2017 Volusia-Flagler slayings highest in 15 years

One set of human remains was found rotting inside a Daytona Beach apartment.

The other set was found in a fernery 20 miles away.

The killing of Jeffrey Albertsman — and the accompanying mystery of his detached limbs — was a painstaking case that took six months to solve and it was one of several indicators that 2017 was shaping up to be an unusually brutal year for homicides.

In all, 32 slayings were reported in Volusia and Flagler counties, up from 19 the previous year. That is the highest annual total since 2002, a year that also included 32 murders.

“It’s a weird thing. You can have strategies in place one year and get 10 and the next year you have the same exact strategies in place and you get 32,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said.

There was at least one homicide every month last year in the two-county region. The bloodiest month was May, which had five. The longest stretch during the year without a homicide was 35 days.

The jurisdiction with the most slayings was Daytona Beach, which had 12. Unincorporated Volusia was second with seven.

Many of the killings were similar in that the victims were killed by a relative. Most involved firearms. Many were drug-related. One involved the killing of a suspected prostitute. Another involved the killing of a motorcycle gang member. That one, along with eight more, remain open cases.

Some of the 2017 slayings will be remembered for being particularly gruesome or heinous. One of the victims, Tracy Adams, 39, was set on fire Aug. 27 as she sat in her car in her driveway. She was still covered in flames when she ran inside her DeLand house with her children inside, according to DeLand police. She died from her injuries weeks later.

In another case, 60-year-old Carlos Cruz, of Deltona, was found shot dead, lying in a ditch Nov. 11.

Volusia sheriff ’s deputies said Cruz was helping a driver whose vehicle was stuck. He walked back to his driveway and then drove his truck over in an attempt to pull the stranded motorist’s car. That driver wound up fatally shooting Cruz so he could steal his pickup, detectives said. The vehicle was driven set on fire.

“That, to me, was a really, really senseless and brutal act,” Chitwood said of the Cruz murder case. “We’re working that one hard.”

Both the Adams and Cruz murders are among the nine from last year that have remained unsolved in Volusia.

DeLand police Chief Jason Umberger said his detectives are close to the finish line in the Adams investigation. to Apopka and