Medical Detectives

James Kenneth Elmen Jr. abducted Julie Estes, then 21, from the Southside convenience store where she worked in 1985. He raped and murdered her. Her body was found the next day, but the killing went unsolved until 2003 when it became the first murder arrest by the new cold case squad at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. A sample of Elmen's blood was taken after sentencing for the 1986 rape and kidnapping of another woman and the attempted abduction of a third and his DNA was entered into a database, which was eventually matched to Estes' DNA. Elmen is also a suspect in the 1985 murder his 10-year-old half sister, Dana Loomis, and the slaying of a female acquaintance, Christina Casey. In June 1984 a jury acquitted Elmen of killing Steven Linthicum of Titusville.