PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. -- One suspect has been arrested and charged with the murder of a St. Augustine woman who disappeared nearly two years ago.
U.S. Marshals arrested Timothy Johnson, 42, of Palatka Tuesday morning. Johnson was Rabecca Ware's former boyfriend and the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office had long been suspected him to be responsible for her disappearance.
"We’ve been working for the last 8 months to put a case together without a body," St. Johns Detective Gene Tolbert told Action News. "A grand jury indicted him [Monday], and an arrest occurred [Tuesday]."
Learning of the arrest stirred up a wave of emotion for Ware's mother, Gladys Vernadore. Ware's family believes the 34-year-old mother was planning to break up with Johnson and move back in with her three teenaged children and their father in Jacksonville.
Rebecca’s car was found abandoned in a St. Augustine Publix parking lot in October of 2010.
Detectives say they now have enough eyewitness reports and forensic evidence to prosecute. Johnson is charged with second degree murder even though authorities have not recovered a body.
Ware's mother said, "If they can’t get a body, a conviction of him would give me so much satisfaction.”
“Justice might be served," Vernadore said, "but in my heart it’ll never be served because she didn’t deserve what she got.”
