Crime & Safety

Suspect Arrested in Clearwater Woman's Murder

Thomas Hampton Frederick, 23, was arrested and charged with the murder of Adrianne F. Robert, who was found stabbed to death July 14, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

A Clearwater man with seemingly no criminal history was arrested and hours July 14.

Thomas Hampton Frederick, 23, was arrested and charged with the murder of Adrianne Robert on Wednesday, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

Frederick was fingered as a suspect because of "modern technology and good old fashioned police work," said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri in a release. "The horrific violence of this random act was of great concern to all involved in the case."

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Gualtieri said investigators pieced together the night by back-tracking Robert's moves.

After drinking earlier in the evening, Robert, 29, and her roommate Jay Laffue, 32, walked from their nearby apartment to the bar at , according to detectives.

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That is when they met Frederick, who did they not know previously, according to investigators.

Robert decided to walk back home around 1:30 a.m. Surveillance video from Diamond Dolls shows her leaving at this time. It also shows a man believed to be Frederick catching up with her. He gives Robert a black shawl she had left behind on a chair, according to detectives.

The pair is then seen walking away together on the northbound sidewalk to Robert's apartment.

Laffue came home around 3:30 a.m. to find Robert's partially clothed body in the bathroom — she was stabbed in the upper left chest and only wearing a bra, according to detectives.

While there were no signs of forced entry, there were signs of a struggle throughout the apartment. A portion of the sheet on her bed had also been cut out.

An orange Jeep, her personal vehicle, was missing from the apartment complex parking lot. It was found July 16 by Largo Police.

Investigators used video, phone records, help from taxi cab drivers and reports from Clearwater Police to establish Frederick as a suspect around that same time. However, he had no real criminal record, and they lacked DNA evidence of record that could tie him to the scene, according to authorities.

Deputies began surveilling Frederick on July 16 and soon gathered a cigarette butt, which yielded a DNA match.

Frederick was taken into custody without incident at his employer, Hit Promotional Products in Largo, on Wednesday, according to authorities.

Frederick has made certain admission, but detectives are not discussing further details, according to Marianne Pasha, spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.


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