Get email updates with the day’s biggest stories Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Your information will be used in accordance with our Privacy Notice. Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Kind-hearted Vickie Edge filled her days helping everyone around her, whether they were friends, family, or even total strangers.
But behind her big smile, Vickie, 59, had been quietly longing to find someone extra special to spend her life with.
She adored her dog Buddy, and the pair were inseparable, but Vickie also wanted her Mr Right.
In her search for love, Vickie had turned to online dating websites, where she had been matched up with potential suitors.
In 2020, she thought she’d finally ended her search when she found Jerry Odum.
What Vickie’s friends knew for sure was that, without a doubt, Odum had struck gold finding her.
Vickie, who was mum to a grown-up son, owned Edge Of Paradise spa in Destin, Florida, where she went above and beyond for her clients.
Outside work, she was known in the community for raising money for charities, volunteering in women’s shelters, spending time with the elderly, and was even talking about donating a kidney to a friend.
Loved ones were thrilled that thoughtful Vickie had fallen for Odum, 61, who lived in nearby Milton, but they were concerned things were moving too fast.
It was August 2020, and despite only dating for a few months, the couple were already talking about getting married that October.
Vickie really believed he was The One. She’d given Odum a birthday card and written inside, “I’m so thankful God put us together. Looking forward to many more years together.”
Odum had said he was going to buy them a house by a lake. He’d even given Vickie a $15,000 cheque to pay for their wedding and encouraged her to start making the arrangements.
It was a whirlwind romance, but it was everything Vickie had been longing for. Why wait?
Those who knew Vickie were keen to meet the man who had swept her off her feet, as no one had yet.
But then Vickie suddenly went quiet and people grew concerned. It was unlike her not to reply to messages or answer calls, and after two days her silence was unheard of.
Vickie wasn’t at home and neither was Buddy. Vickie’s brother Derrick and his wife started to make some enquiries.
They knew Vickie had been due to meet up with Odum, so they tried to track him down to see if he knew where she was.
They found an address online and went to the house. A neighbour then directed them to Odum’s new home.
A gruesome discovery
When they arrived, they saw Vickie’s red car parked there – but why had the registration plates been removed?
Suddenly, they grew concerned that something was terribly wrong – and no one was answering the door.
Derrick waited anxiously outside with his wife as they called the police and requested a welfare check.
When officers arrived, Odum surprisingly answered the door and they asked him if he knew where Vickie was.
“She’s inside,” he replied. “But I have to tell you something first. She’s been dead for two days.”
Shocked, the police went inside and found Vickie dead in the living room. She had been violently beaten around the head.
Outside, Derrick and his wife were told the shocking news. They could hear her beloved dog Buddy barking, faithful to the end.
Odum was taken for questioning. At first, he claimed he’d found Vickie dead two days earlier on 6 August.
It was highly unlikely. It didn’t explain why he hadn’t called the police and had left her in his home.
But then his story quickly changed to a terrible confession.
Odum admitted Vickie had been getting ready to go to work that morning when he told her he had a surprise.
He described putting a blanket over her head and leading her to the living room.
There, Odum struck her multiple times over the head with a baseball bat he’d bought a few days earlier.
Odum said he had guns but he “didn’t want to go down that route” due to the noise it would cause.
The neighbours would hear. Odum admitted Vickie had been screaming as she was hit, but he hadn’t stopped delivering the blows.
Then he’d used the same bat to choke Vickie to death.
After removing the registration plates from Vickie’s car, he’d driven around for hours before finding a hotel 30 miles away.
True Crime He’d checked in and spent the night there because he didn’t want to go back home to the crime scene. “I couldn’t bring myself to stay there with a body,” he said.
When Odum returned on the day Vickie was found by police, he still didn’t report her death.
It was a brutal killing of a woman he was due to marry and investigators wanted to know why.
When asked what the reason was for murdering her he explained he’d given her a $15,000 cheque for their wedding, but he didn’t have the money to cover it.
He had no savings, in fact he was in debt.
There would be no lake house or dream wedding day. There was no happy future. Vickie would have discovered the truth when she tried to cash the cheque.
He saw killing her as his only way of getting out of the lie – even though Vickie wasn’t interested in money. She just wanted true love.
Premeditated
Odum was charged with first-degree murder and there was a massive outpouring of grief for Vickie.
Colleagues, friends and family were heartbroken and rushed to give glowing tributes.
Neighbours said that while Vickie was dead in his house, they had seen Odum out walking her dog like nothing was wrong.
He had apparently repeatedly asked for the time and mentioned that Vickie was sleeping. They had no idea he’d beaten her to death.
Investigators found CCTV footage that captured Odum buying a baseball bat from a store about a week before the killing. It was premeditated.
Brother Derrick spoke to the press about his sister’s quest for love and how it had cruelly sealed her fate.
“Dating sites were her weakness,” he said. “She was always trying to find Mr Right. The creeps she had to filter through are not worth the risk. She ignored the signs and red flags.”
In February this year, Odum pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, which brought about a swift end to the legal proceedings.
The court heard that Vickie was taken completely by surprise and struck on the head four or five times with a baseball bat that was also used to strangle her.
Odum had then cruelly left her dead in the living room.
He had promised Vickie a wedding, but he didn’t have the money to pay for it. He told the investigators he felt that killing Vickie was his only way out.
With so many other options, it seemed incredulous to Vickie’s loved ones that murder had been the only answer.
Odum was sentenced immediately to life in prison without the chance of parole.
All Vickie wanted was to find someone to love. But tragically she met a man who promised to give her the world, then took away her entire future.
