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Prisoner indicted in teen's death

Originally published November, 20, 1997

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Tribune file report

Published: June 22, 2009

CLEARWATER - A photograph of Cheryl Ann Commesso found beneath a truck helps lead to the indictment of a man suspected of killing the Brandon teen.

More than 8 1/2 years after exotic dancer Cheryl Ann Commesso was killed, a Pinellas County grand jury has accused a man in federal prison of slaying her.

The jurors on Nov. 12 indicted Franklin Delano Floyd, 54, in the death of the 18-year-old Brandon woman, said Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe. Commesso's skeletal remains were found in 1995, buried in a marsh alongside Interstate 275.

Police linked Floyd to Commesso's death through evidence including photographs found beneath a pickup truck used by Floyd.

St. Petersburg police Detective Bob Schock and another detective traveled to the federal prison in Atlanta last weekend and told Floyd he was charged with first-degree murder.

Schock said Floyd became upset and repeated the story he's always held to: He knows who's involved but won't tell.

In an interview with The Tampa Tribune in June, Floyd said, "I know what she was doing and who she was with, but I'm not going to snitch on anyone."

After Commesso disappeared in March or April 1989, it was six years before a worker stumbled onto her skull beside the interstate, north of Gandy Boulevard. A nearly complete skeleton eventually was found.

It took more than a year for authorities to identify the remains. Eventually an FBI agent who had been tracking Floyd's path suggested checking missing persons reports at the time Floyd was in the Tampa Bay area.

Floyd then was a federal fugitive living with a woman whom authorities believe he had kidnapped when she was 4 years old.

The woman, Sharon Marshall, and Commesso danced together at Mons Venus, an exotic dance club in Tampa.

In 1989, Floyd was 46 and Marshall was 20. During the two years they lived in the Tampa Bay area, Marshall had a baby with another man.

Though Floyd was passing himself off as Marshall's father, he claimed to be the baby's, too.

Detectives said Sharon Marshall was the last person seen with Commesso — in March 1989. Then, in mid-April, Commesso's 1985 Corvette was found abandoned at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport.

Floyd, Marshall and her son ended up in Oklahoma City. By 1990, Marshall was going to leave Floyd when she was struck and killed by a car that never was found.

Floyd is the prime suspect in his wife's death, but has never been charged. The child, Michael Hughes, was put in foster care.

Four years after the boy's mother died, Floyd showed up at the child's elementary school in Choctaw, Okla., and kidnapped the 6-year-old boy and the school principal at gunpoint. He handcuffed the principal to a tree and drove off with the boy in the principal's pickup truck.

Authorities believe Michael was killed. Floyd has maintained Michael is living in another country.

Floyd is serving a 52-year federal sentence for the kidnapping.

Schock said when the principal's pickup was recovered in Dallas, photographs were found beneath it. They showed Commesso being beaten in sexual positions, Schock said.

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