Just three days before Christmas in 1985, a terrible tragedy befell 5-year-old Eugene Christian, a little boy known to his family as "Buggy." The bright life of this young Male child was brutally cut short on December 22, 1985, in Hillsborough County, Florida. His death was the second of two murders committed that day by his stepfather, John Ruthell Henry, a man whose violence had already shattered another family a decade earlier.
Eugene's mother was Suzanne Henry, a 28-year-old
convenience store clerk living in Zephyrhills. She had married John Ruthell Henry after he was paroled from prison for the 1975 murder of his first common-law wife, Patricia Roddy. Suzanne’s family later said she was unaware of his violent past when they married. Their marriage was unstable, marked by drug use and volatility. Fearing for her safety and that of her son, Suzanne had previously sought refuge in a women's shelter.
On December 22, Henry went to Suzanne's apartment, claiming he wanted to discuss Christmas gifts for Eugene. An argument broke out, and Henry fatally stabbed Suzanne 13 times with a kitchen knife. Afterward, he reportedly sat and smoked a cigarette as she died on the floor. He then wrapped her body in a rug, concealed it near the living room couch, and turned his attention to her son, who had been in another room watching television.
Henry abducted Eugene and drove away in a stolen car. For the next nine hours, he drove around, at times stopping to smoke crack cocaine. He bought the little boy some fried chicken before driving to a remote pasture behind a chicken farm in Thonotosassa, in neighboring Hillsborough County. There, with Eugene sitting in his lap, Henry stabbed the child five times in the neck with the same knife he had used to murder his mother. He later told therapists he killed the boy to reunite him with his mother.
The next day, when Suzanne failed to show up for work, her sisters discovered her body. Neighbors reported seeing Henry leaving with Eugene the night before, which immediately made him the prime suspect. Authorities tracked Henry to a local motel where he was arrested. The arresting officer was Deputy Fay Wilber, the same deputy who had arrested him for the murder of Patricia Roddy ten years prior. During interrogation, Henry confessed to both murders and led investigators to the field where he had left Eugene’s body.
Because the murders occurred in two different counties, Henry faced separate trials. He was tried in Hillsborough County for Eugene's murder and in Pasco County for Suzanne's. Despite an insanity defense citing a low IQ, schizophrenia, and drug and alcohol addiction, he was convicted of first-degree murder in both cases and sentenced to death. The convictions were overturned in 1989 by the Florida Supreme Court, which ruled that graphic evidence from Eugene's murder had unfairly prejudiced the jury in Suzanne's trial. However, Henry was retried, convicted on all counts a second time, and again sentenced to death for both murders.
After decades of appeals, John Ruthell Henry was executed by lethal injection on June 18, 2014, at Florida State Prison. He refused a last meal. In his final statement, he said, "I can't undo what I've done. If I could, I would. I ask for your forgiveness if you can find it in your heart." After the execution, Suzanne's niece, Selena Geiger, held up a photograph of her aunt and young cousin. "These are the victims," she said. "These are the ones we need to remember." She expressed that justice had finally been served, bringing a measure of peace to their family after nearly three decades of pain.
