The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office has charged two suspects in connection with the 1998 homicide of Jewel Summerlin Melvin.
The OCSO and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement responded to the 71-year-old woman's home, 2345 W. James Lee Blvd., Crestview, after her son, Eddie, discovered her body on her bedroom floor, according to a deputy's report.
She was "positioned between her bed and the doorway with the top mattress pulled off the bed to partially conceal her," a news release stated. Melvin "appeared to have been severely beaten in the facial area in addition to being strangled. She had distinctive ligature marks around her neck. The bedroom had been ransacked with several drawers pulled open. In addition, Mrs. Melvin’s blue four-door Mercury Marquis was missing from the driveway," according to the news release.
Melvin died from homicide by asphyxia secondary to strangulation and she received severe blunt force trauma to the face, head and abdominal area, according to the autopsy report.
Over 16 years, investigators found witnesses and interviewed them. Following those interviews, a grand jury indicted Michael Lynn McCombs and Steven Earl Kimmons, both 50 and from Milton.
Kimmons is being held in the Santa Rosa County jail with no bond on unrelated charges.
McCombs is also being held without bond in the Santa Rosa County jail and is currently being transferred to Okaloosa County.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 2 Milton men charged with Crestview murder