Laura Johnson is Pauline Casey’s daughter. In the summer of 2025, she reached out to Mr. Suggs’s counsel and told them that she believes he is innocent and she’d like to help stop his execution.

Laura says, “[a]s the daughter of a murder victim, I’ve felt that the State’s interest in justice was only for show. They pretend to care about my suffering but in reality, I’ve felt like a pawn in a flawed system for the past 35 years. In 2013, the State Attorney’s Office asked me to give a statement about whether Mr. Suggs should be granted clemency. I told them I believe he is innocent and that I think the case should be reopened. My statement was ignored. Over the years, state officials have called me again and again, providing updates about Mr. Suggs’s case and offering encouragement that it was moving closer to resolution—to his execution. Each time, I tell them I don’t want Mr. Suggs to be executed and each time my plea is met with icy silence and a quick end to the conversation.

Laura Johnson Asks for Mercy

• At trial, the State introduced a key into evidence that fit into the locks at the bar. The State alleged the key belonged to Ms. Casey and that the key had not been found in her belongings—instead, the key was recovered by a dive team during a search of the bay behind Mr. Suggs’s house.

• In 2015, Wyatt Henderson, the lead dive team member who searched the bay behind Mr. Suggs’s house, revealed that he was told where to find crucial evidence.

• Mr. Henderson’s statement revealed that the dive team had not found any key on the first day of their search and before the second day of the search began, Captain Brad Trusty of the Walton County Sheriff’s Office gave the dive team a direct order to search a different area.

• Further investigation revealed that Captain Trusty obtained a key from the bar owner and told him he was using it to “give the divers and other officers a description of the key to look for.”

• But Mr. Henderson told investigators that Captain Trusty never showed them the key, and perhaps not so coincidentally, they recovered a key from the bay the following day, after Captain Brad Trusty told them exactly where to find it.

Alternate Suspects - Known but not investigated

1.

Steve Casey

The victim’s husband – Stephen Casey – told investigators that he stayed home the night of the murder and sold his truck; but he could not remember whether he sold it for $1,200 or $1,500 and did not remember to whom he sold it. He also told investigators that he was on the phone with his mother until 9:30p.m. but cannot account for his whereabouts between then and about midnight, when he went to the bar to look for Pauline. An investigation after Mr. Suggs’s trial revealed that Casey actually sold his car the night before Pauline’s murder for $300.

A few days after the murder he requested Pauline’s certified military records to file for life insurance, collected $50,000 from the army and bought a Harley Davidson, traded the victim’s car in for a truck for himself and made a down payment on a lot on the bay. He was the sole beneficiary of the life insurance policy and only had a small window of time to collect said policy after he and Pauline left the military a few months prior to the murder. Indeed, the grace period was about to expire, and a VA employee testified that Steve Casey called the VA to request a certified copy of Pauline Casey’s DD214 form to file for the insurance benefits because she had been murdered.

On March 5, 2026, Steve Casey was adjudicated guilty of sexual battery and lewd or lascivious molestation of a child older than 12 but younger than 16.  This was for the sexual battery of Laura Johnson, Pauline Casey’s daughter, in 1986 while Steve was married to Pauline. Laura told WCSO about these events in 2025, and Steve admitted to them on a controlled call.

The pizza box Ray Hamilton gave to WCSO as his alibi

Ray Hamilton, who had previously dated Casey and was on probation at the time, was at the Teddy Bear Bar on that night. He told officers that he saw a younger male at the bar shooting pool and that he observed Casey playing pool with him. Hamilton said he spoke on the phone with Steve Casey while he was at the bar, and left about ten minutes after their conversation ended, but the younger male was still there. Based on his description, a BOLO was put out which led officers to Suggs. Hamilton told police officers that he went to get a pizza when he left the bar then went home to eat it, and he brought the pizza box to the station the next day. No investigation was done to confirm this.