A convicted murderer and suspected serial killer was back in a Broward courtroom Tuesday as he faces charges in a 1998 slaying of a woman.
Lucious Boyd pleaded not guilty in the murder of Eileen Truppner during the hearing Tuesday morning.
Boyd, 64, is already on death row for the murder of 21-year-old Dawnia Dacosta, who was killed approximately two weeks prior to Truppner.
The body of Truppner was found in a grassy area of southwest Broward in December 1998 when a boater on a weekend outing made the discovery near a boat ramp off U.S. 27. She'd been brutally raped and murdered.
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For more than 20 years, the woman was known only as Jane Doe, but this past May, BSO identified the victim as Truppner, a mother of two who'd left her native Puerto Rico and moved to South Florida. Her cause of death was determined to be strangulation.
Advancements in DNA testing technology enabled crime lab detectives to connect Truppner's DNA to Boyd’s DNA, which had been collected as evidence in the Dacosta homicide, Broward Sheriff's Office officials said.
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On Nov. 29, a Broward County grand jury indicted Boyd for Truppner's murder. He now faces first-degree murder and sexual battery charges in her killing.
Investigators believe Boyd could be responsible for other crimes as he traveled through the state.
So do family members, including one woman who attended Tuesday's hearing and is convinced Boyd killed her sister.
"There’s so many women that he’s connected to, I feel like this case is helping the other victims. All the stars are lining up for a reason," Amber Berry said.
The body of Berry's sister, Gina Marie Moore, was found in a canal in Palm Beach County back in 1998.
