Nearly four decades ago around Christmas and New Year’s, a young woman was clubbed to death in her Jacksonville home with her baby unharmed. No one’s been arrested, and that child, now 39, and other family members are imploring for a new ending to their story.
“Events like this are not just about revisiting the past; they are about creating a renewed moment of urgency,” First Coast Crime Stoppers Executive Director Chase Robinson said. “One person watching, hearing a detail again, or recognizing something they once dismissed could be the difference between silence and justice.”
Casie Ellison and her mother Melissa “Missy” Taylor Ellison’s sisters joined nonprofits First Coast Crime Stoppers and Project: Cold Case for a Jan. 15 livestream event to share their stories and hope that someone will come forward with new information and be eligible for a $5,000 reward.
“My mother was beat to death,” Ellison said. “She died slowly and painfully. She was stolen from our lives. She was stolen from my life. … A person or persons are responsible, and no one has been held accountable. That means someone has lived for 38 years knowing exactly what happened, while our family has lived for 38 years without the truth. Someone knows who did this. Someone knows why it happened. And someone knows how it happened.”
She urged people to come forward with anything that might help. If they don’t have information or are unfamiliar with the case, then share the First Coast Crime Stoppers video link on their social media pages, she asked.
“The smallest detail can matter: a name, a car, a place, a conversation, a rumor you may have dismissed, a memory you might have thought was irrelevant,” she said. “… Every post, every article, every conversation keeps this from disappearing.”
What happened to Missy Taylor Ellison?
On Dec, 28, 1987, Ellison was found dead in her bedroom by her housemates on Coljean Court off Normandy Boulevard. It was a week before her 21st birthday.
Here are news accounts of what happened according to an April 1, 1990, Florida Times-Union story about the parents’ frustrations 2 1/2 years after her death.
“They are still waiting to find out who picked up a charred log from the mobile home’s fireplace, carried it to the young woman’s bedroom, beat her to death, then moved her 13-month-old baby out of the room, set the log at the front door and left,” the article said about the parents.
“Shoe prints in Missy’s mobile home, a charcoal handprint on her arm, tire tracks on the mobile home’s back patio, and a caller to the 911 emergency number the night after the murder — a man who referred to Missy’s death and said, ‘I’m sorry, I had to do it.’ Clues like those should have led to an arrest by now, the Taylors said.”
That night, Ellison also told her mother that she was scared but wouldn’t explain. Her mother asked why since she already had her two friend roommates there. She was recently separated from her husband, Mark Ellison, and asked Charlene Boeger and Wayne Contreras to move in to help with bills, according to the news story citing police reports.
A neighbor said he heard people arguing outside after 2 a.m. and then heard a vehicle screeching away.
The roommates said they didn’t hear anything until Boeger heard Casie crying and found her on the living room couch with pillows tucked around her as if to prevent her from falling. When she carried her to Ellison’s room where the door was open a crack, someone inside slowly pushed it closed.
Boeger said she thought either Ellison’s estranged husband or a date was in the room and didn’t want the baby with them. So she fell asleep on the couch with Casie and woke up when the back door slammed.
Contreras said someone had shined a flashlight on him and then ran out the back.
The family was initially told it might be linked to a string of burglaries in the mobile home park. But that was later discounted when detectives learned the only items missing were two pictures of Ellison in a bathing suit and a set of keys that she had borrowed. The parents were also told they have a suspect but not enough evidence to make an arrest.
Mark Ellison told the Times-Union back then that he was accused from the start but was as frustrated as anyone that it remained unsolved. He said he was just trying to continue his life and raise Casie.
He did not attend the Jan. 15 briefing with the family, and the Times-Union is unclear where he is now.
Detective Travis Oliver Sr. of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said during the briefing that investigators continue to review the case.
“Circumstances that surround the case didn’t make sense back then and doesn’t make sense now on some of the information that was given,” Oliver said. “Also there’s modern technology today that we did not have available to us in 1987. So one of the things we do now with these cases, we take this case now like it is happening in 2026 versus 1987, and we do everything we can to try to work this case as if it was happening right now with today’s technology.”
What did Missy Taylor Ellison’s sisters say?
Glenda Blandford said the funeral for her sister was completely packed with every seat taken and people standing along the walls and outside.
“I will never forget hearing the police escorts telling my parents that there was over 3 miles of cars in the procession down the interstate following her from the funeral home on the Westside to the cemetery in Orange Park,” Blandford said. “If that doesn’t speak volumes about my sister’s character and who she was, nothing will.”
She said her parents died years later in grief.
“Because of you we watched my beautiful mother’s smile diminish,” she said to her sister’s killer. “We watched the light in her eyes slowly go out. Because of you we watched my mother literally grieve herself to death.”
She continued that refrain of “Because of you…” and then the same for “I hope …”
“I truly hope my sister’s beautiful face has haunted you every single day for the last 38 years,” she said.
Blandford said her message isn’t just for the person who took her life but also those not speaking up or who helped cover it up.
Catherine “Sissy” Bennett, another sister, said the family has been through so much.
“All we ask is someone come forward. I know there’s someone out there that has an answer, has that piece that we’re missing. Give my family the answers and Missy the justice that she deserves.”
What is Change the Face of Depression?
Ellison’s now grown daughter founded the nonprofit Change the Face of Depression as a resource for people struggling with depression. It’s mission is to empower and inspire those affected by depression to regain their sense of self-worth help them on their journey toward healing and self-discovery.
Change the Face of Depression also is in partnership with Project: Cold Case.
Ellison tells her story on the organization’s website:
My mother’s name was Melissa “Missy” Taylor Ellison, and she was taken from me when I was only 1 year old. I don’t have memories of her voice, her laugh, or the way she held me. I don’t remember her warmth, the way she moved, or how her eyes softened when she looked at her baby girl.
But grief has a strange way of forming memories out of absence.
Sometimes the things you never got to experience leave the deepest imprint.
Growing up, I learned who my mother was from the people who loved her — and from the pain left behind in the wake of her murder. She was vibrant. She was warm. She was deeply loved. She was human, imperfect, alive. And then she was gone.
Her case remains unsolved.
And although the world kept turning, my world formed around a wound I never consented to carry.
To remain anonymous and be eligible for rewards at Crime Stoppers, call (866) 845-8477 (845-TIPS), text **8477 or email rewards@fccrimestoppers.com. Crime Stoppers recently increased its base reward to $5,000.
(This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Glenda’s last name.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Family pleads for justice in cold case of Jacksonville mom in 1987
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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