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Spa Owner 'Trying to Find Mr. Right' Allegedly Beaten To Death By Man She Met Online
Vickie Edge met her boyfriend Jerry Odum online, and a friend says he quickly pushed for them to make wedding plans. Now he's charged with her murder.
A Florida spa owner who had been searching for love online was allegedly beaten to death by the man she hoped was her Mr. Right.
Vickie Edge, 59, was found beaten to death inside her boyfriend Jerry Odum’s Milton home on Friday after her concerned family asked the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office to conduct a welfare check, WEAR-TV in Pensacola reports.
Odum, 61, allegedly killed Edge after giving her a $15,000 check for their upcoming wedding even though he knew he didn’t have the money in his bank account, according to an arrest report obtained by Oxygen.com. The couple had met on a dating site a few months ago and quickly rushed into wedding plans.
Chameron Perry, who worked for Edge, told the Pensacola News Journal that Odum was pushing for an October wedding, promising to buy Edge a lake house after.
"She just seemed so happy," Perry said. "I wanted that for her so bad. I should have seen that it was weird, that it was too fast. I just wish I would have noticed something."
Odum allegedly attacked Edge on Thursday morning with a baseball bat he purchased a few days earlier at Walmart. Then he removed the license plate off her car before leaving her beaten body all alone in his home, authorities wrote in the arrest report. He allegedly told investigators he drove around the city and booked a hotel room about 30 miles away.
Authorities say Odum initially told detectives that when he returned home on Friday to check on Edge, he discovered that she was dead. He later allegedly admitted to the fatal beating.
Odum has been charged with first-degree murder. It’s not clear if he has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
Edge’s brother, Derrick Edge, told the Pensacola News Journal that his sister talked about Odum constantly. He said she wanted love.
"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.”
She owned Edge of Paradise Day Spa in Destin. In addition to her business, Edge was known in her community for her big heart. She raised money for charitable organizations and befriended lonely elderly people.
She had even intended to donate a kidney to a stranger. Derrick told the Pensacola News Journal that Vickie had just told him Wednesday that she'd been diagnosed with stage 2 colon cancer. She was devastated, her brother said, because that would rule her out as a kidney donor and she spent her last full day alive looking for an alternative donor for the woman in need.
