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Woman's Disappearance Detailed In Search Warrant

Discrepancies In Boyfriend's Story Revealed

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By THOMAS W. KRAUSE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2007

Read The Search Warrant Application

TAMPA -- Sandra Hamby Prince, a drug counselor missing for nearly two years, was likely killed, her bloody body stuffed into the trunk of her car and disposed of – all by someone close to her, according to a search warrant application released today.

While applying for a warrant to dig under a South Tampa house, Temple Terrace police went into great detail on a disappearance that has remained a community mystery since the 59-year-old was reported missing on Jan. 3, 2006.

The officers wrote that large amounts of blood were found in the trunk of Prince's car and on the garage floor of her home, where the car was parked.

The blood, link by DNA to Prince, was consistent with someone putting an injured body into the trunk, police wrote. Someone had also attempted to clean blood from the back of the garage door and from the floor of Prince's master bedroom. Police speculated that Prince sustained some trauma in her bedroom.

The documents released today state that several soil samples were collected from under a South Tampa home, where the warrant was executed, but include few details about evidence found there.

Temple Terrace investigators asked an FBI profiler to help determine the circumstances of Prince's disappearance, the search warrant application states.

The profiler determined that, because of the safe way Prince led her life, she was unlikely to be a victim of random crime. More likely, the profiler told Temple Terrace investigators, an "intimate partner" lashed out at Prince after a "blow to the offender's ego or self-esteem."

Prince's car was driven for two days after she suffered trauma and before it was returned to her garage. This leads the FBI profiler to believe that her attacker was comfortable coming and going from her home and knew she had not yet been reported missing.

Several times in the document released today, investigators mention Earl Pippin III. Pippin and Prince had been in an intimate relationship for five years.

Pippin, Prince's gardener and one of Prince's neighbors were together on Jan. 3, 2006, when they decided to call police about her disappearance. She had not been seen for a week.

The search warrant application states that Pippin left before police arrived.

Pippin told the gardener and neighbor that he had to take his son to the doctor, according to the application. He initially told police, however, that he was heading to Prince's office on North 56th Street to talk with her co-workers. Cell phone records show that Pippin was heading toward South Tampa at the time, according to the search warrant application.

Pippin, who was married when he was in the relationship with Prince, is the sole beneficiary of Prince's estate, worth more than $3.6 million.

The warrant application also states that a photograph of Pippin and Prince was missing from her home as was a towel and several journals detailing conversations between Prince and her gardener.

Shortly before Prince disappeared, she had commissioned a painting that depicted her, her gardener and her gardener's dog, the application states.

The artist, when interviewed by police, said he asked about the relationship between Prince and the gardener. Prince told him she was fond of him but he was married with children so "sadly" nothing would come of it.

The gardener told police that the journals between he and Prince contained information that, if someone were reading it, might be considered flirtatious.

Asked about the painting, Pippin at first told police that he thought the man and dog in the painting were the artist and his dog, the application states. Later he told police he and Prince had talked about her gardener being in the painting and he had no problem with it, according to the application.

Pippin's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

For several days between Oct. 17 and Monday, police dug under the concrete foundation at 3908 W. Vasconia St. in South Tampa. The house was constructed in January 2006 and was built by Pippin's company. It was the only house Pippin had under construction at the time of Prince's disappearance.

The search warrant application lists 59 soil samples taken from beneath the house. They were sent to the University of South Florida anthropology department for analysis.

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813)259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

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