A 19-year-old Florida man faces murder charges after allegedly killing a registered sex offender in his neighborhood with a baseball bat, dismembering the body, and collecting blood samples on microscope slides. Lucas Jones of Indialantic confessed the killing to his girlfriend, who later alerted authorities. Police discovered the victim's remains in Palm Bay after vultures drew attention to discarded suitcases.
Lucas Jones, 19, allegedly attacked Colie Daniel, 28, because Daniel was a registered sex offender living nearby. Jones had printed a list of local sex offenders, and Daniel, convicted in 2018 of lewd or lascivious battery on a victim aged 12 to 15, appeared on it, according to an arrest affidavit. Jones told his girlfriend he struck Daniel with a baseball bat before using a cleaver, saw, and knife to dismember the body, placing the remains in suitcases and Rubbermaid totes. He then collected Daniel's blood on microscope slides, reminiscent of the TV character Dexter Morgan, investigators said. The girlfriend recounted Jones saying, 'I killed somebody and cut him up.'