Troy Adam Thorne was arrested Oct. 17 in connection with the 1985 murders of Harvey and Margaret Bolser at the Swan Apartments in Lake Wales, police said.
The Bolsers owned the apartments at 241 E. Seminole Ave. and had rented one of their units to Thorne, 61, and Samuel Edward Jones, 65, the Lake Wales Police Department said in an Oct. 20 news release.
On Feb. 28, 1985, police found the Bolsers dead inside the apartment Thorne and Jones had rented, and it had also been set on fire, police said. The pair were missing and considered suspects.
Following an manhunt, Jones was arrested on March 8, 1985, and Thorne was arrested on March 12, 1985.
Six months later, Jones was sentenced to life in prison, where he remains today at Zephyrhills Correctional Institution, police said. Thorne, however, was ruled incompetent to stand trial and held under involuntary examination at various facilities up until 1993.
In 2022, detectives launched a new investigation and began researching the case files, reviewing documents, analyzing evidence and conducting interviews. Using advancements in forensic technology not available in 1985, original evidence from the crime scene was resubmitted to the FDLE crime lab, where new DNA evidence was recovered, police said.
Working with agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, detectives found Thorne (also known as Logan Sinclair) to be living a relatively normal life in Tampa, police said. Since his release from treatment, he had obtained a driver’s license, secured a mortgage to purchase a home, married and fathered three children, according to the release.
They also learned he was arrested in 1995 for retail theft in Hillsborough County and sentenced to six months of probation after pleading guilty to the crime.
On Oct. 16, a Polk County grand jury indicted Thorne on two counts of first-degree premeditated murder and one count of arson. The next day, he was arrested at his Tampa residence and is being held in the Polk County Jail with no bond.
“Now, more than 40 years later, Troy Thorne will face the consequences for his involvement in the murder of Margaret and Harvey Bolser,” the news release said.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Hidden for more than 30 years, Tampa man arrested again in 1985 murders of Lake Wales couple
Reporting by Paul Nutcher, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
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