Missing woman found dead, car burned, Florida cops say. Niece’s ex-boyfriend charged
After a 72-year-old philanthropist didn’t show up for a morning walk, her flaming car and her burned body were found in separate counties, Florida authorities said.
The body was identified March 6 as the remains of missing woman Jessie Kirk, the Titusville Police Department said at a news conference later that day.
Kirk missed a scheduled morning walk with her friend on March 4, which was “highly unusual” for her, police wrote in a news release.
Her friend reported her missing, and Kirk’s niece arrived on the scene and recognized her ex-boyfriend’s car there, Cmd. Tyler Wright said.
Kirk’s own white Lincoln Navigator had gone missing, and deputies said they later learned the person last seen driving it was the niece’s ex-boyfriend, who was also a former corrections deputy with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies found Kirk’s SUV on fire in the Orlando area, then police found the ex-boyfriend “walking around and acting suspicious” near Kirk’s apartment with recent burns on his body, according to police.
One witness told police she saw the man shuffling Kirk’s SUV and his own car between different parking spots in a lot, police wrote in an arrest affidavit.
He was arrested on charges of grand theft of a motor vehicle and loitering and prowling, Brevard County records show. Upgraded charges weren’t filed as of March 7 after Kirk’s body was found, but Wright said the man is the “sole person of interest in this homicide investigation.”
Then, a citizen found human remains near Haulover Canal in Brevard County on March 4, about a 30-mile drive from where Kirk’s car was found, but the body wasn’t identified right away because it was burned, Sgt. Brian Nelson said.
He described the case as “gut-wrenching.”
According to Wright, Kirk was on the board of directors of the Children’s Advocacy Center, on the executive committee of the Jess Parrish Medical Foundation, and a recipient of the Navy League humanitarian of the year award.
“She was very much loved by a lot of our community,” Nelson said. “The family, everyone that I’ve talked to. And this is even passing people in the store, they talk about how just amazing she was as a person. I mean she was a humanitarian, she worked with the child advocacy center, she’s done a lot.”
Titusville is on Florida’s Atlantic coast, about a 40-mile drive east from Orlando.
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Missing woman found dead, car burned, Florida cops say. Niece’s ex-boyfriend charged."