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TAMPA, Fla. – More than four decades after a brutal Tampa<\/a> killing, the man detectives say is responsible appeared in court.\u00a0<\/p>\n Robert Paul Bear, of Madeira Beach, appeared in a Tampa courtroom Thursday after being indicted in connection with the 1980 murder of Charles Barnes.<\/p>\n During the hearing, a judge informed Bear he faces charges of first-degree murder with a weapon while engaged in a burglary and armed burglary. He was ordered held without bond.<\/p>\n Big picture view:<\/p>\n Investigators say the case centers on the killing of Barnes at his home on East Okaloosa Avenue in Tampa.<\/p>\n According to investigators and court records, Barnes failed to show up for work in October 1980, prompting a welfare check at his home.<\/p>\n READ: Family of 1994 Tampa homicide victim renews push to solve case with billboard campaign<\/a><\/p>\n Police<\/a> say they found Barnes stabbed to death inside the house, in what investigators believe was an attack that began in the master bedroom.<\/p>\n Detectives reported finding blood-soaked bedding, beer cans, and signs that someone had rummaged through drawers.<\/p>\n Two months later, Barnes\u2019 car was discovered abandoned in the parking lot of the Tahitian Inn on South Dale Mabry Highway.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hotel employees told investigators the vehicle had been sitting there for about two months. Detectives said they found blood inside the car.<\/p>\n Despite the evidence, the case eventually went cold.<\/p>\n What we know:<\/p>\n Nearly three decades later, investigators reexamined evidence from the crime scene using modern forensic technology.<\/p>\n In 2009, detectives re-ran fingerprints collected from beer cans found inside Barnes\u2019 home. The prints matched Robert Bear, according to investigators.<\/p>\n When detectives interviewed Bear, he denied knowing Barnes or ever being inside the home.<\/p>\n Investigators say additional testing later revealed DNA found under Barnes\u2019 fingernails also matched Bear.<\/p>\n More recently, testing on a towel recovered from the crime scene also identified Bear\u2019s DNA. Detectives believe the towel may have been handled by the killer.<\/p>\n READ: St. Pete\u2019s last \u2018John Doe\u2019 homicide victim identified after 46 years through DNA technology<\/a><\/p>\n According to court documents, a witness who has children with Bear said he recently spoke with her about the murder investigation in a way that made her believe he did it.\u00a0<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n Bear\u2019s appearance in court Thursday lasted only a short time, but the case itself took decades to build.<\/p>\n He is scheduled to return to court next week as the case moves forward.<\/p>\n The Source: FOX 13’s Genevieve Curtis gathered information for this report from proceedings in Hillsborough County Court, court documents and a grand jury indictment.<\/p>\n Tampa<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – More than four decades after a brutal Tampa killing, the man detectives say is responsible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[630,47,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-180305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vlcsnap-2026-03-05-22h50m11s046.jpg\")
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