Advances in forensic science help Sanford police arrest suspect in cold-case slaying
After remaining unsolved for almost a quarter century, Sanford police say they’ve arrested the man responsible for a woman’s brutal slaying with help from advances in forensics technology.
Gary Arthur Durrance, 73, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder for the December 1999 killing of his girlfriend, 50-year-old Sherry Holtz, whose body was found in the woods, the Sanford Police Department announced Friday. She was beaten, stabbed, strangled and sexually battered, according to the news release and police records.
“Twenty-four years ago, Sherry Holtz was brutally murdered and left behind in the woods as if her life had no value,” Chief Cecil Smith said in the release. “This was someone’s mother, someone’s daughter. Durrance will now face justice for the horrible and despicable things that he did.”
Durrance became an early suspect after the couple’s roommates told police they’d been fighting and that they didn’t know where he’d been for a portion of the night Holtz was killed.
Police determined Durrance kicked Holtz out of their residence the night before the killing after a fight and that the wooded area where her body was found was a place she’d go whenever they’d fight, police spokeswoman Bianca Gillet said.
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Durrance willingly provided DNA samples to police, who compared them to a knife recovered from the scene of the killing. While blood was found on the knife, it was in such small amounts forensic technology at the time couldn’t properly test it.
Police reopened the case in 2023 due to advances in forensic science. The previously collected DNA samples and evidence, including the knife, were submitted to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. An analysis showed Durrance’s DNA on the knife handle.
Investigators subsequently spoke to Durrance and asked if he ever carried weapons and he said only knives. When asked if he and Holtz ever had physical fights, he said he’d been arrested several times during fights with her but they never became physical and no charges were filed because she wouldn’t show up to court.
He was arrested in Volusia County with the help of the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office and was booked into the Seminole County Jail. His first court appearance was 2 p.m. Friday.
