PORT ORANGE — Police here were seen on March 26 digging up the backyard of the former home of James Lee Maxwell, who is serving multiple life sentences for killing two women and raping a 9-year-old girl.
Maxwell buried one of the murdered women in his backyard.
The Port Orange Police Department released a statement that detectives were currently working an active investigation at 180 Brandy Hills Drive. The home was where Maxwell lived when he killed and buried a Holly Hill woman in his yard in 2011.
“Information and new circumstance have enabled investigators to obtain asearch warrant for the location in an attempt to recover evidence in connection with a 2012 investigation,” police said. “The execution of the search warrant is ongoing and updated information will be provided as available.”
Police with a front-end loader tore down what appeared to be a back porch of the home and broke and removed concrete from the ground. The machine then loosened the top soil for detectives who then searched the dirt with shovels.
Port Orange killer serving multiple life sentences
In 2015, Maxwell, now 57, was sentenced to additional two consecutive life terms in prison for killing Chasity Starr, 27, of Holly Hill, and Pamela Will, 48, of South Daytona.
Port Orange police said Maxwell buried Starr in his backyard.
Both women were prostitutes.
When Maxwell was sentenced in 2015, he had already been serving three life terms for kidnapping and raping a girl who was a 9-year-old neighbor, police said.
Port Orange killer strangled women to death
According to a News-Journal 2015 report, Maxwell admitted to Port Orange detectives that he killed Starr by strangling her in January 2011.
Starr’s body was found in Maxwell’s backyard. Her skeletal remains were wrapped in a red, white and blue quilt-like bedspread, police said.
Maxwell also strangled Will, whose body was found in a muddy ditch next to International Trade Associates in Ormond Beach, where Maxwell once worked, police said.
In 1988, Maxwell was also convicted of attempted murder for repeatedly stabbing a Daytona Beach prostitute in the chest. He served time in prison for that offense.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Port Orange police dig for evidence in backyard of imprisoned killer
Reporting by Patricio G. Balona, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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