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Tag: Sheena Morris

Grand jury finds insufficient evidence for homicide in Morris death

Grand jury finds insufficient evidence for homicide in Morris death

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News.

A Manatee County grand jury found that evidence in the Jan. 1, 2009 death of Sheena Morris in a hotel room in Bradenton Beach was insufficient to establish a homicide, according to a May 14 press release from 12th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Ed Brodsky.

The Statewide Prosecutor’s office took the case to a grand jury after Morris’ mother, Kelly Osborn, insisted her daughter’s death was not a suicide, as Bradenton Beach police concluded at the scene. Osborn had taken the case to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Dr. Phil TV show and the media trying to prove Morris’ fiance was to blame for her death. He was never charged.

Jurors heard testimony from Bradenton Beach police, Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers, five medical examiners – two of them Osborn’s – her crime scene expert and two members of Morris’ family.

Osborne wrote on her Facebook page:

“I Kelly Osborn, mother of Sheena Morris am only speaking for myself… I am disappointed and exhausted from the last 12 years. It was a long fought battle to have Sheena’s case heard. It is my opinion that the “evidence is insufficient ” because the Bradenton Beach Police Department FAILED to do their jobs 12 years ago. The so-called FDLE investigation 4 YEARS LATER was exactly what they named the case, “Operation Beach Assist”. We know what they did and didn’t do.

I would like to thank Ed Brodsky for turning the case over to the Office of Statewide Prosecution and for Cass Castillo’s hard work. I would like to thank the jurors for their hard work as well.

Thank you to all the members of the media for your years of support & coverage in the death of my daughter Sheena Lee Morris. To the Bradenton Beach Police Department – You need to leave death investigations and domestic violence cases to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office like you do with DWI’s. Stick to what you do best, loud noise complaints and parking tickets.”

 

Officials lukewarm on new evidence

Attorney General to investigate Morris case

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News.

BRADENTON BEACH – The Florida Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution has agreed to investigate the apparent hanging death of Sheena Morris in 2009 in a Bradenton Beach hotel room.

At the insistence of Morris’ mother, Kelly Osborn, 12th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Ed Brodsky requested the review of the case, which was determined to be a suicide by the Bradenton Beach Police Department. The Attorney General’s office declined to comment on the case because it is now an active investigation, according to press secretary Kylie Mason.

Osborn has contended from the start that her daughter did not commit suicide but was murdered, possibly by her fiancé, and that the hanging was staged. She told The Sun last August, “There’s no way they’re going to keep shutting me down. Come hell or high water, I will make sure it goes to a grand jury, even if I have to get a statewide prosecutor.”

Police found Morris, 22, dead, hanging in a shower stall by her dog’s leash on Jan. 1, 2009 after hotel staff heard dogs barking and called for assistance in evicting her.

Police had been called to the hotel about 12 hours earlier after an argument between Morris and her fiancé, Joseph Genoese, who left before police arrived. When Osborn took her case to the Dr. Phil show on national television, Genoese failed a lie detector test, inadmissible in court. He was not charged with any crime, and has repeatedly denied any involvement in Morris’ death.

Osborn then hired private forensic investigators who concluded her daughter’s death was a murder, based partly on marks on Morris’ lower back resembling the pattern in a wicker chair visible in a photo of the hotel room taken after her death. Her lead investigator, Jan Johnson, said the marks were caused by lividity, a process in which blood pools in the body after the heart stops pumping at death, indicating she was placed in the chair after her death, inconsistent with suicide.

However, subsequent reinvestigations by Bradenton Beach Police Det. Sgt. Len Diaz, Manatee County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Russell Vega, the 12th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have since reaffirmed the conclusion that Morris’ death was a suicide.

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Officials lukewarm on new evidence   

 

New evidence in Morris case may point to murder

Officials lukewarm on new evidence

Officials lukewarm on new evidence   

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Featured.

BRADENTON BEACH – Kelly Osborn’s claims that her daughter did not commit suicide and was murdered – possibly by her fiancé – are unlikely to be revisited, according to local officials.

Osborn has released a report by her private investigative team, Pensacola-based Forensic Pieces, concluding that photos of Sheena Morris taken after her 2009 death in a hotel room indicate that she was placed in a chair after she died, then hung in a shower from her dog’s leash in a staged suicide.

Marks on her lower back match the pattern in a wicker chair visible in a photo of the hotel room taken after her death, according to investigator Jan Johnson, who said the marks were caused by lividity, a process in which blood pools in the body after the heart stops pumping at death.

The 12th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office forwarded the report to the Bradenton Beach Police Department (BBPD) and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) for review, Assistant State Attorney Art Brown said.

“Any investigation that they do, we will review,” he said.

“I didn’t see anything new,” said BBPD Det. Sgt. Len Diaz, who investigated the case in 2009, determining that Morris’ death was a suicide.

“I agree with Dr. Vega,” the District 12 medical examiner, he said, adding that he does not plan to reinvestigate the case based on the photograph.

“You can look at a picture like you look at a cloud and see a puppy,” he said.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Russell Vega’s office is not reconsidering the case either, a spokeswoman said.

The marks were not detected in the autopsy, according to Vega’s written response to the report, which notes the marks were likely made by seams and creases in Morris’ clothing, not the chair.

“In the photo of interest, the elastic waistband pattern is crisp and clear and appropriately positioned to have developed while the body was hanging in the shower,” the report states, noting that photos of her sweatshirt and undershirt are not available for comparison to the marks.

The report also notes that the photo of the chair and Morris’ back were taken from different angles, and “the difference in perspective of the photos only serves to exclude the chair as having caused the lividity pattern.

“In summary, we strongly disagree with the conclusions that, based on the lividity pattern, either 1) the pattern must have been caused by the chair; 2) the body must have been moved to the hanging position after the pattern developed, or 3) both.”

“It’s right there in front of everyone’s eyes and they’re turning a blind eye,” Osborn said. “It’s devastating.”

But she does not intend to give up, she said.

“There’s no way they’re going to keep shutting me down. Come hell or high water, I will make sure it goes to a grand jury,” Osborn said, “even if I have to get a statewide prosecutor.”

The FDLE did not return calls seeking comment.

Morris, 22, was found dead by police on Jan. 1, 2009 after BridgeWalk hotel staff heard dogs barking and called for assistance in evicting her.

Police had been called to the hotel about 12 hours earlier after an argument between Morris and her fiancé, Joseph Genoese, who left before police arrived.

He was not charged with any crime, and has repeatedly denied any involvement in Morris’ death.

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New evidence in Morris case may point to murder

New evidence in Morris case may point to murder

New evidence in Morris case may point to murder

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Beach Beat, Community News.

BRADENTON BEACH – More than 10 years after Sheena Morris’ death was determined to be a suicide, her mother says she has new evidence that her daughter was murdered.

Morris was found dead by police, hanging in a shower by her dog’s leash in room 525 of the BridgeWalk Resort on New Year’s Day 2009 after staff reported hearing dogs barking inside. Bradenton Beach police determined that her death was a suicide.

But Kelly Osborn has never given up the fight to prove her belief that her daughter was murdered at age 22 by her then-fiancé, 45-year-old Joseph Genoese, after an argument that prompted a call to Bradenton Beach police. Two officers spoke to Morris shortly after 1 a.m., after Genoese had left, according to Bradenton Beach Police Department (BBPD) records. Later that day, around 2 p.m., BBPD responded again, this time to assist staff with an eviction due to the barking dogs. Instead, they and discovered Morris’ body. Genoese was not charged. Bradenton Beach police did not return calls Monday.

After asking the BBPD, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to revisit the case, the official manner of death remained “suicide.” Osborn said the FDLE investigation unfairly focused on her daughter’s character, publishing information such as her previous employment as an exotic dancer, and concluding there was no evidence of a homicide.

Osborn staged a “March for Justice” in Pinellas County, where she lives, criticizing law enforcement for their conclusions.

She took the case to the Dr. Phil show, where Genoese failed a lie detector test on national television.

Joseph Genoese and Sheena Morris
Joseph Genoese and Sheena Morris – Submitted

Now she’s taking new evidence to the press.

Osborne hired Pensacola-based private investigator Jan Johnson, of Forensic Pieces, a certified Senior Crime Scene Analyst who spent her career with the FBI, FDLE and Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, according to the company’s website.

Johnson asked Osborn to look at photos from the scene again last year.

“I didn’t want to go there again,” Osborn said. So Johnson narrowed it down to one photo, taken at the scene, showing marks in a geometric pattern on Sheena’s lower back that she says match the wicker pattern in a chair pictured in the hotel room.

New evidence in Morris case may point to murder
The wicker hotel chair pattern compared to marks on Sheena Morris’ lower back, in a photo taken after her death. – Jan Johnson | Submitted

“I looked at it and I’m like, ‘Oh my God. Now I know.’ But I‘ve known all along,” Osborn said.

When the hotel redecorated, Osborn said she was able to obtain one of the chairs so that investigators could take measurements and better compare them to the photo of the marks on her daughter’s back.

What they found, according to Johnson, is that Morris must have been seated in the wicker chair after her death, indicating that she was moved to the shower and hung by someone else.

Forensic Pieces investigators say that the marks were caused by a process called “lividity,” in which blood pools in the body after the heart stops pumping at death. The marks were not detected in the autopsy because Morris’ body was moved to a horizontal position on a gurney before the lividity became fixed, or permanent, according to investigators.

The marks show that the hanging was staged, according to Forensic Pieces, which has used the case to teach law enforcement investigators about how murders can be staged as suicides.

“We’re trying to get them to take a second look at the new evidence,” Johnson said. “We would like somebody to reopen the case. FDLE has a lab; they could submit this to their lab.”

Meanwhile, Osborn, who lives about six miles from the man she suspects of murdering her daughter, is not planning any more marches for justice.

“I know that my daughter was murdered. I could only hope that justice could be served. But right now, sometimes there’s justice, and sometimes there’s just us.”