Murder suspect may have put grandmother’s body in trash


The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office is searching a landfill for evidence in the possible murder of a 69-year-old woman.

JSO said Marguerite Jefferson, who is a grandmother, was reported missing by a family member earlier this week. She was last heard from on April 15.

Detectives said evidence was found in her apartment that suggests she was killed and have charged her 22-year-old grandson with murder. Witnesses told detectives information that led them to believe the woman's body was dumped in a dumpster.

Detectives are searching the Trail Ridge Landfill for her body.

Bennie Jones, the grandmother’s neighbor says, other neighbors may have unknowingly helped Jefferson dispose of her body.

“He took a box out to the dumpster. He needed a neighbor upstairs and a neighbor down there to help him put the box in the dumpster. They put the box in the dumpster and walked away,” said Jones.

Jones also said neighbors noticed there was a tense relationship between the two.

“How she talked to me … she basically let me know that he had a lot of problems like I wouldn’t imagine. That’s how I got it. Like you wouldn’t imagine,” said Jones.

JSO said Marguerite was taking care of her grandson, David Jefferson, 22, for the past year. He has been charged with using her credit card and is suspected in her death. However, officers do not yet have a motive.

Recently, detectives were searching the same landfill for evidence in another separate murder investigation.

Meantime, Jefferson is being held on no bond for the murder charge.