Vultures Lead Florida Police to Suitcases Hiding Murdered Man's Remains

The call that came into Palm Bay police on March 28 was simple: there was a suitcase lying on the ground in The Compound, and it was surrounded by vultures. What officers found when they arrived at 1574 Bombardier Boulevard was not simple at all.

The first suitcase, a black bag lying in tall grass with its flap partially open, was emitting a powerful odor. Human remains were visible inside. A second suitcase with more remains was located nearby. Tucked among the contents: an Amazon package stamped with the name and address of Lucas Sander Jones, 19, of Indialantic.

The Compound is a 2,784-acre undeveloped tract in Palm Bay that was once slated to become a residential community before its original owner went bankrupt in 1991. It has since become a known dumping ground for criminal activity in Brevard County. For investigators, it was now a crime scene.

Police executed a search warrant at Jones's home on Watson Drive in Indialantic, where they found him with visible wounds and bruises. He declined to speak with investigators. Inside the house, detectives found bloodstains and a kitchen knife that matched one recovered near the suitcases.

The case broke open further when Jones's girlfriend spoke to police. She told investigators she last saw 28-year-old Colie Lee Daniel unconscious on Jones's bed on March 20. She stepped away to use the bathroom, and when she returned, Daniel was gone. Then, on March 21, she said Jones asked her to drive him to The Compound, where she watched him dump two packages.

Daniel's mother had reported him missing to the Indialantic Police Department on March 22, the day after the girlfriend says Jones made that trip to The Compound. Detectives connected the missing person report to the remains in the suitcases, and police formally identified the victim as Daniel, a 28-year-old registered sex offender in Florida.

Jones was initially booked March 29 on charges of tampering with evidence, abuse of a dead human body, and improper disposal of human remains. He posted a $7,500 bond and was released. That freedom lasted two days. On April 1, after the victim was formally identified, investigators rearrested Jones on a charge of second-degree murder. He is now being held without bond at the Brevard County Jail in Cocoa.

Palm Bay Deputy Chief Spears commented on the coordination the case required across agencies, saying the investigation illustrated "the strong working relationships that law enforcement agencies within Brevard County have."

The questions that will drive the next round of court filings center on what Jones and Daniel's relationship actually was beyond sharing a location on March 20, what the official cause and time of death will show once autopsy results are finalized, and whether prosecutors will introduce additional forensic evidence beyond the Amazon package, the matched knife, and the girlfriend's firsthand account. No motive has been publicly released. As it stands, investigators moved from a pair of vulture-ringed suitcases to a murder charge in under a week, and the paper trail Jones allegedly left behind did most of the work for them.