21-Year-Old Murdered In The Parking Lot Of Her Job, Then Strange Texts Are Sent To Her Loved Ones From Her Phone
21-year-old Savannah Gold lived in Jacksonville, Florida. She was passionate about dancing, sewing, lacrosse, and art.
Those that knew her described her as bright, beautiful, and polite. She worked as a server at a seafood restaurant called the Bonefish Grill.
She always greeted the people she waited on with a warm smile and treated everyone like a good friend.
“She had an amazing soul and influenced everyone to be a better person,” her obituary says. “She was a natural caregiver, true empath, animal lover, and avid sports player.”
On the evening of August 2nd, 2017, Savannah drove into the parking lot of her job, but she never made it inside the restaurant.
Facebook; pictured above is Savannah
At 5:31 that night, Savannah pulled her car into the Bonefish Grill’s parking lot right before she was about to start work.
Savannah parked her white-colored Kia right by the car that 28-year-old Lee Rodarte Jr. drove.
Savannah and Lee had been dating sporadically for several months, and Lee also worked at the restaurant as a manager.
A few minutes after she arrived, Savannah opened her door, got out of her car, and talked to Lee before getting into his car.
She never walked into the restaurant to start her shift. Then, her loved ones started receiving strange texts from her phone.
Facebook; Savannah wears a baseball hat in the photo above
According to the Missing Pieces Network, who distributed a missing flyer featuring Savannah that you can see below, one of the texts sent from her phone explained that she had met a “really great guy” and she was running away with him.
Savannah’s family knew this didn’t sound like her one bit, so they contacted the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and reported her as missing.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office started investigating the disappearance of Savannah.
They spoke to her family, they spoke to her coworkers, and they began looking into whether or not there were any security cameras at the restaurant that could have picked up her final movements before she went missing.
Sure enough, there were cameras, and they had recorded what had happened to her that night.
Facebook; pictured above is a flyer about Savannah from the Missing Pieces Network
After Savannah had spoken to Lee and gotten into his car, the security cameras at the Bonefish Grill pick up something terrifying.
“At 5:45 p.m., the video surveillance shows what appears to be a possible struggle inside of the vehicle,” the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
“Prior to leaving the parking lot, suspect Rodarte is observed walking to the victim’s vehicle, opening the drivers-side door of the vehicle, and leaning inside.”
Facebook; Savannah snaps a selfie, above
“Suspect Rodarte is observed returning to his vehicle and at 6:04 p.m., suspect Rodarte’s vehicle leaves the parking spot, and subsequently leaves the parking lot. At no time is the victim seen exiting the vehicle.”
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office also explained in a live media briefing that during the struggle inside of Lee’s car, one of the car doors starts closing and opening, and the car shook.
Lee ended up getting out of the car after all of this, takes something out of Savannah’s car, and sticks an object into one of her tires to make it go flat. Then, he drives off.
Sadly, Savannah’s body was found a few days after she went missing in a lake at the end of Club Duclay Road.
Although Lee at first denied that he was ever at work the night Savannah went missing, the cameras proved him wrong.
He ended up admitting to murdering Savannah inside his car while in the parking lot before dumping her body in the lake.
“Lee Rodarte has pleaded guilty to Second-Degree Murder in the 2017 killing of Savannah Gold,” the Office of the State Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit said in a press release.
“The Honorable Jeb Branham will formally sentence Rodarte in a hearing March 11, 2021. Per the terms of the negotiated agreement, Rodarte will receive 40 years in Florida State Prison.”
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