswered in Masaryktown killings even after verdict

The rest of Robert Jardin's life will be spent behind bars.

He will take with him the secrets about the night of Oct. 26, 2006.

The how, where and when were answered during Jardin's trial, which culminated Wednesday with a life prison sentence.

The question of why remains.

Why Patrick and Evelyn DePalma? Why go to their home at 333 Korbus Road to stab and steal from them?

"That would be something for the defendant to answer," said prosecutor Pete Magrino. "I don't have those answers ... I can only stick to the facts and the law."

Items stolen from the DePalma house were found in Jardin's possession. His DNA was found on an open milk container in the refrigerator.

At least two other people were thought to have been in the house with him the night of the killings. A single hair from an unidentified man was found next to Evelyn DePalma's body, defense attorneys said.

None of Jardin's DNA was found near the bodies. His fingerprints were not left behind.

"I just pray to God the Hernando County Sheriff's office won't stop looking for those other people," said Carey Daniels, a close friend of Jardin's.

The investigation into the DePalma murders has been declared inactive.

After nearly four years, all the leads have been exhausted.

Kyle DePalma, the victims' grandson, said he was pleased with the verdict and for the "closure" he had long been waiting for.

In most homicide cases, a resolution is reached when there is a conviction and sentence.

Instead, questions continue to percolate, particularly among those who lived close to the DePalmas.

Their house was hidden from the road

For more than 20 years, Patrick, 84, and Evelyn DePalma, 79, lived on their 10 acres of property off Korbus Road in a desolate neighborhood near the Pasco County line.

The entrance to the property is located at a bend in the road. Before the DePalma house was removed, it couldn't be seen from the street.

One neighbor said she didn't know a house was on the property there until news reports of the crimes. She thought it was farmland.

The DePalma family sold the property not long after the murders. Next-door neighbor June Weber said it was purchased by a Spring Hill man who rented it out to a young couple.

It was Weber who broke it to one of the tenants - a young, pregnant woman - that a murder had taken place there.

"She freaked out," said Weber.

She didn't wait long to move out.

Weber said after the property owner realized he couldn't sell the house or find another renter, he gave up. The property is now owned by the state of Florida, according to property records.

The house was lifted and removed from the property in two pieces. It sat unmolested along County Line Road until Jardin's trial commenced, at which time it disappeared, Weber said.

She doesn't know where it went.

"We knew them real good," Weber said of the DePalmas. "They were good people. They never bothered nobody. That's the saddest part of all."

No one in the neighborhood, especially Weber, thought their deaths were random.

"You wouldn't have known about that house unless someone had brought you there," said Weber. "They wouldn't have just stumbled upon it."

Korbus Road is located along the west side of Masaryktown, a one-square-mile community located along U.S. 41 roughly six miles south of Brooksville.

Cecil Bradley, who lives down the road less than 50 yards from the entrance to the DePalmas' old property, said it was difficult to go to sleep without thinking about the slayings, particularly in the days and weeks after the crimes.

"It was very troubling," he said. "We all wondered, 'Is the guy still around here?'"

Bradley agreed with Weber. He believes someone who knew the DePalmas masterminded the murders and robbery. He also thinks Jardin had help.

"It would be very difficult for one person to do all of that and carry out all that carnage," he said.

Some in Masaryktown have said the murders have had a permanent effect on the neighborhood.

"Everybody is still on edge about it," said Robert Betlewicz. He and his wife moved into their house along Korbus Road just five months before the crimes.

Weber's husband lashed out at a reporter who walked onto his property to knock on his side door.

He yelled at him for trespassing and for ignoring his "private property" signs.

He cooled down and went inside. Weber apologized for her husband's reaction.

"It's all because of what happened to the DePalmas," she said.

So much mystery remains

Magrino won't say the case is resolved, but he doesn't count on the possibility of another arrest.

"The jury has spoken," he said of the 12 men and women who decided Jardin's fate earlier this week. "I would say if and when additional evidence or new evidence is brought to our attention, would we look at it? Absolutely, as we would with any homicide."

Kyle DePalma, the grandson of the slain couple, thanked the sheriff's office for its work on the case. When asked whether he thinks more needs to be done, he said he trusted the judgment of the detectives.

"As far as I know, the case has been closed," he said Wednesday moments after Jardin was sentenced.

The sheriff's office first arrested David Bostick, a distant relative of the DePalmas, in the spring of 2008.

An audio recording of his interrogation with detectives was made part of the public record.

He was interviewed for about 18 hours.

Magrino was kept updated on the interrogation and told detectives not to charge him. They did so anyway.

Bostick, who was 18 when the murders took place, told detectives he was in the DePalma house the day they were killed along with two other men. After he went outside to fetch his cell phone out of the car, he returned to a bloody scene, according to transcripts.

Bostick never testified in the trial. While on the stand, Jardin said he had never met him.

"What was obvious to me that evening was that at best, (Bostick) was potentially an accessory after the fact," Magrino said, recalling the interrogation.

Bostick had changed his story multiple times during the marathon interview.

While he is pleased with the way the case turned out, Magrino still shows frustration at the way the sheriff's office handled Bostick, he said.

"There were other investigative techniques we could use to locate the individual or individuals involved, but they chose not to do that," Magrino said of the detectives.

Instead, during an early phase of the investigation, Bostick was arrested. The charges didn't stick for long.

"That was worthless," Magrino said.