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Woman Likely Killed In Home, Police Say

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By THOMAS W. KRAUSE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2007

Read The Warrant | Video: Search At Home Ends

TAMPA - Sandra Hamby Prince, a drug counselor missing for nearly two years, was likely killed in her home, 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 Wednesday.

Sandra Prince

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 mystery since the 59-year-old was reported missing 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, linked by DNA to Prince, was consistent with someone putting an injured body into the trunk, police wrote.

Someone also had attempted to clean blood from the back of the garage door and from the floor of Prince's master bedroom. Police speculated that Prince suffered trauma in her bedroom.

The documents released Thursday 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, probably for two days, after she suffered trauma and before it was returned to her garage. This leads the FBI profiler to think her attacker was comfortable coming and going from her home and knew she had not yet been reported missing.

Conflicting Statements Cited

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

Pippin's attorney, Paul Sisco, declined to comment about the warrant Thursday. During the recent search for evidence, Sisco stood outside the home where investigators were digging for evidence and said there is no evidence linking Pippin to Prince's disappearance and that Pippin passed a polygraph test.

Prince's gardener, one of her neighbors and Pippin were together 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, David Jarrett, and neighbor, Nancy Sackville, that he had to take his son to the doctor, according to the warrant application. He told police, however, that he went to Prince's office on North 56th Street and spoke with one of her co-workers, the application states. He later told police he spoke to the co-worker by cell phone and never made it to the office.

Cell phone records show that Pippin was heading toward South Tampa at the time, according to the 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.

Missing Photo, Towel Mentioned

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 Jarrett.

Shortly before Prince disappeared, she had commissioned a painting that depicted her in her garden with Jarrett and his dog in the background, 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.

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

Reached by The Tampa Tribune, Jarrett declined to comment. One of Prince's neighbors, Ann Givens, said Jarrett, who still tends to the garden at the house, was probably just friends with Prince.

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.

Police also have disseminated an ATM surveillance video of a masked man withdrawing money from Prince's bank account. The man used Prince's code number.

According to the warrant application, police showed Pippin the video and he acknowledged that the person looked like him. They asked if he wears anything like 'that,' and pointed to the mask.

Pippin asked: 'What am I wearing?' according to the warrant application.

After obtaining the warrant, police dug under the concrete foundation at 3908 W. Vasconia St. in South Tampa for several days between Oct. 17 and Oct. 22. 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.

On Nov. 17, 2006, a vase with a yellow ribbon was found at the Vasconia Street house. A leaf inside was from a 'Ti plant.' The plant is in abundance at Prince's home.

Pippin's fingerprint was found on the vase, the search warrant application states.

Nancy Sackville, the neighbor who was with Pippin and Jarrett when they decided to report Prince missing, said she has been watching the investigation closely because she misses her friend.

'I'm waiting just like everyone else,' she said.

WFLA News Channel 8 reporter Krista Klaus contributed to this report. Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813)259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib .com.

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