Who Killed Mary Jo Shelleby In Sarasota? Info Sought 50 Years Later

SARASOTA, FL — On November 10, 1973, the body of Mary Jo Shelleby was found lying in a dirt road at the south end of McIntosh Road in Sarasota.

Despite interviewing potential suspects at the time, “exhausting all leads and evidence,” an arrest was never made in her death, according to a Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Now, on the 50th anniversary of her death, investigators are seeking new information in hopes of determining who killed her.

Shelleby was a student at Manatee Junior College and had lived in the area for a short time at the time she died, the sheriff’s office said. She was known to hitchhike for transportation, and there had been a possible sighting of the young woman at the Land Chess Bar on Main Street.

An autopsy showed that she had been raped and detectives determined the cause of death to be a homicide, SCSO said.

Over the years, as new technology has developed, her clothing has been sent for DNA testing, which didn’t produce any new leads.

Still, detectives “remain hopeful” that Shelleby’s case can be solved decades later and continue to review her file, “as no unsolved case is ever considered closed,” the agency said.

Anyone who may have information about this homicide is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 941-366-TIPS or SCSO Criminal Investigations at 941-861-4900.