Veteran Florida Homicide Detective Resigns After Domestic Violence Arrest

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Veteran Florida Homicide Detective Resigns After Domestic Violence Arrest

November 25th, 2017

Awake Goy

Manatee County Sheriff’s Office detective Jeffrey Bliss

MANATEE, Florida – A veteran homicide detective with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office has resigned after being arrested Wednesday night on a charge of domestic battery.

Jeffrey Bliss, 45, was an employee of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office for 16 years, according to department spokesman Dave Bristow. Bliss resigned his position Thursday morning, Bristow said.

Deputies responded at about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday to a domestic situation at Bliss’ residence in Palmetto.

Deputies investigated the incident and subsequently arrested Bliss, Bristow said.

Bliss’ tenure with the department saw him involved in several high-profile cases over the years, including the January life-sentence convictions of six men involved in a series of violent crimes in Manatee County, including murder.

It took six years navigating the federal court system to get the conviction that ended the local crime ring, but Bliss was there from the beginning when he warned one of the suspects’ father that law enforcement “was on to them.”

“We told them we knew what they were up to, we were on to them, and we were going to get them,” Bliss recalled at the time. “They laughed and laughed. … They’re not laughing anymore.”

Most recently, Bliss testified on Nov. 14 in the double-murder trial of Dwayne Cummings for the deaths of Jordan Finlon, 23, and Karl Tuxford, 38. Tuxford was found in his jeep shot five times, while Finlon was found dead on the side of Bishop Harbor Road in Terra Ceia Preserve State Park stabbed up to 44 times. Cummings was found guilty.

If it was a high-profile case in Manatee County, Bliss was likely a part of the investigation, including the 2008 murder of Sabine Musil-Buehler by William Cumber, who avoided justice for seven years because Musil-Buehler’s body was missing for all that time.

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