Murder of Heather Strong

Heather Strong was born March 23, 1982, in Starkville, Mississippi. As a teenager she began a relationship with Joshua Fulgham, described as controlling and at times physically violent, and the two eventually moved to Marion County, Florida, in 2004 with their child, later having a second. In early 2008, Strong left Fulgham and moved to Columbus, Ohio, with their children, but Fulgham convinced her to return to Florida without disclosing he had started a new relationship with Emilia Carr.

Emilia Lily Carr (née Yera) was born August 4, 1984, and had a documented history of childhood trauma, including reported abuse by her father, who was later convicted of soliciting the murders of his own family members. Carr became engaged to Fulgham in November 2008, though he instead married Strong the following month. Carr continued to babysit Strong's children and maintained a relationship with Fulgham. In January 2009, Fulgham was arrested after threatening Strong with a shotgun, but the charge was dropped; investigators later found that Carr had threatened Strong with a knife to force her to withdraw the complaint. A custody dispute over Strong and Fulgham's children was ongoing at the time of the murder.

In February 2009, Strong, then 26 and living in Citra, Florida, disappeared while working at an Iron Skillet restaurant in Reddick. She was reported missing on February 15, 2009. Her remains were found on March 19, 2009, in a shallow grave near a storage trailer in Boardman, close to McIntosh, Florida. Carr lured Strong into a storage trailer behind her mother's home, attempted to break her neck, and then placed a plastic bag over her head; Strong died of asphyxiation while bound with duct tape to a computer chair. Carr was arrested on March 24, 2009, after investigators noted her repeated uncounseled statements to police and recorded audio of her discussing the crime with Fulgham's sister. Fulgham was separately arrested on suspicion of fraud for using Strong's credit cards after her disappearance.

Carr and Fulgham waived their right to a speedy trial in April 2009, and prosecutors announced intent to seek the death penalty. On December 7, 2010, a jury convicted Carr of first-degree murder and kidnapping; days later, the jury voted 7-to-5 to recommend death, and she was formally sentenced to death by lethal injection on February 22, 2011. Fulgham went to trial in April 2012 and was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping; his jury voted 8-to-4 for life imprisonment, which the judge imposed as two consecutive life sentences.

Carr, held at the Lowell Correctional Institution Annex, was one of five women on Florida's death row at the time and was reported to be the first woman sentenced to death in Marion County since Aileen Wuornos in 1992. She consistently maintained her innocence, stating her confession had been coerced by police in hope of reuniting with her children. On May 19, 2017, she was re-sentenced to life without parole.