Girl accused in Buckingham murder claims sexual abuse

Published: Updated:

BUCKINGHAM, Fla. — A 16-year-old girl facing murder charges in the grisly death of a Buckingham man said the man sexually abused her for eight years, arrest warrants reveal.

The girl asked Jonathan Ruffini, 18, and Tyson Hunter, 23, to murder 58-year-old Ted Lee, whose body was found by a dumpster behind a church in Manatee County on July 15, the warrant states. All three are in custody and facing murder charges in connection to Lee’s death.

Investigators identified the girl as the common link between Lee and the other two suspects, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said last month. She lived in the same neighborhood as Lee for years, according to the sheriff’s office, and neighbors told WINK News they lived in the same house.

The warrants include gruesome details of the alleged murder that took place last month. The warrant for Ruffini and Hunter says they stabbed Lee in the stomach and violently beat him on the head.

Neighbors heard knocks and banging from Lee’s home on Graytwig Lane and saw two men putting what appeared to a body in the trunk of Lee’s car, according to the report.

Detectives said they found blood on the floor and ceiling inside the home and bloody linens wrapped around a baseball bat that Hunter might have used to beat Lee. They also said money may have motivated the trio, who are accused of stealing Lee’s credit cards to finance a trip west.

All three were apprehended in Kansas and extradited back to Lee County. Ruffini and Hunter are in jail without bond and the girl is being held in juvenile detention.

Because the Lee County Sheriff’s Office believes the girl may have been a victim of sexual abuse, WINK News is no longer including her name or photo in our content.

Copyright ©2024 Fort Myers Broadcasting. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.