#robert sims

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The Mysterious and Violent Murder of the Sims

It was October 22 of 1966, and many of the citizens of Tallahassee, Florida, were attending a football game in the North Florida Fair. But not the Sims. The two older daughters, aged 17 and 16, were out babysitting. At their home in Muriel Court Drive were Robert Sims (42), his wife Helen (34) and youngest daughter Joy (12). It was supposed to be a normal, quiet night, but it was anything but.

At around 11:15 PM, Jenny Sims arrived home from babysitting to an incomprehensible scene. Robert was lying on top the bed, blindfolded, gagged and bound, with one shot wound in his head. He was still alive, but not for long. Helen was on the floor, also blindfolded, gagged and bound and had been shot three times, twice in the head and once in the leg. She was also still breathing but would die 9 days later at the hospital, without ever regaining consciousness. Joy got the worst of it. Not only had she been shot in the head, but was also stabbed at least six times in the torso. Her underwear was pulled down suggesting sexual assault. She was already dead.

It looked like the attacks hadn’t happened too long before Jenny got home, which was later confirmed by a neighbor who claimed to have heard screams at around 10:45 pm. Investigators at the crime scene said that there was no sign of forced entry and nothing had been stolen: there was even money left in plain view. Whoever had done this, seemed to know the Sims and had a personal motive for the murders.

Among some of the interesting evidence found at the crime scene, the knots used to bound the Sims was a specialized kind. Former Assistant State Attorney Jeremy Mutz claimed in a Reddit post in 2017 that everything indicated that the murders had been planned, that the killer or killers had spent time cleaning the scene and suggested that it would have to be someone who would feel comfortable being seen at the neighborhood without raising suspicions.

The crime shocked the community, leading even to cancel trick or treating that year out of fear that there was a killer still on the loose. No one could understand who would want to target a well liked family, with no known enemies

At first, the investigation focused on a high profile member of the city: Pastor C.A. Roberts. Helen had worked for him at the First Baptist Church, but had quit her job just a few days before she was murdered. The reason of why she resigned was a mystery, but there was a lot of speculation that she disapproved of Roberts’ philandering ways (in fact, his affairs with many local women and being considered a suspect in this crime eventually destroyed his career). However, Pastor Roberts had been at the football game: not only had he been seen by many witnesses in both halves of the game, but there was video footage of him there. 

Other potential suspects were a young couple that lived in the same neighborhood as the Sims. Mary Charles LaJoie (19 at the time) was described as “odd” and “obsessed with death”. In fact, she’d been caught several times breaking in funeral homes. Her boyfriend, Vernon Fox Jr. (21 at the time), was called a loner and was suspected of being a peeping tom. He was even spotted peeping on Joy Sims a week before the murders.

In the 80s, Mary Charles went back to Tallahassee to voluntarily talk to the investigators and suggested that Vernon, by then her husband, had committed the murders. Her motives to turn on him were dubious, especially when she showed interest in the reward money. Still, there was plenty of reason to suspect them, considering they kept giving conflicting statements to the police, but there was no hard evidence that would lead to an arrest.

Vernon has always denied his involvement in the murders and has been actively commenting on the case online. He also gave an interview for a documentary on the case called 641 Muriel Court, which I highly recommend and you can watch here for free.