Authorities in Florida have arrested a 61-year-old man, alleging he murdered his 59-year-old girlfriend inside his Milton home.
Investigators in Santa Rosa County have yet to disclose how Vickie Edge was killed, but one detective told the Pensacola News Journal she was “brutally” murdered.
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PEOPLE confirms that Jerry Geisler Odum remains in police custody without bond following his arrest Friday on a single premeditated first-degree murder charge.
Odum has yet to enter a plea, and it was not immediately clear if he has an attorney to comment on his behalf.
Investigators have yet to discuss a possible motive for the killing.
Police found Edge’s body Friday evening, after concerned family members who hadn’t heard from her in days called authorities, seeking a welfare check.
Chameron Perry, who worked at the Destin-based day spa Edge owned and operated, said she seemed happy with Odum.
“I wanted that for her so bad,” Perry told WEAR-TV. “I should have seen that it was weird, that it was too fast. I just wish I would have noticed something.”
Perry said that Odum wanted to marry Edge in October wedding, and promised they would settle down in a lake house in DeFuniak Springs.
Jerry Odum
Santa Rosa County Jail
“Vickie had the biggest heart,” her cousin, Cheryl Wagner, said, noting Edge spent some of her free time volunteering at a women’s shelter for domestic violence victims. She was also planning to donate a kidney to a friend.
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Edge’s brother, Derrick Edge, told the News Journal Vickie had met Odum through a dating website
“Dating sites were her weakness,” her brother said. “She was always trying to find Mr. Right. The creeps she had to filter through are not worth the risk. She ignored the signs and red flags.”
Her brother added, “She made the wrong choice in her weakness and she died from it.”