Lucas Sander Jones: Body Parts Of Sex Offender Found in Florida Suitcase After Vultures Lead Police to Scene

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Vultures circling an abandoned suitcase in a desolate stretch of Palm Bay, Florida, led police to discover human remains on March 28, 2026.

According to law enforcement, the body belonged to Colie Lee Daniel, a 28-year-old registered sex offender who had been reported missing six days earlier. 

Lucas Sander Jones, 19, of Indialantic, was arrested in connection with the case, after Daniel’s body parts were found inside two suitcases and left in an undeveloped area.

Colie Lee Daniel mugshot

Colie Lee Daniel



Surveillance video captured Daniel arriving at Jones’ home on Watson Drive in Indialantic around 5:32 p.m. on March 20, 2026, as per Fox35Orlando 

Daniel lived roughly one mile away from Jones but he mysteriously disappeared after he entered the suspect’s home. Later that evening, around 9:45 p.m., Daniel’s parents showed up at Jones residence looking for their son, but he refused to let Daniel’s parents inside. 

Officers from the Indialantic Police Department officers were later involved, but Jones also refused to let them inside and according to an arrest affidavit, "no contact was ever made with Daniel that night". 

Jones’ girlfriend later arrived at the house, and she was allowed to go inside but with strict instructions to “just to go in and not say anything,” as per the affidavit.

At around 2:29 a.m. on March 21, Jones was seen leaving with his girlfriend’s car while his girlfriend slept inside. Investigators say he allegedly went to drop an evidence bag with unknown contents on nearby train tracks.

Later that same day, officers conducted a welfare check on Daniel and found no sign of him in Jones house. When police spoke with Jones, he appeared visibly disheveled with red marks on his arms and chest, puffiness under his eyes and visible bruising on his shoulder and neck. 

Shortly after that conversation, Jones was seen loading his girlfriend’s car with two Rubbermaid totes and at least one black suitcase before the car traveled to the area where the boxes were later found 

On March 28, police responded to a call about an abandoned closed suitcase at 1574 Bombardier Boulevard surrounded by vultures. When officers arrived, they found a black suitcase sitting in tall grass that gave off a strong odor. 

Inside the suitcase were human remains, personal belongings and an Amazon package addressed to Jones. After the officers searched the surrounding area, they found a second suitcase containing more human remains nearby.

A medical examiner identified Daniel as the body in the suitcase, while the manner of death was ruled a homicide, though the cause of death remains undetermined because investigators have not located Daniel’s entire body. 

Daniel reportedly had an unspecified number of blunt force injuries to his head and extremities that occurred before death.

Jones was arrested on March 28 and charged with tampering with evidence, abuse of a dead human body and improper disposal of human remains but he was later released after he posted bond of $7500.


Lucas Sander Jones


Jones girlfriend later told police that she sensed something was wrong that day, and she described seeing black spray paint on the walls and blood on the floor. 

She also said that Jones reportedly told her that he used a baseball bat to kill Daniel and then cut up the body with a cleaver, a saw and a knife.

“I killed somebody and cut him up,” he reportedly told her, before placing the body into two suitcases and two Rubbermaid storage totes. 

Additionally, his girlfriend told investigators that Jones directed her to drive him to the Bombardier Boulevard area known as The Compound on March 21, after the suitcases were loaded in her car. 

She said she watched him remove two gray totes from her Honda Accord and discard them in separate spots, though she said she did not know what was inside. She also said she did not remember seeing two black suitcases but believed they had been discarded at The Compound as well.

She also said Jones told her he killed Daniel because Daniel was a sex offender and that days after the murder, Jones coached her on what to tell law enforcement

The girlfriend did not know how the two men met but knew that Jones had printed a list of sex offenders and the victims name was there.

On April 1, investigators executed another search warrant at the Watson Drive residence and took Jones into custody without incident. Blood stains and a knife were also found inside Jones’ residence, as per police reports. 

Online court records show he is now charged with first-degree murder – dangerous depraved without premeditation and a judge has ordered that Jones be held in state custody.

It remains unclear how Jones and Daniel knew each other. Jones has not entered a plea and an arraignment originally scheduled for April 21 was later cancelled.

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