Park Predators - The Pond

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

The brutal shooting deaths of two college students in a Florida forest in 2006 reveal a budding serial killer was on the loose for years before anyone stopped him. The memories of Amber Peck and John Parker live on despite their demise.Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit parkpredators.com Park Predators is an audiochuck production. Connect with us on social media:Instagram: @audiochuckTwitter: @audiochuckFacebook: /audiochuckllcTikTok: @audiochuck

Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and the story I have for you today takes place in Ocala National Forest in Central Florida. Two college students who had a deep love for the outdoors ventured out on an overnight camping trip and met someone who quite literally was a walking nightmare. For those of you wondering where the heck Ocala National Forest is, it's just north of Orlando, and it's the oldest national forest in Florida. According to the USDA National Forest website, it's made up of more than 380,000 acres of sand pine scrub, sandy terrain, and a variety of palm trees. There are also roughly 600 lakes, ponds, and crystal clear natural springs.

And when I say crystal clear, I mean it. Florida's natural tropical climate gives many of these springs a beautiful aquamarine blue that almost doesn't even look real. I've lived in Florida for several years, and I can personally attest to how mesmerizing these water features are. The remoteness and natural beauty that this forest offers are exactly why the two campers in today's story decided to stay there in January of 2006. Florida's balmy weather in the winter months compared to the rest of the country that time of year makes it ideal for being in the outdoors overnight. But the seclusion that attracted these campers to a waterfront spot in Ocala's vast woods is also what made them vulnerable to a ruthless predator lurking in the forest. A predator whose diabolical nature became clear to everyone living in central Florida,

as clear as the springs surrounding his young victims 17 years ago. This is Park Predators. On Friday morning, January 6th, 2006, college student Nellie Daft was at her Gainesville, Florida apartment pacing around. With every passing minute, she was growing more and more worried about her roommate, 26-year-old Amber Peck. Amber had gone on her first camping trip a few days earlier on Tuesday with her friend, 26-year-old John Parker. The plan had been for Amber and John to stay one night in Ocala National Forest and then return on Wednesday.

But Wednesday had come and gone and Nellie had still not heard from her roommate or even bumped into Amber and John. It's not super clear from the source material if it was at this point that Nellie decided to call Amber's father David since it had been almost three days and the couple was still MIA or the other way around. Like, I don't know if Nellie told him her concerns right away on Wednesday or sometime between Wednesday and that Friday, or if David and Nellie told him her concerns right away on Wednesday or sometime between Wednesday and that Friday, or if David and Nellie were in contact throughout that entire time frame. But either way, by 3.30 p.m. on Friday, the Alachua County Sheriff's Office generated a missing persons report for Amber at David's request. Alachua is the county that Gainesville

sits in, not the county where Amber and John went camping. The forest is so large that it actually spreads across four Florida counties, but Hidden Pond, where the couple was supposed to be camping, is located in Marion County. What's kind of strange, though, is that according to the source material, it's unclear whether authorities launched an official search for Amber right away, or if the two agencies coordinated well at all regarding the missing persons report. If they did organize a search effort, whatever those efforts were, weren't good enough for Amber's dad. Because the Associated Press reported that he and his son-in-law decided to go out to Ocala National Forest

and start searching on their own for Amber. David was determined to find his daughter. According to Sarah Lundy, Aaron Cox, and Stephen Hudak's reporting for the Orlando Sentinel, it didn't take long before the family members found Amber's GMC Jimmy SUV parked near Forest Road 76. One article states that the way they tracked the car was by using its GPS, but I don't see that info repeated anywhere else, so I'm not exactly sure how they found it. But either way, what several sources do confirm is that it was Amber's family who found the SUV and called its location into the authorities. The fact that the car was found near Forest Road 76 didn't come as a huge surprise.

Everyone expected it to be there. That spot was near an access point of the forest that led to where John and Amber told their families and friends they'd be camping. The Associated Press reported that earlier in the week on Tuesday, Amber had called and told her parents she and John would be staying overnight at a campsite called Hidden Pond. Hidden Pond was in an area of the forest known as Juniper Prairie Wilderness. It's one of the more remote camping spots in the area, and you can only get to it by trail. There are no drivable roads for on-road vehicles that lead back to it. Unfortunately, by the time David and his son-in-law arrived to where Amber's car was parked, the sun had set for the day and they realized that trying to traverse into such a remote part of the forest in the dark was going to be risky and possibly really dangerous. So they waited.

As much as it pained David, he had to wait until morning to make any kind of progress. But as soon as the sun came up on Saturday, January 7th, the men went back to where they'd found Amber's vehicle, and they started hiking. They followed sandy hills, hilly trails, yelling Amber and John's names, hoping that the couple was just taking a few extra days to camp and had just decided not to tell anyone. a few extra days to camp and had just decided not to tell anyone. David later told the Orlando Sentinel that the whole time he believed that any minute they would stumble across Amber and John and find out they were just overdue or lost. According to that same article, just after 8 a.m., roughly two miles east of the trailhead they started down, David and his son-in-law got a small glimmer of hope when they spotted something in the distance that made them quicken their step. Near the top of a hill, overlooking Hidden Pond, they saw a campsite with a tent, chairs, and all the things you'd

expect to see for two people spending the night in the woods. When they got there, the only things out of the ordinary were some of Amber and John's belongings appeared to be missing, and everything was eerily quiet. There were no sounds of people talking in the distance, no utensils clanking around, no tent and sleeping bag zippers rustling, nothing. That silence felt off to David and his son-in-law. After looking around, it became clear no one was there or even walking around nearby. The scene was puzzling, but then the men spotted something just inside the water line of the pond, and they quickly scrambled down the hill to get a better look. That's when they

saw the worst thing any family member can imagine. Two lifeless bodies covered in blood, partially submerged in the water. It was immediately clear to the men that the bodies were Amber and John. Despite their best efforts to get the couple out and see if they were still breathing, it became apparent neither of them was still alive anymore. It's inconclusive from the source material if Amber's dad was able to call authorities right then and there from the scene, or if he had to make the trek back to Forest Road 76. But at some point on Saturday morning, emergency responders were contacted, and the Marion County Sheriff's Office sent units out to the scene right away.

According to news reports, getting all the necessary emergency equipment, vehicles, and officers to Hidden Pond took a little bit of time. The remote area wasn't easy for deputies, the coroner, crime scene experts, any of those people to traverse to. The Orlando Sentinel reported

that in some parts of the forest, teams had to hike through waist-deep water just to access the spot. Eventually, the coroner did get back there though, and they removed John and Amber's bodies to send off for autopsies. Missing from their bodies and clothing were their wallets and IDs. The Associated Press reported that by Sunday, January 8th, their cause and manner of deaths were officially determined, though it had been clear all along to the people who'd seen their bodies

and several spent shell casings at Hidden Pond how they died. Amber and John had both suffered multiple gunshot wounds, injuries that investigators believed had been fired from a high-powered rifle at close range. Miller Dives reported for the Ocala Star-Banner believed had been fired from a high-powered rifle at close range. Miller Dives reported for the Ocala Star-Banner that investigators had found a lot of spent casings around the campsite that were used in rifles like AK-47s and AR-15s. Law enforcement's prevailing theory, based on the evidence at the scene, was that after shooting Amber and John, someone had dragged their bodies into the water post-mortem to try and dispose of them or keep them from being found. That plan had clearly failed though because the water was too shallow. Detectives ultimately classified the two deaths

as homicides, no question about it. But something that authorities felt was equally alarming as having two horrific murders on their hands was the fact that whoever had killed John and Amber was nowhere in sight. They'd left no trail behind. Based on the preliminary findings from the coroner, the condition of Amber and John's bodies indicated that they'd been dead for at least a few days before they were found, possibly as early as Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, which, if you think about it, makes total sense.

If the pair should have been on their way home on Wednesday, like all their friends and family said they'd planned to, it's safe to assume they were probably killed shortly after arriving to the forest on Tuesday or sometime on Wednesday. Investigators working the case on Saturday knew that meant their suspect could be miles and hours away from the crime scene with potentially a four-day head start.

Contrary to that line of thought, though, was the real possibility that the shooter or shooters were still in the forest somewhere. If they were, they were most definitely armed, dangerous, and willing to kill. Authorities quickly organized a grid search, but there was a bit of a problem. Like I said earlier, getting to the scene was a challenge because so much of the walking trail was in water, so it was almost impossible for investigators to do a proper ground search, let alone a manhunt. Realizing they needed more help, Marion County Sheriff's Office requested assistance from the FBI

and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Since the murder had technically been committed on federal land, it was pretty much par for the course to bring in the FBI. Though based on everything I've read about this case, Marion County was still the lead agency in charge. Investigators from all three agencies used helicopters, search dogs, and ATVs to do their best to search for any sign of a potential suspect or murder weapon. And really, they were looking for anything at that point, because the rain hadn't just made it difficult to search, it was also a real threat of washing away potential evidence. The search took place for three days, and they combed every inch of the surrounding forests, trails, lakes, and ponds, but ultimately, nothing of any investigative value turned up.

Other hikers making their way through the forest that month told newspapers that the fact that there had been a double murder and a gun-wielding suspect was still at large was certainly frightening, but not something that was going to deter them from going into the forest. One man told the Orlando Sentinel, quote, I'd go out there on the trail today. I feel the person who did this is long gone, and I feel I can protect myself pretty well. Others also wrote off the urgency of the situation, telling the same newspaper, quote, A reporter for the Tampa Tribune named Gretchen Parker wrote a piece about safety in Florida parks right after the murders. That article said that there had only been seven deaths in Ocala National Forest since 1966, and how many of those were homicides weren't even being tracked. Despite the hikers' lack of fear about the people who could be in the forest, investigators had to keep the public's interest on John and Amber's case and emphasize the dire nature of the situation. The sheriff's office announced it was offering a $5,000 reward for information that could help lead them to the killer. But few tips came in that first day or so, and authorities knew they couldn't just sit

on their hands and wait. They had to keep the momentum of the investigation going. So they turned to their victims for help. They needed to determine who in the world would want to kill Amber and John. Did they have enemies? Was this totally random? Nobody knew. According to reporting by Tiffany Pakala for the Gainesville Sun, Amber and John were both students who enrolled at Santa Fe Community College about 45 minutes north of Ocala. The two had met in the summer of 2005 when they both joined a group called Students for Environmental Harmony. They hit it off right away and they really bonded over their mutual love for the environment and they struck up a close friendship. Now nowhere in the source material did I find anyone stating

for sure if these two were romantically involved, but whether they were or weren't, the fact remained that police needed to look into each of their lives to learn everything they could about them. John was a Marine Corps veteran who'd already lived a lot of life for such a young age. He served two tours in Afghanistan, working as a mechanic on helicopter rotors, and he was a dad to an eight-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. After he'd left the military, his family members said he used funds from his GI Bill benefits to enroll in college courses. By 2006, he'd settled into life as a civilian and was eager to make a career for himself in either forestry or conservation, doing what he loved, being outdoors.

His sister Bethany told the Orlando Sentinel, quote, "...he was at home in nature. He was such a peaceful guy." End quote. Amber was originally from Michigan but had moved to Florida with her family just two years earlier in 2004. By all accounts, she was an excellent student and had plans to Florida with her family just two years earlier in 2004. By all accounts, she was an excellent student and had plans to complete her associate's degree and then continue pursuing zoology studies overseas.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that in July of 2006, she was scheduled to start classes at James Cook University in Australia as part of a program she'd received a grant for. After the murders were discovered, Glenda, Amber's mother, told the Sentinel, quote, we were a little bit upset that we were going to lose her to Australia. We had no idea we would be losing her permanently, end quote. Despite Amber's passion for helping animals and the conservation of the environment, she surprisingly had never been camping overnight before. When John had found that out, he couldn't believe it,

and he insisted that the two of them check out Ocala National Forest, since it was close by and somewhere John had a lot of personal experience hiking and camping. According to reports, he was the one who'd planned the ins and outs of their overnight trip, and he'd gathered many of their supplies. The Orlando Sentinel reported that his favorite spot in the forest was an area in the Juniper Prairie wilderness he called the Wind Tunnel, and that actually encompassed the campsite at Hidden Pond. He told his friends that he loved the way the wind whistled through the trees in that part of the woods,

and he wanted Amber to experience that part of the forest for herself. Investigators looking at their backgrounds and close relationships couldn't find a single thing that stuck out about Amber or John that might even be remotely tied to their violent deaths. These two were about as wholesome as they come. There didn't appear to be anyone in the world that would want to harm either of them, let alone kill them. So just like that, police were back to square one, with little to nothing to go on. And it looked like it was going to stay that way, until a call came into the sheriff's

office that changed everything. A man wanted to report that he believed he'd picked up Amber and John's killer. A 20-year-old guy named Joey Tierney called into Marion County Sheriff's Office on Saturday night, and he spoke with task force officers working on Amber and John's case. Joey told investigators that sometime after 7 p.m. on Wednesday, January 4th, he'd been driving down State Road 40, which runs along Ocala National Forest. While driving, he'd spotted a guy around his age hitchhiking on the side of the road. Joey told police that he felt bad for the guy because he seemed to have some kind of limp, so he decided to pick him up. This mysterious passenger didn't give Joey his name, but said he needed help to get to a hotel because he had a twisted ankle. Joey said as he let the guy into his car, he'd noticed that the stranger

had a knife on him. Now, if this were me, I'd definitely warn this guy he better not try anything or attempt to use the knife. Turns out, at least according to Joey, the guy wasn't interested in harming him and even came clean that he also had a rifle in his bag. Now, I know many of you are probably screaming in your heads, Joey, why? A stranger with a knife and a gun is a red flag. But you have to put yourself in Joey's shoes for a minute. He was looking at the face of a young man hitchhiking who was his age.

And not only that, the guy told Joey he was carrying weapons. In the moment, Joey didn't necessarily think the dude was that dangerous. Clearly, he had his inner crime junkie antenna up and his head was on a swivel, but he told the authorities that he really wasn't that scared of the guy. After all, it's not uncommon for people going in and out of the woods to carry weapons like knives and rifles for hunting or just to protect themselves. In 2006, Ocala National Forest had an unsupervised rifle range within the boundary of the forest, plus the park allowed and celebrated hunting.

Anyway, Joey went on to tell investigators that he and his passenger stopped at a gas station and while he put some gas in his car, the guy he picked up went inside and bought a banana slushie. A few minutes later, Joey said he dropped the guy off at a Holiday Inn in the town of Silver Springs and drove away. Nothing about his ride with the hitchhiker seemed to strike a chord with Joey. Until the following Saturday afternoon, when he saw a local news report about Amber and John's murders. One look at the details of that broadcast had sent Joey spiraling

and he felt in his gut he might have information the police would want to know. He told reporter Aaron Cox for the Orlando Sentinel that when he'd seen the news bulletin, he was at a party with several other people, and he said, quote, I was like, I picked up a killer, and everyone laughed, but I'm

feeling lightheaded, my body gets cold, and all my hair is standing on end, end quote. It was shortly after seeing the broadcast that Joey had called Marion County Sheriff's Office. After giving investigators his story, he also provided a description of the person he said he picked up. He said it was a young white man with a slim build and black hair. Now, that's a far cry from a super-specific profile, but that's all Joey could offer. Authorities immediately went to the Holiday Inn in Silver Springs,

but quickly found out that no one matching that description had stayed in a room the week of the murders. The source material isn't clear on exactly how authorities made this next leap, but somehow through either canvassing or possibly cameras or eyewitnesses, they learned that the young man they were looking for had walked about a block away from the Holiday Inn to a hotel called the Silver River Inn. There, he checked into a room,

and luckily, the clerk at the front desk gave investigators what they'd been searching for, a name, 19-year-old Leo Boatman. Leo had used his ID to book a room at the Silver River Inn, and after that discovery, it wasn't hard for investigators to track him down. They quickly determined that he'd traveled about three hours northeast of his uncle's home in Largo, Florida, to wind up at the motel he booked in Silver Springs.

Just one day after identifying him as their prime suspect, authorities compiled all the information they'd gathered about him so far, which was pretty damning. According to reporting by the St. Petersburg Times, which is now the Tampa Bay Times and the Tampa Tribune, detectives learned that the day before the murders, Leo had missed his shift working as a dishwasher at a Hooters restaurant in Clearwater. dishwasher at a Hooters restaurant in Clearwater. When police spoke with his uncle, a man named Vic Boatman, he told them that he'd heard from some of Leo's friends that the week of the murders, Leo was missing or hadn't been seen in a while. Taxi cabs in Silver Springs pulled their records for police, and detectives had been able to determine that shortly before Amber and John were believed to have been killed,

Leo had taken a taxi from his motel to the National Forest. Then, not long after the murders, he'd taken a cab from his motel in Silver Springs to a Greyhound bus station and traveled from Ocala back to his Uncle Vic's house. When he arrived home in Largo, his uncle confronted him about a missing AK-47 rifle that a co-worker of Leo's had left at Vick's for safekeeping. The source material isn't very detailed on where Joey's ride with Leo fits into this whole timeline, but if I were to guess, I'd say it was sometime probably before Leo got back to his hotel and before he took the cab to the bus station. back to his hotel and before he took the cab to the bus station. Anyway, Leo's response to his uncle questioning him about the missing gun was that he'd returned it to the friend and all was well. But authorities learned after speaking with that co-worker

that Leo had never made an arrangement to borrow the gun. He'd actually stolen it and then given it back to him a while later. Detectives seized that AK-47 from the owner and they sent it off for ballistics testing. The next day, results from those tests revealed the rifle was a match to the bullets that had killed Amber and John. Things in the investigation heated up after that, and on Tuesday, January 10th,

authorities surrounded the Keystone Mobile Home Park in Largo, where Leo lived with Vic, and they arrested him for grand theft and being a delinquent in possession of a firearm. Now, I'm not really sure why Leo wasn't immediately charged with the murders right then and there, but reading between the lines, I'd say that maybe police thought talking to him for the gun possession and theft charges first might make him think that's all they were there to talk to him about, and he might slip up regarding the murders. I don't know. It's not really clear why murder charges weren't leveled right away.

But what I can say is by nightfall on the same day he was arrested, Sheriff's Office investigators did end up charging him with two counts of first-degree murder. So there wasn't a huge delay in charging him with the crime. According to Alex Leary and Graham Brinks reporting, the day after Leo was taken into custody, investigators publicly announced that he was the prime suspect in Amber and John's deaths. Unfortunately, detectives had been unable to establish a motive for the killings. All they would say is that based on what they'd learned since Leo's arrest was that the murders appeared to be totally random.

A spokesman for the department described young Leo as, quote, somewhat defiant and unemotional, end quote, which I think is probably just a professional way of saying he was really uncooperative. probably just a professional way of saying he was really uncooperative. After his arrest, a friend of Leo's named Brianna Ryan came forward and told police about a strange conversation she'd had with them in the days after the murders, before anyone even knew two people had been murdered in the National Forest. According to Sarah Lundy's reporting, Brianna told police that Leo had seemed a bit down when he'd returned home, so she invited him to grab some food and take a drive. While driving around, she said that Leo told her he'd killed two people, and he thought he'd eventually get caught because, quote, there were shells everywhere, end quote.

Brianna went on to say that after she told her boyfriend what Leo had said to her, her boyfriend's response was, Leo was always saying weird stuff like that, but he would never actually kill anybody. The next day though, Brianna and her boyfriend were hanging out with Leo at his uncle's trailer, and Brianna brought up the conversation they'd had the previous day, when he'd said he'd killed people, and Leo apparently shrugged it off

and said he was just kidding. Brianna told police that in her heart, though, she didn't think Leo was just kidding. She said during other conversations they'd had while friends, Leo had made several strange and disturbing comments about wanting to be a serial killer and wanting to sexually assault people. Brianna said Leo was also obsessed with horror movies and liked to imagine that he was the one chasing a victim through the woods. In fact, investigators found out that after returning from Ocala National Forest, Leo

had rented five films from a local blockbuster. Unsurprisingly, at least two of the films were psychological thrillers or horror flicks. Though not exactly concrete smoking gun evidence, the information from Brianna plus Leo's blockbuster interests all but solidified in investigators' minds that he was a dangerous young man who was unnaturally interested in violence. But without a confession from Leo, detectives feared they would have a hard time

determining a motive for the murders and proving a case in court. The longer they worked the investigation, the more they began to suspect that Leo may have committed a thrill kill. Basically, he was bored, curious about violence, and had decided to just commit murder to see what it felt like. To strengthen that theory and their case, investigators looked into Leo's past for more clues and context and a possible reason why he would want to gun down two complete strangers. According to a Tampa Bay Times article, detention records for Leo showed that he'd spent nearly a third of his life behind bars by the time he was 19.

In 1997, when he was just 10 years old, he'd been arrested for committing arson. By 2001, he'd racked up arrests for larceny, burglary, battery, and carrying a concealed weapon. While incarcerated for those crimes, he'd assaulted a detention center officer. While incarcerated for those crimes, he'd assaulted a detention center officer. By all accounts, when police investigators looked at this stuff in Leo's criminal record, it all pointed toward a pattern of escalating violent behavior that they strongly suspected had tragically culminated in a double murder. News publications weren't able to access a lot of info about Leo's early life. One source said he was born in prison to a mother who

battled severe mental illness, but the circumstances that resulted in him growing up in foster care and eventually ending up living in a mobile home with his uncle aren't super clear. What is clear is that on Thursday, January 12th, though some sources say Wednesday the 11th, Leo had his arraignment to face his murder charges. A judge denied him bail and turned him back over to the Marion County Jail. At that point, all of the investigative agencies were 100% confident that they had their guy. But other than the ballistics results from the rifle and Joey Tierney's testimony proving Leo was in the National Forest on the Wednesday the murders were believed to have taken place, detectives didn't really have much else as far as concrete evidence tying Leo to the crime.

If prosecutors were going to take him to trial, reasonable doubt was a looming threat. The last thing investigators wanted was to give a defense attorney the ability to plant doubt in a jury's mind. The state just needed more. While they built their case, time rolled on, and on January 13th, one week after they were first reported missing, John and Amber's families laid them to rest at separate memorial services. More than 200 loved ones and friends attended Amber's funeral, which was held under a pavilion in Silver Springs. Her brother told reporters for the Orlando Sentinel, quote, We will not be apart forever.

Our time here on Earth is not but a short moment. In our eternity, we will be able to spend together united with our loving Amber, end quote. John's family held his service at a funeral home near Gainesville, and more than 250 people attended. According to Sarah Lundy's reporting for the Orlando Sentinel, detectives kept working the case and discovered that Leo benefited from a government-funded program that supported foster children between the ages of 18 and 23, if they were full-time college students. Authorities

followed that thread, and they learned that leading up to January 2006, Leo had enrolled in St. Petersburg College and become an eligible recipient of $875 that the state sent to him for books, housing, and food. Now, Leo's bank records showed that shortly before the murders, he'd received that cash from the government, Shortly before the murders, he'd received that cash from the government, but he hadn't used any of that money for his classes. Instead, he'd purchased $391 worth of camping gear at a Walmart in Ocala, and then spent another $150 at a nearby recreation store.

Curiously, that last purchase included buying a disposable camera. I don't know about you, but I'd really like to know what, if anything, was on that camera. But police investigators have never released that information. All the authorities could prove for sure up until that point was that Leo had the means to commit the crime, he had the opportunity,

he'd been in possession of the murder weapon, and he'd been picked up hitchhiking not far from the crime scene shortly after the murders. Those facts alone didn't make the case a home run, but investigators were hopeful all of that circumstantial evidence would be enough for a conviction. And then, just days before prosecutors finalized their indictment, something no one saw coming happened.

Leo Boatman started to talk. On Wednesday, January 25th, Leo sat down with Marion County detectives and FBI agents. Up until that point, the 19-year-old had been defiantly quiet and unhelpful. According to reporting by Stephen Hodak and Sarah Lundy for the Orlando Sentinel, Marion County Sheriff's officials didn't go into a lot of detail with the press about what investigators discussed with Leo during his interview. But a spokesman did say, quote,

Questions were answered. We are still continuing our investigation and tightening up loose ends. His statements are consistent with what detectives believe occurred, end quote. The department then clarified on record that they considered Leo's crimes to be thrill killings, and detectives strongly believed that if he'd not been caught, he would have become a serial killer. Even though police had what amounted to a confession, they still didn't have an explanation or a real answer as to why Leo killed Amber and John, which was what their families desperately wanted to know. David, Amber's dad, told reporters, quote, there's got to be some kind of reason.

How could someone so young pick out two people and kill them? End quote. Even though none of the source material spells out exactly what Leo said in his interview with police, whatever they talked about prompted Marion County officials to contact detectives in a neighboring jurisdiction who were investigating the murder of a 34-year-old man named Tommy Gregory. To give you some background about that case, on December 30th of 2005, so literally days before Amber and John were killed, Tommy, a well-known barbershop owner in the Clearwater area, was found dead in his car, Tommy, a well-known barbershop owner in the Clearwater area, was found dead in his car, killed by a single gunshot wound to his chest. Leo made statements to police indicating he was involved in that killing as well,

but a spokesman for the Clearwater Police Department told reporters they didn't actually consider Leo a suspect in that case. According to an article by Ashley Clark for the Tampa Bay Times, Clearwater police already had a suspect in Tommy's murder when Leo reportedly confessed to it. According to that same article, police never believed the confession and Leo actually ended up recanting his claims about Tommy. It's never really been explained how Leo even knew about Tommy's murder, or why he would confess to it. But according to an article from the Orlando Sentinel, the information Leo provided to Clearwater authorities was nothing new. Basically, it was info that had already been previously put out there by the media.

And just so I don't leave you hanging, an arrest has since been made in Tommy Gregory's case. And it seems, at least according to official sources, Leo was never involved in that murder. Two days after Leo's initial claims about being involved in Tommy's case, though, a grand jury convened for three hours and listened to closed-door testimony about Amber and John's murders. They learned how Leo had camped out alone off the side of a forest road about a mile from where John and Amber were killed.

They heard about how the bullets fired into the victims matched the shells for the AK-47 Leo had been toting around with him. They also learned about how Leo had burned some of his belongings and store receipts in a makeshift fire pit near his temporary campsite. Shortly after the grand jury proceeding concluded, jurors returned an indictment for two counts of first-degree murder against Leo, which opened the door for prosecutors to seek the

death penalty. A few days later, everyone got scared the case might not even make it past preliminary hearings, because on February 11th, staff at Leo's jail had to rush him to the Marion County Medical Center. Guards had found him bleeding during a routine cell check. According to Martin Coma's reporting for the Orlando Sentinel, Leo had slashed his forearm with part of a jail-issued disposable razor in an attempt to take his own life. He survived and was put under round-the-clock supervision. Months passed without anything new coming to light until June of that year, when a backpacker named David Anderson was hiking at Hidden Pond and came across a bunch of scattered items.

David had been setting up his camp near the pond's edge, just as John and Amber had done months earlier. While he was getting his things together, he noticed something shimmering on the ground, and when he picked it up, he realized it was a pocket knife and a wallet. And a short distance away, floating in the pond, was some clothing that appeared to belong to a woman. The wallet still had a debit card inside of it with the name John Parker stamped on it. David immediately recognized the name and turned over all of the items to police.

Though it's not clear what evidentiary value they had, the belongings were seized and stored for the impending trial. Investigators had long believed that Leo had thrown John and Amber's personal belongings, including their wallets, into the pond after he killed them. But up until that point, the items had been unaccounted for. You see, in January, back when the murders occurred, the pond had more water in it. But by summertime, when David Anderson was there camping, the water level had receded quite a bit, which revealed the belongings.

That's why police at the initial crime scene had never found the stuff. According to a Times staff writer reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, a few months after David's discovery, authorities released portions of the initial interview they had with Leo. Unfortunately, the transcripts of that interview didn't reveal anything earth-shattering. The pages detailed that the only reason Leo chose to stay and kill in that particular part of Ocala National Forest was because it was near water and was close to a store where he could get supplies. The only other important detail the heavily redacted documents revealed was that in his initial interview, Leo allowed police to collect his DNA.

Shortly after the portions of his interview were released, Leo once again made headlines. According to Martin Combe's reporting for the Orlando Sentinel, the 19-year-old had fashioned a knife from a file folder and told an inmate that he was going to use the knife to, quote, kill as many people as he could if he got the death penalty, end quote. After that inmate told a corrections officer about the knife,

Leo traded the weapon for a prescription drug used as an antipsychotic. Regarding that incident, a sheriff's captain told reporters, This kid, Leo Boatman, has challenged us more than any other inmate we've ever had, and that's when you consider that we've had Eileen Wuornos and Danny Rowling in our jail. He's just an evil genius. End quote. In January 2007, the first anniversary of Amber and John's deaths came and went, and the families tried their hardest to remember the couple as the people they were and not just victims of a heinous crime. They wanted to remember them as the people they could have been,

had Leo not stolen their futures from them. Though it took longer than anyone expected, a trial date was finally set for January 14th, 2008, which was just after the second anniversary of the murders. By that point, the main thing that had held up the proceedings was the fact that the death penalty was still on the table. Basically, even though Leo had said he'd done it, he wasn't going to go to trial knowing his life could be on the line when it came to sentencing. So things had continued and continued and continued without much progress.

But then in late July 2007, the victim's families decided to bring an end to all of the delays. According to reporting by Jose Cardenas for the Tampa Bay Times, Amber and John's families agreed that prosecutors could take the death penalty off of the table and spare Leo his life. That would come in exchange for him pleading guilty and making a full public confession, and Leo accepted that offer. As promised, Leo explained in detail that on January 4, 2006, he fired a total of 10 shots at John and Amber when he murdered them. He said he walked past the couple's campsite and casually said,

hey. Then, when he got about 30 yards away from them, he turned around and opened fire with the AK-47 he was carrying. He said after the first couple of shots, he walked towards them and continued shooting. He said he killed John almost immediately, but initially just wounded Amber. He said he decided to shoot her in the head because she wouldn't stop screaming. He said he tried to hide their bodies and personal belongings by dragging them to the pond, but it was too shallow. So he just left them there, partially submerged in the water. Before he was sentenced, Leo told the court, quote, I can't offer an explanation because there is none, end quote. He ultimately pled guilty to

two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. When talking to reporters about their decision to take the death penalty off the table for Leo, Amber and John's family said they'd gone back and forth on the issue. But in the end, they thought about how horrible it would have been to endure a lengthy trial. They specifically did not want to relive any of the grisly details of the couple's deaths. And I want to take a moment here if anyone out there is listening to this episode and is a family member or friend of John and Amber. I hope that my telling of this story doesn't cause you any more pain. I simply want to do my best to tell the facts of the story while honoring Amber and John's lives as best I can. Please know that.

Hard time in prison did little to curb Leo's tendency for violence. Less than five years into his life sentence, he was suspected of killing his cellmate, a 27-year-old man named Rick Morris. According to Austin Miller's reporting for the Ocala Star Banner, on August 18, 2010, Leo and Rick were in an altercation inside their cell at Charlotte Correctional Institution, and Rick ended up dying. Details of the altercation were never made public, but Leo was eventually convicted for that murder. And because he was already doing time for two life sentences, in reality, nothing really changed all that much for him, which included his lengthening track record for murder.

According to Andrew Pentazzi's reporting for the Gainesville Sun, in 2019, Leo was indicted for another prison inmate murder. This time, he was accused of teaming up with another prisoner named William Wells. And together, the pair brutally killed a man named William Chapman. Chapman was 32 years old and just a few months away from being a free man after serving his time for burglary. And once again, details of that murder were not released, but a Florida state attorney at the time described the circumstances of Chapman's death as, quote, brutal, exceedingly brutal, end quote. The slaying was reportedly so horrific that prosecutors felt it was necessary to seek the death penalty against Leo and William Wells. Coincidentally, both men shared in common the fact that they'd each narrowly avoided receiving capital punishment for the murders that had initially landed them in prison.

As of August 2022, William Wells was sentenced to death, and Leo is still undecided. The COVID-19 pandemic created a lot of delays in those court filings for that case, so it's anyone's guess what the outcome will be and when it will happen. The important fact, though, is that Leo Boatman will never walk around as a free man ever again. He's currently incarcerated at Florida State Prison and is serving two life sentences for the murders of Amber Peck and John Parker, plus additional prison time for the murder of his cellmate, Rick Morris. In the years since the Hidden Pond murders, a memorial garden was planted at Santa Fe Community College for Amber and John. When it was dedicated back in March of 2006, a professor at the school described in detail all the flora and fauna featured in the space

as a tribute to John. Many people expressed that John would have loved hearing about each and every plant in the garden. A birdbath was built in honor of Amber, whose love of animals remained until her last moments on Earth. Vicki Parker, John's mom, told reporters for the Gainesville Sun that the garden was an appropriate choice to best honor Amber and her son. She told the newspaper, quote, They bloom only for a short time, but when they do, it's so beautiful that their memory stays with us forever. End quote. Park Predators is an AudioChuck original show.

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