John Greer confessed to cold case deputies that in 1979 he shot and killed 25-year-old Adele Easterly and his wife Jackie Greer.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. — A former Florida deputy confessed to killing two women, including his wife, within months of each other more than 45 years ago, resulting in the closure of two cold cases.
On Dec. 31, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said that one of its former deputies, John Greer, was confirmed to be the suspect behind the murder of 25-year-old Adele Easterly.
It was around 1:40 a.m. Nov. 5, 1979, when Greer, who was on duty and on patrol radioed dispatch to report he discovered a murder. Greer said he found Easterly, a clerk at the Farm Store on Highway 17 in Punta Gorda, and said she’d been murdered.
Easterly had been shot twice with a 12-gauge shotgun, once in the back and once in the head.
Despite the thorough investigation and potential suspects identified, not enough evidence was found to establish a “solid suspect.”
In the decades following Easterly’s murder, cold case investigators said they would learn why the sheriff’s office couldn’t find who did.
The sheriff’s office said “many” investigators and commanders at the time of Easterly’s murder were “concerned” with Greer. Some believe he could’ve been responsible for Easterly’s death but could never back up their suspicions with “substantial” evidence.
The reason for that suspicion? The investigation into Greer’s wife’s death just months earlier and other “strange” behavior he exhibited.
On Aug. 27, 1979, Greer called the sheriff’s office and said his wife, Jackie Greer, had shot herself in their Port Charlotte home. Greer was off duty at the time.
During the investigation, detectives suspected something wasn’t right about Jackie’s death but reportedly didn’t have evidence to prove the case was anything other than suicide.
Greer “discovered” Easterly’s body 71 days after his wife’s death.
Less than a year after Easterly’s murder, Greer resigned from the sheriff’s office. Cold case detectives said he was under investigation for “other activities” and suspended on Oct. 3, 1980, and resigned the same day.
Within days of Greer’s resignation, another acquaintance of his was found dead sitting in her Ford Mustang in the woods in Port Charlotte.
Her husband had reported the woman missing on Sept. 20, and her body was found on Sept. 29, 1980. Due to the decomposition of her body, a cause of death wasn’t able to be determined, but investigators believed she may have overdosed on pills because they found empty pill bottles in her car.
The woman had also left behind a suicide note, which the sheriff’s office said appeared legitimate.
But her husband had told the sheriff’s office that Greer had been following his wife and was coming to their house while on duty and was trying to have sex with her.
Cold case detectives said they suspect this is why Greer was under investigation before his resignation. However, no records about the investigation were found to confirm this theory.
Several years after Easterly’s death, in October 1986, detectives reportedly found one of her friends. She reportedly told a detective she had been afraid of coming forward before because she was scared of a deputy.
The friend said she had talked to Easterly about her different relationships. One relationship Easterly confided to her friend was with a Charlotte County Deputy. The deputy would visit her during the night sift and would bring his gun into the farm store to “protect” her. The friend reportedly said she believed this gun was different than his service weapon.
Greer carried a personal double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun in his car. According to the sheriff’s office, it wasn’t uncommon for deputies during this time to carry shotguns or rifles in addition to their sidearms.
No bullet casings had been found at the crime scene, but in addition to confirmation that Easterly had been shot with a 12-gauge, it was noted that double-barrel shotguns don’t expel casings.
The friend went on to say Easterly told her she learned the deputy she was seeing was married and later tried to break things off. But the deputy reportedly told her he told his wife he wanted a divorce, which led her to take his service revolver and threaten to shoot herself. A struggle for the gun resulted in the gun firing and killing his wife.
Two weeks before Easterly’s murder, she reportedly confided in her friend that she was afraid of the deputy.
The detective at the time asked the friend about John Greer, and the friend said the name sounded correct for the person Easterly was seeing.
Cold case detectives added no other deputy lost their wife to suicide or homicide during that time period. And, the Farm Storm was in the area Greer worked often during his midnight shift.
In November 1986, detectives asked a crime scene investigator who had blood splatter training to look at Jackie Greer’s death scene. While the investigator couldn’t determine if her death was a suicide or homicide, he did discover her death could not have happened the way Greer described.
When recounting the events to responding deputies on Aug. 27, 1979, Greer reportedly said he was sleeping, heard a “pop,” saw smoke coming from the closet and found his wife shot. However, the investigator said he couldn’t find any blood splatter on the inside of the closet door but there was blood in the door jam. This could only have happened if the door was open when Jackie Greer was shot.
Easterly’s cold case and Jackie Greer’s death were among those taken up in 2009 by the sheriff’s office’s current cold case unit.
In 2016, Easterly’s murder was featured on the county’s unsolved case website and it included “more information than normal” in hopes someone who knew about the murder would come forward.
A woman who had been part of the sheriff’s office “explorer” program, where young people ages 14-21 can train and learn about law enforcement, came forward with information about Greer.
Cold case detectives said they learned the woman had been sexually assaulted multiple times by Greer and he threatened to kill her.
During one assault, the woman said Greer told her to “ask them dead bitches like Adele Easterly what happens why they say no to me.”
The woman was working in her role as an explorer in dispatch the night Easterly was found dead. She said she saw Greer drive into the sheriff’s office complex but came in through a different entrance than normal. He had a long gun in his hand and looked disheveled. She said she noticed one of his gloves was off and possibly had blood on his bare hand. Greer was known to wear black gloves while on duty, the sheriff’s office said.
Greer motioned or told her to get back into dispatch and he disappeared. A few minutes later, he drove to the other side of the building and came back inside as he normally would. The woman said it looked like he had just showered.
After finding more past employees and explorers at the sheriff’s office, cold case detectives said their statements supported some of what the woman had disclosed.
Finally, cold case detectives said they had enough to arrest Greer. They kept investigating, hoping to find evidence that could help with a conviction.
Detectives said they eventually had as much evidence as possible and went to talk to Greer. He had been monitored “as much as possible” over the years, the sheriff’s office said. They knew he had been living in Kingsport, Tennessee for several years at that point.
They then learned Greer had left his home and moved to an extended care facility in Kingsport; so, in April 2023, detectives went there to interview him.
Greer was bedridden and could only give short answers to detectives’ questions. While detectives said he seemed to understand what he was asked, he wasn’t able to speak for long.
Detectives asked him directly if he shot Easterly and his wife and he admitted to shooting them both.
However, cold case detectives couldn’t confirm if he shot his wife Jackie intentionally or if it was an accident like he previously told Easterly.
Despite Greer’s confession, detectives said his health was “seriously compromised” and he would likely never leave the care center. He was unable to stand trial, but the sheriff’s office said Easterly and Jackie Greer’s deaths were “confirmed to have been at the hands” of Greer.
Greer died on March 2, 2024. He was 77.
In the years after his resignation, Greer reportedly applied to several law enforcement agencies, working at several police and sheriff’s offices, largely near the west coast of Florida. He also was a pilot and had various related positions in and around Kingsport.
Cold case detectives said they are continuing to investigate in order to determine if he might have committed any other violent crimes in Florida or other states. No other victims have been found.
