For more than three decades, Jennifer Renee Odom’s name stood for a wound that never closed in Pasco and Hernando counties. On Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026 — the day she would have turned 46 — a Hernando County jury finished that chapter in court, if not in her family’s hearts. All 12 jurors recommended that Jeffrey Norman Crum Sr. be sentenced to death for kidnapping, Sєxually battering, and murdering the 12-year-old girl in 1993.

The panel needed a little more than two hours. When the clerk read the 12-0 recommendation, relatives and friends in the Brooksville courtroom reacted with tears and relief. Jennifer’s mother, Renee Converse, later said she still rejects the word “closure.” What she would accept, she said, was justice — and the fact that it arrived on her daughter’s birthday.

A short walk home that never ended
On Feb. 19, 1993, Jennifer got off a school bus in rural Pasco County near Dade City and started toward home, only a few hundred yards away. Friends later described her waving with her clarinet and backpack. They also described a faded blue pickup that pulled alongside her. She never arrived. Searchers covered a vast stretch of two counties. Six days later, her body was found in an abandoned orange grove in Hernando County.

The case went cold. Investigators never forgot the similarities to another crime 13 months earlier: a teenage girl in Pasco County who was attacked after leaving a school bus, left for ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, and survived with catastrophic injuries. In 2015, familial DNA work in that 1992 case pointed toward relatives of Jeffrey Crum. He was later convicted in the 1992 attack and sentenced to two life terms. In 2023, after investigators argued the two crimes were nearly identical in pattern and setting, a grand jury indicted Crum in Jennifer’s death. He was already in prison.

From conviction to the penalty phase
Last week, after a multi-day trial, the same jury found Crum guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and Sєxual battery. Deliberations on guilt lasted a little more than five hours. Prosecutors pointed to the blue-truck description, Crum’s ownership of a similar vehicle, geographic familiarity with both scenes, and testimony from his son, Jeffrey Crum Jr., including an alleged admission years later. The state then asked the jury to recommend death. Florida law in this case required at least eight votes for a death recommendation; the jury returned all twelve.

In the penalty phase, prosecutors argued the crime was planned, that Jennifer was a child who posed no threat, and that Crum took her to a secluded place. They also presented evidence of his earlier violence. Defense attorney Daniel Hernandez asked for life without parole. He cited childhood trauma, alcohol and substance abuse in Crum’s family history, mental-health problems, suicide attempts, and a practical point: Crum is already serving life and would die in prison either way. A neuropsychologist testified about the long-term effects of alleged physical and emotional abuse.

Prosecutor Richard Buxman told jurors Crum chose the most extreme crime against the most vulnerable victim and should face the most extreme punishment. State Attorney Bill Gladson called the outcome the product of years of work on a case that had haunted the region since 1993.

What the family said — and what comes next
Relatives described Jennifer as a Girl Scout, clarinet player, archer, water skier, and a girl rooted in her church and family. Stepfather Clark Converse said “closure” would mean having her back, and “justice” would mean a normal life again — neither of which is possible. Sister Jessica Gaskin said that when the recommendation was read, it finally felt as if the family could breathe.

The jury’s vote is not the last word. Under Florida procedure, a Spencer hearing is scheduled for Oct. 21, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. The defense may present additional mitigation directly to the judge. The judge will impose the sentence and may, though rarely, depart from a unanimous jury recommendation. Until then, Crum remains a convicted killer already serving two life sentences for the 1992 case.