Sheriff’s office increases reward to $100,000 for 30-year Volusia County cold case

DELAND, Fla. — For three decades, Volusia County Investigators have been on the hunt for the person or people responsible for the killing of Lauralee Spear.

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Friday, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said via social media that they were increasing the reward to help arrest and convict Spear’s killer to $100,000.

The announcement came the day after Spear would have celebrated her 46th birthday, June 21st.

Spear, who was a Deland High School cheerleader, was killed on April 15th, 1994, after she got off her school bus to head home.

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Investigators said she was shot to death execution style and discovered partially nude behind a burned abandoned building a quarter of a mile from her home on Deerfoot Road in Deland.

Investigators said at the time of her disappearance, they knew people were on the property shooting guns.

Investigators suspected she was kidnapped after getting off the bus, but those clues have only gone so far.

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Death row inmate Bobby Raleigh, who was 20 years old at the time, was accused of her murder. In 1998, the charges were dropped by the State’s Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors said there was not enough evidence.

Anyone with information on the case of Lauralee Spear is asked to call the Major Case Unit at 386-254-1537.

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