Story by Thomas Fuller – Manatee Mysteries
Dr. Juan Dumois was a respected pediatrician and family man in Tampa. He loved fishing, boating and the beach, and in July of 1980 took his family to beautiful Holmes Beach on vacation. In addition to the sun, sand and surf, the area is laid back, more serine than some of Florida’s seaside destinations, and perhaps more safe.
On August 1, the good doctor hooked up his fishing boat to the family station wagon and headed out for a day on the water with his two youngest sons, Eric – 13, and Mark – 9. His brother-in-law, Raymon Burrows, who worked as a bell captain in a Hotel in Miami, came along as well. They cast off from Kingfish boat ramp at the far west end of the Manatee causeway. Upon their return, a man, limping and walking a bike, approached Dr. Dumois, claiming that his ankle was injured. He asked for a ride. Eager to be of assistance, Dumois placed his bike in the boat and invited the stranger to join the boys in the backseat. Then Dumois slid behind the wheel with Burrows in the front passenger seat. In only moments after they had pulled away from the ramp, the explosive sound of a gunshot rang out in the confines of the automobile.
The first bullet struck Barrows in the back of his neck. Still conscious, he heard the second round and the screams of his brother-in-low. Then the unimaginable happened. The stranger turned the gun on the two boys, mortally wounding each one. The car, now with no driver and out of control, jackknifed with the trailer and came to a stop just off the road. At this point, the stranger exited the car, pulled his bike out of the boat, and began pedaling away. It so happened that retired police Colonel Robert Matzke had been driving by, heard gunshots, and witnessed the stranger leave the scene. He followed him to the Food Way parking lot, now a Publix, and a confrontation there resulted in Officer Matzke’s death by gunshot. T
he shooter then tossed his bike in the trunk of a car and drove away. Although there were many witnesses in the parking lot, no one was able to get a license number or even agree on the make and model of the get-away car. Police arrived to a very compromised crime scene. They ended up with bullet fragments from a 22 caliber revolver, a firearm often associated with professional hits, dozens of finger prints from many of the by-standers, eye-witnesses with conflicting testimonies, and a composite sketch. Several days later a man was picked up by police who bore a pronounced resemblance to the composite sketch. He insisted he had absolutely nothing to do with the boat ramp murders, and, strangely, in the course of his interrogation ended up confessing to another completely unrelated murder. Then, the case went cold.
In 1993, police became aware of a book written by a convicted killer name Donald Frankos, a man who claimed to have helped dispose of Jimmy Hoffa’s body, titled Contact Killer. In it, the author, describes a professional hit with details closely corresponding to the boat ramp murders. He was happy to speak with police and claimed that the killer was once a cell mate with him. Frankos named Jose Antonio Fernandes as having carried out the hit for $15,000 against Raymond Burrows as a result of a drug deal gone wrong. Police were never able to gather enough evidence to develop a case, and the brutal murder remains unsolved. The heinous nature of the barbaric murder makes the fact that it remains a mystery all the more heartbreaking. Someone, somewhere knows the answer. Someone needs to unload what must be a crushing load of guilt before it’s too late. If that someone is you, contact the Holmes Beach Police at 941-708-5804.
