Middleburg Man Pleads Guilty to 1987 Jacksonville Cold Case Killing of Missy Ellison, Gets 24 Years

A 70-year-old Middleburg man pleaded guilty Thursday, Oct. 1, to the December 1987 killing of Melissa "Missy" Ellison, a 20-year-old Jacksonville mother who was beaten to death in her bed while her 13-month-old daughter lay on a nearby couch, closing a Westside homicide case that went unsolved for nearly 39 years.

Gary Edward Glowacz pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed burglary with assault or battery and was sentenced to 24 years in Florida State Prison, State Attorney Melissa Nelson of the 4th Judicial Circuit announced. The sentences will run concurrently, according to News4JAX. The case broke open in July only after Glowacz himself called the Clay County Sheriff's Office saying he had information about Ellison's death.

The killing three days after Christmas 1987

Ellison, also known as Missy Taylor, lived in a home on Colejean Road on Jacksonville's Westside. Around 4 a.m. on Dec. 28, 1987, her roommates found her dead in her bed, according to the State Attorney's Office. Her daughter, Casie, was found on a nearby couch. The child was not hurt. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office patrol officers responded to the home at about 4:40 a.m.

Ellison had suffered blunt force trauma to the head. Investigators found a wooden log near the back door of the house that was consistent with material found in her bed, prosecutors said. Detectives later concluded she had been struck with a log taken from the home's fireplace during a burglary.

The case went unsolved for decades. Ellison's family worked with the nonprofit Project Cold Case to keep it in the public eye, and in January 2026 the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and First Coast Crime Stoppers renewed a public appeal for information at a news conference.

A phone call from a credit union

In early July, Glowacz placed a call to the Clay County Sheriff's Office from a credit union on Blanding Boulevard, saying he wanted to provide information about Ellison's death, according to the State Attorney's Office. The sheriff's office dates the call to July 8; the State Attorney's Office release puts it on July 6. He was taken to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, where Cold Case Unit detectives interviewed him, and an arrest warrant was issued within hours.

During those interviews, Glowacz acknowledged committing the burglary and told detectives he struck Ellison on the back of the head with a log he found by the fireplace, prosecutors said. According to his arrest report, as described by News4JAX, he said he had broken in looking for money. He told detectives he did not know she had died until he came across media coverage of the case in March 2026, when he realized he was responsible for her death.

Glowacz was booked into the John E. Goode Pretrial Detention Facility on charges of murder and burglary with battery and was held without bond. The Sheriff's Office announced the arrest on July 9.

Sheriff T.K. Waters, who spent a decade in the agency's homicide unit, said at the time that the case had been investigated continuously and re-investigated before it was ultimately solved by dedicated detectives. Waters said the agency's detectives will always keep digging, and News4JAX reported that the Cold Case Unit credited new and innovative technologies, along with information generated by the January Crime Stoppers news conference, for moving the case forward. JSO also credited First Coast Crime Stoppers, the State Attorney's Office, Project Cold Case and the Clay County Sheriff's Office for helping keep attention on the case.

How the case unfolded

The case took nearly four decades to solve and less than three months to resolve once Glowacz came forward.

The defendant's record

Glowacz was 31 at the time of the killing. News4JAX reported that his criminal history includes a 1986 burglary case in which adjudication was withheld, convictions for purchasing cocaine in 1989 and 1996, a 1998 burglary conviction and a 2016 DUI charge in Clay County to which he pleaded guilty.

Assistant State Attorney Joel Cooper prosecuted the case. The plea resolved the case without a trial. Glowacz had originally been booked on charges of murder and burglary with battery before prosecutors formally charged him with second-degree murder and armed burglary with assault or battery.

A daughter's words in court

Casie Ellison, who was 13 months old when her mother was killed and is now in her early 40s, addressed Glowacz in court. She said she had long imagined her mother's killer as a monster, and instead described him as "this weak, slinky loser of a man," according to Action News Jax. She told him he had stolen her mother from her and said a senseless act could never be made to make sense.

Ellison's sister also spoke, saying Missy should have grown old alongside her but will forever be 20 years old. She noted that Glowacz got to choose how he lived his life for the past 38 and a half years while the family had no such choice.

After the July arrest, Casie Ellison told News4JAX that the news could never bring her mother back but brought a sense of closure. "I see the world differently," she said. The family credited Project Cold Case for keeping the case in public focus over the years.

What's next

With the plea and sentence, the criminal case against Glowacz is closed and he will be transferred from the Duval County jail to the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections to serve his 24-year term. At 70, the sentence is likely to keep him in prison for much of the rest of his life.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit continues to investigate other unsolved homicides, and Ellison's family has said that Project Cold Case's work to keep her name in the news mattered to the outcome. Anyone with information about unsolved cases in Jacksonville can contact the Sheriff's Office or First Coast Crime Stoppers.