"48 Hours" Investigates Notorious South Florida Murder
PEMBROKE PINES (CBS4) - A notorious South Florida murder case is getting national attention on CBS's 48 Hours and it's got a new twist that you haven't heard.
David Jackson disappeared from his Pembroke Pines home on June 25, 1988. Detective Donna Velazquez was assigned the case as part of a Cold Case Squad in 2003.
"I'm scratching my head and I'm thinking to myself, 'Where do I start?" Velazquez told 48 Hours' Troy Roberts.
48 Hours reports that Velazquez was about encounter an extraordinary coincidence.
"I wanted to put the poster of what David looked like above my desk," she said.
It was at that point that John Wolfe -- 19 years old at the time -- was part of the police Explorer program. The aspiring officer made a stunning announcement.
"I was lookin' around seein' the-- the pictures that the officers have on their desks," Wolfe said. "I was like, 'I can't help you find him but I know him.'
"Well that's my father," Wolfe said.
But why didn't Wolfe share his father's last name.
"I said to him, 'How did you get the name John Wolfe?'" Velazquez said. "And he said, 'Well, Michael Wolfe was my stepfather and he adopted me.' I said, 'He adopted you?' "When did that happen?"
Before David's disappearance, his mother Barbara Britton had remarried. Now, just months farer David went missing, the 4-year-old son he shared with Barbara was getting a new adopted father.
"Why would any person want their son adopted by a stepfather so quick after the biological father went missing?" Velazquez said.
Detective Velazquez would learn that when Michael Wolfe drank, he often times talked about David and what he had done to him.
"I had the pistol wrapped in a towel," Wolfe said. "I just shot."
Wolfe would eventually be tried and convicted for murder. But although he was the triggerman, Wolfe says John's mother Barbara played a key role in the murder -- setting up her ex-husband.
"I realize I was the one that pulled the trigger," Wolfe said. "I understand that. You know, but still, for her part, she's out walking free. And I find that hard to believe."
So, why isn't Barbara behind bars, too? 48 Hours investigates on Saturday night.
