Friday, September 23, 2011

Melbourne, FL: Melbourne woman charged with murder after investigators unearth husband's body

MELBOURNE — Late this summer, Jennifer
Lynn Hearn announced on Facebook that
her husband had left her again but that she
had found someone new.

Neighbors were aware that her marriage
had been turbulent: There were allegations
of abuse, infidelity and drug use against
her husband. The parents of three
daughters had separated, then reunited
several times.

But about six weeks ago, it seemed over
for good.

Hearn told friends that her husband had
moved out to live with a girlfriend. And
within weeks of his departure, Hearn also
found a new love.

"Wow. I am so glad one person walked out
of my life so others could walk in," she
posted on the social-networking site. "I love
being single."

But the 40-year-old mother was harboring
a secret, sheriff's agents said. In the
backyard of her Ann Avenue home, inside
a hog pen behind a storage shed, 2 feet of
soil covered the decaying remains of 41-
year-old Carl "Cliff" Hearn.

Tip leads to arrest

At some point, Jennifer Hearn had confided
a story in someone. It made its way to
others, who tipped off the Brevard County
Sheriff's Office. According to sheriff's Lt.
Tod Goodyear, Hearn then told
investigators that she had shot her
husband at the height of a nighttime
argument, then buried his body.

She was arrested this week on a charge of
second-degree murder. The Hearns do not
have criminal histories in Brevard, and
deputies had no past issues with them.

"Her story was that he left her high and dry
and moved out," Goodyear said. "They had
a history of problems. We never had any
domestic-violence calls, but people have
said he was abusive."

A judge denied her bond Thursday and
scheduled an arraignment for Oct. 25.

Meanwhile, deputies strung crime-scene
tape around a large area stretching from
her house to the back of St. Timothy
Lutheran Church near Croton and Aurora
roads.

Starting early Thursday, technicians
painstakingly -- layer by layer -- dug into
the ground where her husband's remains
were located. The body was placed on a
stretcher and removed from the property
about 6:30 p.m. Officials said Hearn had
cooperated with their investigation.


"She gave us some information in reference
to her being responsible, that no one else
was involved," Goodyear said. "But we can't
confirm everything she said until we
examine the body."

In the Melbourne area community, the two
had lived together in a 1,700-square-foot,
mustard-color house since the 1990s.
Their daughters had moved out before the
incident.

As avid outdoorspeople, the couple kept
hunting dogs in backyard cages and an
airboat beneath a carport. Hogs and deer
were their chosen game. Homicide
investigators found several firearms in the
home, including a handgun they think was
used the evening of Cliff Hearn's death.

Neighbor puzzled

Even with her husband out of the house,
Jennifer Hearn continued operating their
landscaping business, Clifton's Professional
Lawn Care. On Facebook, she once
bemoaned a rainy day, which had halted
her lawn mowing.

"It can stop now!" she wrote.

A next-door neighbor, Kevin Young,
worked for the couple by performing
weed-eating and lawn-mowing. They
maintained at least 30 lawns in the
Melbourne area and in beachside
communities.

Young said the two appeared to be a
"regular couple" and that he never noticed
anything suspicious, such as a gunshot. But
still, something didn't seem right.

"She told me he had a girlfriend and he
went up north to live with her," Young said
as he pointed out a maroon Ford F-150. "I
thought that was kind of funny because he
didn't take his truck."

Hearn met a man in early September, according sheriff's agents. In Facebook
posts, she described him as an "amazing"
man who restored her faith that "there are
good men out there."

She talked about visiting her mother, who
was hospitalized last week with kidney
failure and heart problems. She talked
about enjoying time with her daughters.

A friend of Hearn's, contacted by telephone
Thursday, described her as a wonderful
mother and a humorous person. And in the
past few weeks, she finally seemed happy
with a man.

"I got work, beautiful children, great
friends, and the possibility of being happy
even if it ain't with him now," she posted on
Facebook.

"If this is what being on top of the world
feels like," she wrote, "I'm staying like this."

Contact Knapp at 321-242-3669or
aknapp@floridatoday.com.

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