| The Crime Stopper Newsletter |
| An article from the BRADENTON HERALD Playing Cards Lead to Arrest in 2004 Slaying
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| November 8, 2007 By ROBERT NAPPER
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| Detectives say an ace in the hole gave them enough evidence to make an arrest in a three-year-old slaying case, the first by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office cold case squad. A program to place in the hands of prison and jail inmates a deck of playing cards - with photos and descriptions of dozens of unsolved homicides in Florida - paid off in the arrest Tuesday of Bryan Lamar Curry. Deputies arrested Curry, 36, in Hillsborough County on a murder charge in the December 2004 strangling of Ingrid Lugo. He was expected to be in court as early as this morning, after being brought from Hillsborough to Manatee on Wednesday. |
| Construction workers found Lugo, 34, floating in a pond in the 8000 block of Cooper Creek Boulevard. Curry, Lugo's ex-boyfriend, became a suspect at the time of the killing but detectives lacked enough evidence to arrest him, according to Detective Bud Johnson, of the sheriff's office Cold Case Squad.As Lugo's killing remained unsolved, Curry got into trouble and was sent to prison in 2005 for forgery. In prison, Curry didn't keep quiet about his ex-girlfriend. He starting saying things that caught the attention of other inmates, Johnson said. Curry told an inmate "he got into an argument with Lugo that morning because of his cocaine use," according to court documents released Wednesday.
He also said "nobody knows what time he got home that night," the affidavit says. Curry also made several comments to another inmate about "where he parked the car," and that his "ace in the hole was that nobody knows how she died."
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| Meanwhile, in July, Crimestoppers organizations across Florida, teaming with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, started issuing inmates decks of cards.
Crimestoppers paid for 10,000 decks at 82 cents apiece, with dozens of unsolved homicides listed on them. Three unsolved Manatee cases, including Lugo's, made it into the statewide deck, according to Steve Rowland,president of Manatee Crimestoppers and the statewide association of Crimestoppers.Manatee Crimestoppers also made a deck of all of Manatee's unsolved homicides to be placed in the hands of county jail inmates. Lugo's case was on the ace of hearts in the Manatee deck.The two inmates Curry talked to got the deck of cards, and called the Crimestoppers tip line from the jail. Their testimony gave detectives the evidence to arrest Curry, Johnson said. It is the first time the cards paid off in Manatee, and the second time in Florida.
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| "It is well known that criminals talk to criminals in jails and prisons," said Rowland. "So we took a gamble that the cards would generate leads. We are excited that this led to an arrest in one of Manatee's unsolved crimes." Johnson said he is not stopping with Lugo's case. Currently, he is reviewing 14 unsolved homicides in Manatee. He declined to name specific cases, but said there has been significant progress in three unsolved cases going back several years. "With these older cases, we have the time to really get to know the victim," said Johnson. "Once you get to know the victim, the motive can become apparent. And motive can lead you to a killer."
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