{"id":417367,"date":"2026-10-03T02:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T02:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/417367\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T02:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T02:24:08","slug":"family-speaks-after-cold-case-sentencing-of-gary-glowacz-who-murdered-melissa-ellison-in-1987","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/417367\/","title":{"rendered":"Family speaks after cold-case sentencing of Gary Glowacz, who murdered Melissa Ellison in 1987"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The family of Melissa Ellison, a Jacksonville woman killed in her Westside home in 1987<\/a> during an apparent home robbery, says they\u2019re trying to move forward now that there is finally closure in a murder that remained a cold case for decades.<\/p>\n

Gary Glowacz, 70, pled guilty and was sentenced to 24 years in prison on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Glowacz was arrested<\/a> a few months ago after he called the Clay County Sheriff\u2019s Office with information about Ellison\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Casie Ellison and Glenda Blandford<\/a> say they\u2019ve waited 38 years to tell the man responsible what their lives have been like without their mother and sister.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think that it\u2019s going to be this monster,\u201d Casie Ellison said. \u201cLike a two-headed, scary, evil, you know, thing. It was really this weak, slinky loser of a man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casie Ellison was just 13 months old when she says her mother was murdered by Glowacz. She said she was in bed, lying beside her mother, when it happened.<\/p>\n

She says reading her impact statement was a cascade of emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I finished and I was walking away, he yelled out, \u2018I\u2019m so sorry,\u2019\u201d Ellison said. \u201cYou stole my mother from me, and you\u2019re nothing like what I thought you were gonna be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casie Ellison said that although Glowacz seemed remorseful, it does not take back what he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not ever add up to just take somebody\u2019s life,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019ll never be able to make sense out of a senseless act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellison\u2019s sister, Glenda Blandford, said Glowacz\u2019s 24-year sentence will never be enough to make up for the time they have lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe should have been growing old with me,\u201d Blandford said. \u201cI should see her wrinkles, but she will forever be 20 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got to choose how he lived his life for the last 38 and a half years \u2014 We didn\u2019t get to choose how we lived ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family largely thanks Project Cold Case<\/a> for bringing Melissa Ellison\u2019s case to light, and never letting the world forget her name, face and story.<\/p>\n

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Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The family of Melissa Ellison, a Jacksonville woman killed in her Westside home in 1987…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,55102,165218,88568,138164,165220,165219,165221,142889,116,118,117,634,140338,84514,165222],"class_list":["post-417367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-casey","tag-casey_ellison","tag-casey_stone","tag-ellison","tag-gary_gloaz","tag-glenda_blandford","tag-gloaz","tag-jackson_casey_stone","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-local","tag-melissa_ellison","tag-missy","tag-project_cold"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417367","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=417367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}