Man’s Job Application Leads to His Arrest for Murder From 20 Years Ago

Police in Florida arrested a man for a murder committed over 20 years ago, after he filled out a job application.

“Our detectives worked years trying to find the killer in this case,” acting Delray Beach Police Chief Javaro Sims told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “We had fingerprints, we had blood, we even had a possible description from a witness. But the person responsible for this heinous case seemed to just disappear.”

After 51-year-old Todd Barket applied to work as a certified nursing assistant, police were able to track him down. The job required a background check and fingerprints.

Barket’s fingerprints were matched to those in a national database that had fingerprint evidence submitted by Delray Beach police after the murder. On March 27, police arrested Barket on a first degree murder charge.

Police said Barket was not surprised to see them. When a detective told him the reason he was in his apartment, Barket shrugged and said “OK,” according to The Palm Beach Post.

Sondra Better was killed at the age of 68 while working at a consignment shop, the Sun Sentinel reported. She was at work on a Monday when her killer walked in. She was scheduled that Friday to go to New York with her husband to renew their vows.

“She was violently killed by an unknown assailant,” Sims said, via the Sun Sentinel. “She was stabbed, she was bludgeoned, and no one deserves to die in that manner.”

Barket was 29 years old at the time Better died. Police did not identify any motive for the crime or know if any money was taken.

Better was found on the shop floor. One of the decorative marbles found around her body contained a fingerprint that matched Barket’s.

CORRECTION for media covering the arrest of Todd Barket:
Barket submitted his fingerprints to the Agency for Healthcare Administration to become a certified nursing assistant. DBPD incorrectly said otherwise yesterday. Our apologies for the mistake.

— Delray Beach Police (@DelrayBeachPD) March 28, 2019

A shopper at the store around the time of the murder described a thin, white man in his late 20’s or early 30’s talking about the price of a couch with Better. The description of the young man would have matched Barket’s at the time, according to The Palm Beach Post.

At the time of the murder Barket lived in a mobile home in Palm Beach County. He moved to the Tampa area around 2004.

Authorities started to watch Barket after the fingerprint match, and police eventually obtained his DNA, and it was matched to evidence found at the crime scene.

Todd Barket almost got away with murder, but the dogged effort by DBPD detectives and crime scene investigators past and present caught up with him 20 years after leaving his fingerprints and blood at a brutal scene. May Sondra Better rest in peace. https://t.co/guPZjNvS2q

— Delray Beach Police (@DelrayBeachPD) March 28, 2019

“He has had no contact with law enforcement, getting arrested or anything,” Capt. John Crane-Baker said, via the Sun Sentinel. “He had a minimal criminal history, mostly traffic citations. So he flew under the radar, even for 26 years before this occurred. It was quite surprising.”

Retired Delray Beach Police Detective Robert Stevens, who investigated the case for over a decade, told
Better’s surviving daughters that the arrest was made.

Two decades after her horrific murder, Sondra Better’s killer is identified. https://t.co/eW6oxMqAAV

— Delray Beach Police (@DelrayBeachPD) March 28, 2019

“It felt really good,” Stevens told the Sun Sentinel. “There were some tears, there was some joy and of course now it’s gonna bring some closure to them.”

Even though Stevens retired in 2007, he continued to work on the case, including conducting interviews and obtaining DNA from people, in hopes of finding a lead, The Palm Beach Post reported.