Man who killed two pregnant women in 1980s free again
Two-time killer Gary Troutman is free again.
Troutman, 61, was released Thursday from Everglades Correctional Institution in Miami after serving only half of a 30-year sentence for the murder of Angela Savage.
A mother of two, she was 24 and four months pregnant with a third child when Troutman strangled her, leaving her battered body on a dirt path just blocks from her home in Deerfield Beach.
Troutman killed Savage in 1986, but the case soon went cold.
The crime went unsolved for 21 years. Troutman was not arrested until 2007, when DNA evidence linked him to the crime.
Six weeks before killing Savage, Troutman strangled teenager Cassandra Scott. She was 17 and, like Angela Savage, four months pregnant. Troutman was convicted of Scott’s murder
in 1996 and sentenced to 25 years. He only served nine. Why’d he get out so early? Troutman killed both victims in 1986, nearly a decade before new sentencing guidelines kicked in requiring convicts to serve at
least 85% of their sentences.
Troutman spent eight years in jail waiting to be tried for the murder of Savage. Finally, in 2015, he took a plea deal that got him a 30-year sentence. He spent seven years in prison but
spent 15 years behind bars, getting credit for the years he spent in jail awaiting trial.
The family of Angela Savage thought he’d be in prison another 10 years.
Then, on Oct. 14, a letter arrived from the Florida
Department of Corrections letting them know Troutman would be released within 90 days.
His release came 49 days later.
Wayne Adams, a younger brother of Angela Savage, says he learned the news after getting a text from a friend on Sunday.
He happened to be in church at the time.
“I mentioned it to the reverend after the service,” Adams said. “He just shook his head and walked away. I went home and shed some more tears. As I said before, it’s like a never-ending saga.”
Before Troutman’s release, he was required to list his new address with the Department of Corrections. He gave an address in the Atlanta suburb of East Point, according to the website run by the Department of Corrections.
Adams questions if Troutman ever left for Georgia.
“Something tells me he’s here, but he’s laying low,” Adams said. “I just hope he goes far away. And I hope wherever he goes, the people there are aware of who they are dealing with and his past.”