The quiet coastal community of Hammock, Florida, was a place known for its serenity, a place where neighbors knew each other. For Carmen Abrams, a 68-year-old woman, and her husband, Furman “Joe” Abrams, the Easy Way Food Store they ran was a small business in this peaceful area north of Flagler Beach. But the tranquility was shattered on the evening of Monday, February 23, 1976, when a young couple entered the store, not as customers, but as architects of a tragedy that would ripple across
multiple states.
That night, what began as a robbery ended in brutal violence. The couple, described as being in their 20s, shot both Carmen and Joe. A neighbor who heard the sounds around 8:30 p.m. initially dismissed them as firecrackers. When he walked over to the store moments later to visit with the couple, he made a horrifying discovery. Carmen was behind the counter, having been shot in the temple; she was pronounced dead at the scene. Joe was found lying on the floor, critically wounded. The robbers fled in a dark-colored station wagon, having taken less than $50 in cash.
In the immediate aftermath, Joe Abrams, despite his severe injuries, was able to provide investigators with the first crucial clue, describing the attackers as simply “a boy and a girl.” He was rushed to Shands Teaching Hospital in Gainesville in critical condition. As he fought for his life, a massive manhunt was launched. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Department, along with officers from St. Johns County and the Flagler Beach Police, quickly established roadblocks, hoping to trap the fleeing suspects. An intensive search continued through the night, but the violent pair vanished.
The initial investigation struggled to gain traction. A couple was briefly taken into custody for questioning but was released due to a lack of evidence. For a time, the brutal crime at the small food store remained a local tragedy with no resolution. However, the case broke open as law enforcement began to connect the Hammock shooting to a string of violent robberies and murders that stretched from Florida to Pennsylvania. The "boy and a girl" were identified as 20-year-old Jeffrey Joseph Daugherty and his girlfriend, Bonnie Heath.
Investigators discovered that Daugherty and Heath had left Michigan in January 1976 and embarked on a violent, seventeen-day crime spree. The attack on Carmen and Joe Abrams was the first murder in their rampage. Just days later, they would go on to kill at least four more people: Lavonne Sailer, a hitchhiker in Melbourne, Florida; Betty Campbell, a pizzeria owner in Volusia County, Florida; Elizabeth Shanks, a convenience store clerk in Pennsylvania; and George Karns, a gas station attendant, also in Pennsylvania. The pair was finally apprehended in Virginia on March 12, 1976.
Jeffrey Joseph Daugherty was extradited to face justice for his many crimes. In July 1980, he pleaded guilty in Flagler County to the first-degree murder of Carmen Abrams. Prosecutors had initially considered seeking the death penalty, but with Joe Abrams in poor health and unable to testify, Daugherty was instead given a life sentence for Carmen's murder. This was one of several life sentences he received for his crimes in Florida and Pennsylvania. However, for the murder of Lavonne Sailer, a jury in Brevard County recommended death.
His accomplice, Bonnie Heath, received a 25-year sentence for second-degree murder in exchange for her testimony and was released from prison in 1987. After years of failed appeals, Jeffrey Joseph Daugherty’s journey of violence came to an end. He was executed in Florida's electric chair on November 7, 1988. Before his execution, he made a final statement criticizing the justice system. The solution to Carmen Abrams' murder brought a legal conclusion, but it could never restore the life that was so senselessly taken during a robbery for a handful of cash.
