As Cape Coral police detectives were closing in on the suspect of a 26-year-old double homicide that perplexedthe city, Joseph Zielerbegan to plot from his Lee County cell, an arrest report shows.
Zieler told his common law wifeBonnie Kniceley to pack a bag for a quick escape during a recorded jailhouse conversation, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by media partner WINK News.
The report details the evidence, including DNA samples, linking the 54-year-old to the crime scene where Robin Cornell, 11, andLisa Story, 32, were found May 10, 1990. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of sexual battery and burglary Tuesday.
Zielerdenied his involvement to police, saying he had been in a motorcycle accident in 1998 that messed with his long-term memory, but to Kniceley, who he met 26 years ago, he told a different story.
DNA leads Cape Coral police to arrest in 26-year-old case
“Now listen back in 1990 I did go through this before and nothing bit me in the ass, so there’s a good chance it won’t, so we aren’t going to discuss it any further,” he said to Kniceley.
Attempts to reach Kniceley Friday were unsuccessful.
Zieler already was in jail after being booked in August on felony aggravated assault charges for a shooting his 25-year-old son Zachary with a pellet gun.On Sept. 22, almost a month after he was arrested, Zieler called Kniceley, sounding frantic and afraid.
“Cape Coral cops are trying to pin some (expletive) on me,” he told her. He told her she needed to get him out of jail immediately.
Kniceley met with police and told them she knew of Zieler’s past as a burglar, but nothing else. She was shocked and in disbelief when detectives informed her his DNA linked him to the homicide of Robin and Story. She said she knew of the little girl and her roommate from news reports.
Shooting of son led Cape police to an arrest in double murder case
She gave detectives letters Zieler sent her while he was in jail.
“I can’t help what transpired before I met you, I can only say it stopped,” he wrote. “It stopped because of you, if I lose you now I’ll slip away back into what I once was. … I don’t want this thing to creep back in and become violent again.”
The two met at the end of May 1990 at a Cape Coral bar called “Bumbershoots.” She was married at the time, but her husband moved out and Zieler moved in.
“There’s a good chance I’m going to prison for the rest of my life because of where the things crept,” he wrote to her.
May 9,1990 was the first and last night Story spent in the southeast Cape Coral apartment. She spent the day moving in with the help of her new roommate, Jan Cornell. Cornell and her daughterRobinshared one room, while Story slept in a second room upstairs.
Cornell went to her boyfriend’s house to catch the end of an NBA game. It was the playoffs. She left her daughter behind and was supposed to return before Story fell asleep becauseonly the deadbolt, which locks from theinside, worked.
Cape Coral murder suspect's dad is an ex-Cape cop
However, she fell asleep and woke up at 4 a.m. and went home. She knocked on the door and though no one answered,Cornell heard footsteps coming from above.
She went around the back and found the sliding glass door ajar with the verticals swaying.
She came upon pictures of her daughters laid out on an ironing board. It concerned her and she went upstairs to check on Robin.
Cornell found Robin on the floor. Story was found dead by police officers on her bed.
The two were suffocated and sexually assaulted. Their rooms were left in disarray and some items were stolen.
sem*n was found inside the home,which came back as a DNAmatch forZieler when he was tested after hisAugust arrest.
Zieler denied his involvement in their deaths to Kniceley. He could not explain how his DNA matched the sem*n at the crime scene, but said he was being framed.
He went through something like this in 1990, he said, adding “they weren’t quite as thorough back then as I remember it.”
From the archives: Mother of Robin Cornell hopes killer will be caught
Zieler was arrested two months after Story and Robin were killed for assaulting a Lee County sheriff’s deputy who was called by the owner of a North Fort Myers jewelry store because Zieler was acting suspicious, according to records.
Investigators discovered hewas trying to sell stolen jewelry. He had with him, in a pillow case, 30 pieces of jewelry, including rings, necklaces and at least one watch.
Twenty-two of the items were returned to their owner, according to court records. It’s unknown who the other eight items belonged to or if they were ever reclaimed.
Detectives still want to talk to people who knew Zieler back in the 1990s or who might have any information about him they want to share, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Sgt. Bennett Walker at 239-242-3319.
