The murder of Sondra Better
Delray Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida · 1998
Overview
Sondra Better, 68, of Highland Beach, Florida, was working alone on the afternoon of August 24, 1998 at Lu Shay's Consignment Shop on South Federal Highway in Delray Beach when a man came in and killed her. It was her last week at a part-time job; she and her husband Seymour, known as Zeke, were about to travel to New York to renew their wedding vows. Police said the killer left a trail of blood from her body to the cash register and out to the sidewalk, and fingerprints on a decorative marble ball. The prints were put into a national fingerprint database at the time and produced no match for two decades, and DNA samples from 36 men also failed to match. In December 2018 or January 2019 (reports differ), Todd Barket of Brandon, Florida, then living near Tampa, gave his fingerprints for a nursing-assistant background check. The prints matched the ones on the ball. FDLE agents and Delray Beach detectives surveilled him, obtained his DNA, and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's crime lab matched it to blood from the shop. Barket was arrested at his home on March 27, 2019. At trial in August 2019 he admitted his prints and blood were in the store but denied the killing. A jury deliberated less than 90 minutes on August 23, 2019 and convicted him of first-degree murder and robbery with a weapon, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
How it was solved
The case was solved by a fingerprint that waited twenty years for a name. Delray Beach police said the killer left fingerprints on a heavy decorative marble ball and a trail of blood that ran from Sondra Better's body to the cash register drawer and out the front door. The prints were submitted to a national database at the time of the 1998 killing, but Todd Barket had never been arrested and his prints were not on file. Detectives interviewed dozens of suspects, and police said DNA samples from 36 men matched nothing. The lead detective, Robert Stevens, worked the case for ten years and retired in 2007. The break came when Barket, by then living in Brandon, applied to the state to become a certified nursing assistant, a job that required a fingerprint background check. Delray Beach police said he submitted his prints in December 2018; the Sun Sentinel reported the match came in January 2019. Agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Delray Beach detectives then located and watched him, and police obtained a DNA sample. On March 26, 2019, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's crime lab matched it to blood at the scene, and Barket was arrested the next day. The department's crime scene supervisor, David Ackerman, said it was the only case Delray Beach had ever had that forensics had completely solved. At trial, Barket did not dispute that his fingerprint and blood were in the shop. He testified that he had touched the marble ball on an earlier visit with his wife and had cut his hand at work, and that on the day of the killing he took money from an unattended register without noticing the victim. Prosecutors called that implausible, and the jury convicted him on August 23, 2019.
Sources
- Suspected killer eluded cops for 20 years until he applied for a job
“We had fingerprints, we had blood, we even had a possible description from a witness. But the person responsible for this heinous case seemed to just disappear.”
- 'We prayed this day would come.' Man gets life for 1998 cold-case murder of Delray shop employee
“The jurors reached their decision in less than 90 minutes.”
- 20 Year Old Delray Beach Cold Case Solved By Job Application
“Two decades passed without any matches. DNA samples from 36 men came up empty. Police finally got a hit when Todd Barket, 51, of Brandon, submitted his fingerprints in December 2018 as part an application for a nursing assistant job.”
- Florida man's job application leads to his arrest in 1998 cold case murder
“Detectives and Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents then tracked him down and began monitoring him.”
- Brandon man charged in 1998 cold case murder in Delray Beach
“technicians matched it to blood at the crime scene”
- Accused Delray Beach cold case killer appears in court
“Today the same investigators who responded to the scene in 1998 took to the stand to testify.”
- Killer linked to cold-case Florida murder through fingerprint background check for job gets life
“During testimony this past Thursday, Barket admitted he was in the shop on the day of the murder but denied killing Better, the Post reported.”
- Decades After Florida Woman Is Brutally Murdered, A Job Application Leads To Her Killer
“Detectives during the trial said that despite interviews with 37 suspects, the case had sadly turned cold for many years, until Barket was finally found.”
- How Delray Beach police use fingerprint technology to solve crimes
“This is the only case Delray has ever had that forensics has completely solved the case”
- Wallingford Native Found Guilty Of Murder In Florida Cold Case
“Droplets of the killer's blood led from Better's body to the cash register drawer and out the front door all the way to the sidewalk outside, according to police.”