STARKE, Fla. — Just down U.S. 301 sits Starke with a population just under 6,000 people.
"Trying to keep a secret in a small town is impossible," told Detective Cpl. Michael Garmon. "So the fact that nobody has talked about this is very rare."
With the closure of the Starke Police Department, the 2020 murder of Demetri Blount is now the Bradford County Sheriff's Office case.
It was July 19, 2020.
A neighbor noticed a window broken at a home on East Washington Street and knew the homeowners were on vacation. He called police thinking there had been a burglary, but inside they found the body of 28-year-old Demetri Blount.
Officers established Blount had no connection to the homeowners or the house, so what was he doing there?
"They were able to pull some surveillance footage from the residence and they find out it wasn't a burglary at all, the gentleman was trying to take refuge inside the residence after he was shot outside," explained Garmon.
He says the surveillance showed a black sedan roll up to the stop sign in front of the home around 3:30 a.m.
"That sedan sits there a few minutes and you are able to observe Demetri walking toward the black sedan, down the street right in front of the residence," Garmon said.
"Does it seem like he is walking toward the car like he recognizes it or is he walking past it?" asked Katie Jeffries.
"It doesn't look like he is shying away from the vehicle, but it also doesn't look like he is walking directly toward the vehicle like he knows the vehicle," explained Garmon.
As Blount gets closer, Garmon says muzzle flashes of gunshots appear and he's shot three times, fires back then runs towards the side of the house. When First Coast News covered this story in 2020, Blount's girlfriend, Iesha Mitchell, told us that around 10 p.m. the day before, he had been a fight in another part of town.
"They all end up fighting and we broke it up," Mitchell told us in 2020.
Why Blount was on East Washington Street around five hours later is unclear according to Garmon. But he says investigators were able to find the car about two days later and evidence was recovered. Also in taking over the case from the Starke Police Department, current investigators from the Bradford County Sheriff's Office have discovered unprocessed evidence.
But information from the public is always valuable.
"Just coming forward with any information you have, this is a smaller community and typically things like this people will talk about," said Garmon.
Mitchell told us in 2020 that she and Blount shared young three children and she was devastated they lost their father.
"He didn't deserve that because they don't even know him, to do that to him, and now my kids don't have no daddy," she said.
Now is the time for answers in this case.
"Closure for their family, closure for the community," says Garmon, "And getting some bad guys off the streets."
If you know anything about the murder of Demetri Blount contact the Bradford County Sheriff's Office at 904-966-6161.