Jerry Lee Seger reportedly never liked his daughter’s girlfriend. Authorities say his dislike of Courtney Bright ran so deep that he strangled the 24-year-old to death late April 20 or early April 21.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Bright’s body was discovered inside a foreclosed home on Knights Station Road when a real estate agent showed the property to potential buyers. Upon further investigation, authorities found that the residence was the former home to friends of Seger’s and that Bright and her girlfriend, Ashley Dunn, would meet friends there.
Dunn, Seger’s daughter, who told authorities she had dated Bright for the past three years. Dunn is currently in the Polk County Jail on a Jackson County warrant for dealing in stolen property. Dunn was reportedly cooperative in the investigation and provided authorities with names and phone numbers of friends, which helped piece together the last days of Bright’s life.
According to a report, Shawn Thompson, a friend of Bright’s, told detectives he had spoken with Bright on Tuesday, April 20, when she asked him for money and a place to stay. After the phone call, Thompson said that Seger and another man, Robon Strain, came to visit him to discuss Dunn’s recent arrest.
“Thompson told [Seger] about his telephone conversation with [Bright] and that he was going to pick her up and give her some money,” the Sheriff’s report reads.
That’s when Seger allegedly told Thompson he would pick up Bright and give her a bus ticket to leave town. Thompson reportedly did not tell Bright about the change of plans.
When investigators interviewed Strain, he told them that Seger complained about Bright, saying that he never liked her and that she was to blame for his daughter’s arrest.
Strain also said that on April 20, Seger told him he was going to kill Bright. Strain added that he was in the car when Seger met with Bright, but that he asked to be dropped off at a friend’s house shortly after.
“Seger called Strain about an hour and a half after dropping him off … and told him he needed to talk,” the report said. When the two men met, “Strain noticed some women’s clothing and shoes and a wallet in the back of Segar’s Ford Explorer.”
When Strain asked what happened to Bright, he said Seger confessed to strangling her and that he disposed of the body. Seger reportedly would not tell Strain where he had left Bright.
While official reports don’t directly tie Bright’s murder to her sexuality, a friend of the couple believes their same-sex relationship was a major factor in the killing.
“He killed her because they were lesbians,” Bobbi Johnson told Tampa Bay’s Fox affiliate WTVT. “They were inseparable.”
Polk County is gaining a reputation for violent crimes against LGBTs. Ryan Skipper lived in Polk County before he was brutally murdered in a secluded area in 2007.
In the fall of 2009, a jury found William Brown Jr. guilty of first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon in early November. Prosecutors argued that Brown and Bearden, who was sentenced to life in prison last spring, targeted Skipper because he was gay.
If Bright’s murder was motivated by her sexual orientation, it would follow a disturbing trend in Florida. According to the FBI, total hate crimes in Florida have dropped over the past two years, but hate crimes directed toward the LGBT community have risen.
FBI statistics also show that nationally, hate crimes against LGBTs are on the rise with 1,265 incidents reported in 2007 and 1,519 reported in 2008.
Final hate crime statistics for 2009 are not yet available.
