Worst murderers include Tyler Hadley, Austin Harrouff, Chester Price, Salerno Strangler, David Alan Gore, and Tricia Todd’s ex-husband, Steven Williams
Updated Feb. 6, 2026, 6:24 a.m. ET
Throughout the years, the Treasure Coast has seen some heinous crimes, including homicides and dismemberment.
The more well-known names include murderers Tyler Hadley and Austin Harrouff. The case of 30-year-old Tricia Todd being killed by her ex-husband, Steven Williams, in 2016 also attracted national news attention in an ABC “20/20” episode titled “The Hungryland Homicide”.
Here are 10 heinous crimes that have happened on the Treasure Coast:
- “The Salerno Strangler”: Eugene Wayman McWatters Jr., of Port Salerno, earned this nickname for the 2004 murders of three women — Jacqueline Bradley, 43; Christal Wiggins, 29; and Carrie Caughey, 18 — who died by asphyxiation.
- David Alan Gore: Gore, of Vero Beach, admitted to killing six women and spent 28 years on death row until his execution by lethal injection for the 1983 murder of Lynn Elliott, 17, of Vero Beach.
- Gerard Schaefer: A former Martin County deputy who was found guilty of killing Georgia Jessup, 17, and Susan Place, 16, both of Broward County. Their remains were found in April 1973 while Schaefer was serving a six-month sentence for assaulting two girls.
- Dustin Davis Mills: Human remains were found in the John C. and Mariana Jones/Hungryland Wildlife and Environmental Area in March 2022. Investigators found body parts in at least three locations, including a torso in a shallow grave.
- Austin Harrouff: In 2016, while he was attending Florida State University, Harrouff was visiting his family in the southern Martin County town of Tequesta when he fatally stabbed John Stevens III, 59, and Michelle Mishcon, 53. Harrouff, then 19, was found biting and chewing on Stevens’ face in the man’s driveway, and detectives recovered what appeared to be flesh from Harrouff’s teeth.
- Tyler Hadley: He used a claw hammer to kill father Blake, 54, and mother Mary Jo Hadley, 47, on July 16, 2011. Afterward, he hosted a party with dozens of friends, with the bodies of his parents hidden in a bedroom. Their bodies were found in a bedroom at their Port St. Lucie home.
- Tricia Todd: In 2016, she was murdered by her ex-husband, Steven Williams, who was sentenced to 35 years. Williams led authorities to the John C. and Mariana Jones/Hungryland Wildlife and Environmental Area, where they dug up a container filled with acid and Tricia Todd’s partial remains.
- Ashley Pollow: He was a tax attorney who was found dead in his home by sheriff’s deputies who were sent to do a welfare check. Thomas Barnard and his former live-in girlfriend, Michele Lochridge, worked for Pollow at the time of his death. Barnard was found guilty of first-degree murder and Lochridge faced a charge of accessory after the fact.
- Chester Price: For almost two decades, Claude Davis, was the prime suspect in the 1993 missing person case of Andrea Parsons. Davis testified that he witnessed Chester Duane Price kill the Port Salerno girl. Price was convicted of aggravated manslaughter of a child and kidnapping of Andrea Parsons, whose body was never found.
- Judith Leekin: She faced charges related to abusing disabled children and adults — including beating them, handcuffing them, forcing them to sleep in a closet and restricting them from school and medical care. Her scheme wasn’t discovered until 2007 when she took an 18-year-old woman to St. Petersburg and abandoned her at a Publix store.
Olivia Franklin is TCPalm’s trending reporter. You can contact her at olivia.franklin@tcpalm.com, 317-627-8048 or follow her on X @Livvvvv_5.
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