Human remains that were found behind a Port Richey home have been identified as 21-year-old Jamie Nicole Ivancic, detectives say.
Pasco County deputies and anthropologists from USF found the body on Sunday during an investigation that was connected to a triple murder in Tarpon Springs.
On New Year’s Day, police found three people and three dogs killed inside a Tarpon Springs home on Juanita Way. The victims were identified as 71-year-old Richard Louis Ivancic, his 59-year-old wife Laura Ann Ivancic and their 25-year-old son Nicholas James Ivancic.
Police say they believe the family was murdered in their home around Dec. 19.
After the three bodies were found, authorities said the family daughter Jamie was also missing and believed to be a victim.
Shortly after the bodies were found in Tarpon Springs, Jamie’s husband, 25-year-old Shelby John Nealy, was arrested in Ohio. Authorities say he confessed to killing his wife’s family members.
During a news conference on Tuesday, Pasco County detectives said Nealy also admitted that he had killed Jamie.
Detectives say her cause of death was “violent blunt force trauma” and said Jamie may have been killed as long as a year ago.
“It would appear that he was able to just trick (the family) into thinking that she was unavailable, she was somewhere else and she was unavailable for a phone call,” a detective said. “So that kind of progressed over that period of time, from the last time she was seen to what happened in Tarpon Springs.”
Nealy is expected to be charged with homicide in Jamie’s death. He is still in Ohio but will be brought back to Florida at some point, detectives say.
