Evil Season (33 page)

Joyce Wishart was murdered in this art gallery—killed and horribly mutilated late on a Friday afternoon. Her remains were not discovered until five days later.
(Sarasota Police Department)

The view of the Provenance Gallery′s interior, as seen from the front door.
(Sarasota Police Department)

The Provenance was one in a series of art galleries all in a row along Sarasota′s toney North Palm Avenue.
(Sarasota Police Department)

Police could determine the approximate time the killer entered the art gallery by the fact that the security system had not been activated. The sign in the window reads: PROV-E-NANCE 1: ORIGIN, SOURCE 2: THE HISTORY OF A VALUABLE OBJECT OR WORK OF ART.
(Sarasota Police Department)

Thinking at first that the killer might be someone Joyce Wishart knew, police went over her belongings for clues as to who he might be. Joyce′s car was found in its regular parking spot in the parking garage near the gallery. Everything appeared normal.
(Sarasota Police Department)

Police tape stopped pedestrians from walking directly by the Provenance Gallery, to prevent any inadvertent contamination of the crime scene. At the far right is Admiral Travel, the agency where Michelle Andersen worked. Police asked her if she′d seen anything unusual during the week before the murder. Her first reaction was that she′d never seen anything unusual ever.
(Sarasota Police Department)

The killer used his interest in this painting of a nude as an excuse to return to the Provenance Gallery. Joyce Wishart was holding the painting when her killer attacked.
(Sarasota Police Department)

The body was found with its head in a far corner, spread-eagled, with multiple stab wounds to the breasts. Most disturbing, her vagina had been removed. Notice the careful placement of the shoes. Though Murphy denies it, perhaps feeling it flies in the face of his insanity defense, it seems apparent that the killer was trying to create his own obscene artwork.
(Sarasota Police Department)

Joyce Wishart′s body was positioned so that her head (extreme lower right) was almost touching a geometrical abstract work, comprised of several media and various angles and shapes.
(Sarasota Police Department)

The crime scene from another angle. The victim′s legs can be seen at the bottom left.
(Sarasota Police Department)

The victim′s body was posed so that the left hand rested upon a copy of
Sarasota Magazine
, opened to an article by Marcia Corbino called ″A Fine Madness.″ The feature profiled Sarasota in the good old days when it was a colony of eccentric artists, writers, and circus folk. The man with the moustache and hat is Fletcher Martin, a Sarasota artist

who died in 1979.
(Sarasota Police Department)

Joyce Wishart′s right shoe, a key component in the killer′s posed crime scene, had a single droplet of blood inside it (arrow).
(Sarasota Police Department)