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DNA Links Georgia Man To 1987 Slaying

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON

sthompson@tampatrib.com

Published: December 19, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Witnesses saw Tony Fantauzzi at a bar with Lisa Bickford, investigators say.

They saw him at All Children's Hospital with Bickford later that night, after she broke her wrist in a confrontation with a biker at a convenience store. And they saw him walk off with her alone, detectives say.

Fantauzzi, they say, was the prime suspect almost immediately after Bickford's body turned up - naked below the waist - the next morning, on Feb. 27, 1987, about 100 feet from where her pants, underpants and boots were found.

The trouble was evidence.

Detectives on Thursday said they got what they needed after they submitted semen extracted from Bickford to a laboratory that matched it with Fantauzzi's DNA. He was arrested Wednesday in Georgia, where he is being held on a charge of first-degree murder in the 19-year-old's death.

"I was in shock," said Bickford's sister, Laura, an insurance company worker who was told of Fantauzzi's arrest Wednesday. "I stood up and yelled, 'They got him,' and busted out crying."

Laura Bickford wants Fantauzzi, now 48, to be sentenced to death. Lisa Bickford was strangled.

"I want him to pay the same way she did," she said.

Fantauzzi's arrest marks at least the 10th the St. Petersburg Police Department has taken advantage of improving DNA technology and submitted or resubmitted physical evidence culled during old homicide investigations.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

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