Vickie Lynn Purvis, 61, was shot to death alongside her partner Ronald Dean, 60, in their Jacksonville home on Jacks Road in the Biltmore neighborhood on February 15, 2021. Neighbors alerted authorities after noticing suspicious activity, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded to what was investigated as a double homicide; both victims had been shot multiple times.

The couple’s car was stolen after the killings. Two people were later arrested in Nassau County while driving that vehicle and charged with vehicle theft and burglary, though they were not initially identified as suspects in the murders. In July 2021 an arrest warrant was issued for 29-year-old Gene Thomas Jr., who was taken into custody after a September 2021 standoff. Court records say Thomas and his uncle, Scott Suits, went to the home over a financial dispute; Suits, reportedly armed, told Thomas to shoot if the victims moved, and Thomas shot both victims. Suits died of a drug overdose shortly after the murders.

Surveillance video from the home and witness statements are described in court records as showing the sequence of events. Thomas was being held on a $2 million bond as the case proceeded. Did anyone in the Biltmore area see or hear anything the night of February 15 that could help fill remaining gaps in the timeline?