BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — More than three decades after 12-year-old Jennifer Odom disappeared on her walk home from school, jurors are now hearing testimony in the death penalty trial of the man accused of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing her.
Jeffrey Norman Crum is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in connection with Odom's 1993 death. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The first day of testimony focused largely on the final moments of Jennifer's life and the painful memories carried for more than 30 years by the people who knew her.
Jennifer was riding the school bus home on Feb. 19, 1993, as she did every school day. She got off around 3 p.m. at a stop roughly 200 yards from her family's rural Pasco County home.
She never made it home.
Jennifer's best friend, Michelle Sample, and two other students on the bus testified that they saw Jennifer get off and begin walking toward home.
They also remembered a faded blue pickup truck slowly following her.
During questioning, prosecutors asked Sample whether she could see anything about the driver.
"Could you tell man, woman, race? Anything like that?"
"No," she answered.
The truck was traveling in the same direction as Jennifer, toward her home.
Jennifer's mother, Renee Converse, told jurors about the routine she watched unfold almost every day.
She said Jennifer would sit toward the back of the school bus and wave goodbye to her as Converse drove away.
"She would sit in the backseat and wave to me every day as my car turned to go left and the bus would go straight and she would smile and wave goodbye and I love you."
That routine abruptly ended on Feb. 19.
Her daughter had been seen getting off the bus, but she never arrived at the house.
"My heart dropped to the floor at that moment because I knew something was wrong because Michelle had seen her get off the bus so I knew immediately something bad was wrong."
Jennifer's disappearance triggered a massive search. Six days later, on Feb. 25, a couple searching an abandoned orange grove in southwest Hernando County found her body.
The case would remain unsolved for 30 years.
Investigators never stopped working it. According to previous Tampa Bay 28 reporting, detectives pursued thousands of leads and collected, tested and retested evidence as forensic technology improved. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children also helped investigators digitally scan more than 75,000 pages of documents from the case.
The biggest break came from another case.
In 1992, nearly 13 months before Jennifer disappeared, a 17-year-old Pasco County girl was attacked after getting off a school bus. She was beaten and sexually assaulted in a wooded area.
DNA evidence collected in that case eventually produced a full DNA profile. Initially, investigators could not match it to anyone in the national database.
In 2015, however, FDLE found a familial match. The DNA pointed investigators to a relative of Crum.
That led detectives to Jeffrey Crum, who lived in the area at the time, was familiar with the roads and owned a blue truck. Investigators said the circumstances of the two attacks were strikingly similar.
Crum was arrested in 2015 in connection with the 1992 attack. He was later convicted and sentenced to two life terms.
According to court documents previously obtained by Tampa Bay 28, Crum also made statements implicating himself in Jennifer's killing. Investigators said he told his son that he had "did" Odom.
Jennifer's case eventually went before a grand jury in 2023. Crum was indicted on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery.
Now, more than 33 years after Jennifer disappeared, the evidence is being presented to a jury.
The defense does not dispute that Jennifer was brutally killed. But Crum's attorneys argue the state still has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was responsible.
"Unfortunately, sometimes crimes go unsolved. Unfortunately for the community. Unfortunately for the family. But we are here because the state is asking you to convict one person of that crime. Make them prove that case to you," said attorney Jeanna Finkelstein.
For Jennifer's family, the trial marks another chapter in a story that began when a little girl stepped off a school bus and never made it home.
Jennifer would be 45 years old today.
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