Carlie Jane Brucia was a young girl from Florida, USA who was tragically sexually assaulted and murdered after being kidnapped from a car wash near her home in Sarasota.
She was born on March 16, 1992, and lived with her mother Susan Schorpen, and stepfather in Sarasota when the devastating event occurred on a February evening.
Brucia had spent the night at a friend’s house and was on her way home to watch the Super Bowl when the incident happened. She began her one-mile walk back to her house around 6:15 p.m. Her mother was concerned about her walking alone along the busy Bee Ridge Road, so she asked her husband to pick her up, but he was unable to find her. Her parents reported her missing within 30 minutes of her abduction.
CARLIE BRUCIA IS KIDNAPPED
Following Carlie Brucia’s disappearance, a search was launched, and the police bloodhounds were able to track her to the last location, which was behind a car wash. The security footage from the car wash showed a man confronting Brucia, grabbing her arm, and leading her to a car that was captured on another camera. The video was widely publicized, and a massive manhunt was launched to find the abductor.
In the surveillance footage, a man in his late 20s or early 30s, wearing a mechanic’s uniform, could be seen talking briefly with Brucia before taking her away. The FBI and NASA joined the search efforts, and NASA researchers used advanced image processing technology to enhance the recording by reducing image jitter.
The man in the video was later identified as Joseph Peter Smith, a 37-year-old father of three and car mechanic, with a history of arrests for drug-related charges and one for kidnapping and false imprisonment. Authorities received over 400 phone tips from the public, which helped them link Smith to the car wash’s surveillance video.
CARLIE BRUCIA’S DEAD BODY IS FOUND.
When police searched Smith’s rented room, they found mechanic uniforms in his closet, but there was no other evidence linking him to Brucia. However, during the search, officers found drug paraphernalia in his car, which resulted in Smith’s arrest for a parole violation.
For several days, Smith refused to speak with investigators regarding Brucia’s kidnapping until he called his brother John on February 5. John then led FBI agents and a local officer to the Central Church of Christ. While they were at the church, John received another call from Smith, who provided information about the location of Brucia’s body.
Carlie Brucia’s body was found lying on her back in a field behind the church, with a deep ligature mark on her neck. She was naked below the waist, with her right leg stretched out and her left leg curled underneath her.
During the phone call, Smith admitted to having engaged in “rough sex” with Brucia before killing her.
Carlie Brucia was strangled from behind, according to the Sarasota County medical examiner, and abrasions on her body indicated that she was dragged to her death. The DNA profile from a sperm sample found on her shirt matched Joseph Smith’s, and two of Brucia’s head hairs were discovered in Smith’s borrowed yellow station wagon car, with seven fibers matching the red shirt that Brucia was wearing.
CONVICTION OF JOSEPH SMITH.
On February 20, Sarasota County prosecutors indicted Smith for first-degree murder, and charges of kidnapping and capital sexual battery were also filed. The trial began on November 7, 2005, in Sarasota. On November 17, 2005, the jury returned a guilty verdict. On December 1, 2005, the jury recommended the death penalty by a vote of 10 to 2.
Smith was sentenced to two life imprisonment terms for the capital sexual battery and kidnapping charges, and on March 15, 2006, he was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murder charge.
In 2018, Smith’s death sentence was commuted to life in prison. However, in April 2020, the death penalty was reinstated. However, Smith passed away in July 2021 while he was on death row at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida.
Credits: Oxygen