Michael Alan Durocher: The Jacksonville-Area Serial Killer
Michael Alan Durocher was an American serial killer responsible for five murders in Florida between 1983 and 1988. His victims included his girlfriend, two young children, a store employee, and a roommate. The murders occurred years apart and under very different circumstances, and Durocher was not initially connected to all of them. His eventual arrest for the 1988 killing of his roommate led to a series of confessions that exposed crimes that had remained unresolved for years.
Durocher was born on January 22, 1960, and grew up in the Jacksonville, Florida, area. He left school before graduating and worked at various times as a carpenter and landscaper. He also accumulated a criminal record while still relatively young, including a grand theft conviction in 1980. By the end of the decade, investigators would discover that his criminal history included five murders.
The 1983 Murders of Grace Reed, Candice Reed, and Joshua Durocher
Durocher's first known murders occurred around Thanksgiving in November 1983. His victims were his girlfriend, Grace Reed, Grace's five-year-old daughter Candice Reed, and Durocher's approximately six-month-old son, Joshua Michael Durocher, who was also identified in some records as Joshua Michael Reed.
Durocher had met Grace and Candice while they were living in New Jersey. Grace later gave birth to Joshua in 1983. Durocher spent time with the family in New Jersey before bringing Grace and the children to Florida. According to statements he later made to investigators, he was already contemplating killing them by the time they returned to Florida.
The three were taken to a deserted area in Clay County, southwest of Jacksonville. Durocher gave authorities differing explanations for what happened and why. In one account, he described a supposed murder-suicide agreement between himself and Grace during a period when the couple had little money and no stable place to live. He claimed that Grace agreed that he would kill her and the children before taking his own life. He never carried out the suicide portion of that alleged agreement.
Durocher killed Candice with a shotgun and killed the infant Joshua through stabbing and beating. He then killed Grace with a shotgun. The three victims were buried in shallow graves in the isolated area. Durocher left and later attempted to create the impression that Grace had simply disappeared.
Other statements attributed to Durocher presented a different motive. He reportedly questioned whether Joshua was actually his biological child and resented efforts by New Jersey welfare authorities to obtain child-support payments from him. The conflicting explanations made it difficult to determine precisely what motivated the killings. What became clear from the evidence and his confession was that Durocher had deliberately taken Grace and the children to an isolated location and killed all three.
The precise calendar date of the triple murder is not firmly established in the surviving court record. The killings occurred around Thanksgiving 1983 and are commonly placed between November 25 and November 30, 1983. Although some later chronologies list November 30 as the date, the more cautious description is that all three died during that late-November period.
For years, their fate remained unknown. Grace's relatives eventually reported her missing after losing contact with her. It would be several more years before Durocher admitted what had happened and directed authorities toward the burial area.
The Murder of Thomas Underwood III
On January 12, 1986, Durocher committed another murder in Jacksonville. His victim was 27-year-old Thomas Underwood III, an employee at a local store specializing in window decorations.
Durocher later told investigators that he wanted money and transportation for a trip to Louisiana. After noticing the store, he decided to rob it. Rather than acting immediately, he returned home, packed belongings, obtained a shotgun, and then went back to the business. This sequence later became important during his capital case because prosecutors argued that it demonstrated planning and premeditation.
Inside the store, Durocher confronted Underwood and demanded money. Underwood explained that the business conducted its transactions largely through credit and had little money available. Durocher nevertheless decided to kill him. He shot Underwood and took approximately $30 to $40 from him along with the keys to Underwood's automobile.
Durocher attempted to reduce the evidence he left behind by wiping surfaces he had touched. He then locked the business and fled in Underwood's vehicle. He drove the stolen car to Louisiana and later returned it to the Jacksonville area before abandoning it.
The Underwood murder remained unsolved until after Durocher had been arrested for another homicide. While jailed, Durocher himself contacted investigators and indicated that he wanted to discuss an additional murder. After waiving his rights, he confessed to robbing the Jacksonville store, killing its employee, and stealing the victim's vehicle.
The Murder of Eddie Childers
Durocher's final known victim was his roommate, 38-year-old Eddie Childers, whose name has also appeared in records as Edward or Eddie Dwayne/Dewayne Childers. Childers was killed on August 6, 1988, in the Jacksonville area.
Durocher had reportedly worked for Childers selling merchandise at a flea market. According to Durocher's later account, the two had a dispute because he believed Childers owed him approximately two weeks of wages. Durocher attacked Childers while he was sleeping, striking him repeatedly with a claw hammer.
After killing Childers, Durocher attempted to dispose of the body. He transported it to an area near a lake, poured a flammable substance over it, and set it on fire. The burning body was discovered after people in the area noticed smoke.
The Childers investigation quickly began closing in on Durocher. One significant break came when a teenage girlfriend told authorities that Durocher had spoken about killing Childers. Police located Durocher on August 24, 1988. Armed with a shotgun and initially unwilling to surrender, he became involved in a standoff with law enforcement that lasted approximately five hours. He eventually surrendered and was taken into custody.
Confirmed Victims
- Grace Reed, approximately 29 — Killed in late November 1983, around Thanksgiving. She was taken to a deserted area in Clay County, Florida, where Durocher shot and buried her. The available court record does not establish a single certain calendar date; the murders are generally placed between November 25 and November 30, 1983.
- Candice Reed, 5 — Killed in late November 1983 in the same isolated Clay County location. Durocher shot the young girl and buried her in a shallow grave. Her remains were recovered in 1990.
- Joshua Michael Durocher, approximately 6 months old — Killed in late November 1983 in Clay County, Florida. Court records describe the infant as having been stabbed and beaten before being buried. He was Durocher's son, although Durocher later made statements questioning the child's paternity.
- Thomas Underwood III, 27 — Killed January 12, 1986, at the Jacksonville, Florida, store where he worked. Durocher shot Underwood during a robbery, took money from him, and stole his automobile.
- Eddie Childers, 38 — Killed August 6, 1988, in the Jacksonville, Florida, area. Durocher killed his roommate with a hammer following a dispute involving money, then transported and burned the body near a lake.
Confessions and the Discovery of the 1983 Victims
Durocher's conviction for the Childers murder was only the beginning of the investigation into his crimes. While awaiting sentencing, he asked to speak with a detective and confessed to the previously unsolved murder of Thomas Underwood. His confession included details of the robbery, the shooting, and the theft of Underwood's car.
A jury convicted Durocher of the Underwood murder and armed robbery. The prosecution established that he had deliberately armed himself and returned to the store after deciding to commit the robbery. The jury recommended death, and Durocher was sentenced to death for Underwood's murder.
Once on death row, Durocher revealed that there were still more killings. He eventually confessed to murdering Grace Reed, Candice Reed, and Joshua Durocher in 1983. He described the location where he had buried them and provided investigators with information that allowed them to search the Clay County area.
In October 1990, investigators recovered the remains of the children. Grace Reed's remains were subsequently discovered nearby. The findings finally provided physical confirmation of what had happened to a family that had effectively vanished years earlier.
Trial for the Triple Murder
Durocher was prosecuted for three additional counts of first-degree murder. His trial began in March 1991. After prosecution witnesses had begun testifying, Durocher decided against the advice of his attorneys to plead guilty.
Because he faced the death penalty, the court took special steps to determine whether he understood the consequences of changing his plea. Mental-health professionals examined him, and the judge questioned him concerning his decision. The court ultimately determined that Durocher was competent and that his guilty pleas were knowingly and voluntarily made.
The case then moved to its penalty phase. Durocher instructed his attorneys not to present mitigating evidence on his behalf. The jury unanimously recommended death for each of the three murders. The judge subsequently imposed three death sentences, giving Durocher four death sentences in addition to the life sentence he had initially received in the Childers case.
Appeals and His Demand to Be Executed
Durocher's behavior on death row was unusual because he repeatedly expressed a desire to end the appeals that were preventing his execution. His convictions and death sentences nevertheless went through judicial review. In February 1992, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and death sentence for the murder of Thomas Underwood. In July 1992, the court affirmed the death sentences connected to the murders of Grace, Candice, and Joshua.
Durocher later attempted to waive further challenges to his execution. Attorneys seeking to prevent his death argued that the courts needed to ensure he was mentally capable of abandoning his legal remedies. After hearings and examinations, a judge determined in August 1993 that Durocher was competent and that his decision to end further appeals was knowing, intelligent, and voluntary.
Execution
Florida Governor Lawton Chiles signed Durocher's death warrant in May 1993. Although additional legal efforts were made to halt the execution, the courts declined to overturn the determination that Durocher was competent to waive further proceedings.
Michael Alan Durocher was executed in Florida's electric chair at Florida State Prison on August 25, 1993. He was 33 years old. The execution brought an end to a criminal case that had expanded dramatically from the investigation of a single 1988 homicide into the discovery that Durocher had murdered five people over approximately five years.
Legacy of the Case
Durocher's crimes were unusual in that they did not follow one consistent victim profile or circumstance. Three members of his own household were murdered in 1983 and secretly buried. Thomas Underwood was killed during a planned robbery in 1986. Eddie Childers was murdered following a personal financial dispute in 1988. The crimes were separated by years and initially appeared unrelated.
It was Durocher's arrest for the Childers murder, followed by his own willingness to confess, that ultimately connected the cases. Without those later admissions, the disappearance of Grace Reed and the two children might have remained unresolved for considerably longer, and the identity of Thomas Underwood's killer might never have been established.
Michael Alan Durocher is considered responsible for five confirmed murders committed between late November 1983 and August 6, 1988. His convictions, confessions, the recovery of the victims' remains, and the subsequent court proceedings established the full scope of a series of killings that had remained hidden behind several seemingly separate crimes.
