The art scene in Sarasota was rocked by tragedy when Joyce Wishart, a beloved member of the community, was discovered murdered and disturbingly posed like a statue in her own gallery.
The gruesome discovery in 2004 sent shockwaves through the tight-knit artistic enclave, sparking fears that someone with an artistic touch might have been behind the chilling crime.
“This crime scene was unlike anything we had ever seen before,” commented retired Sarasota Police Detective Mark Opitz in an episode of Oxygen’s The Killer Among Us. “It was as if it had been lifted straight from a horror film.”
Who Was Joyce Wishart?
For Wishart, opening her own gallery was a cherished dream fulfilled. Following a challenging divorce, she relocated to Sarasota, Florida, seeking a new beginning.
There, she established the Provenance Gallery on Palm Avenue, an area bustling with other galleries, boutiques, and dining spots.
“Joyce was incredibly friendly and welcoming,” recalled her friend Linda Joffe. “What I admired most was her ability to transform her life completely. It was a remarkable metamorphosis, and witnessing it was truly inspiring.”
What Happened to Joyce Wishart?
But the 61-year-old’s grim fate was revealed Jan. 20, 2004 when Nancy Hall, the condominium manager of Wishart’s gallery, called 911 to report a disturbing discovery.
“There was a terrible odor and my maintenance went in to check my commercial unit and there was a dead body in there,” Hall explained in the call. “She’s laying there naked and she’s green.”
Investigators arrived to find an eerie scene. Classical music was playing as they made their way toward the back of the gallery where they discovered Wishart’s mutilated body laying face up on the floor, with her legs spread. Her shoes had been placed on the floor and pointed toward her body.
“She had obvious extensive trauma to the neck, where it appeared as though her head was almost removed,” Sarasota prosecutor Suzanne O’Donnell recalled. “The most unusual injury on the body is that her entire genital area was missing.”
Wishart had suffered multiple stab wounds and had defensive wounds on her hands, suggesting she’d tried to fight off her killer.
While her right hand was gesturing toward a painting of a nude, blonde woman on her back, her left hand had a crooked finger pointing to an open copy of Sarasota Magazine to a page with an article called “A Fine Madness.”
“We noted that the body looked completely staged,” Opitz said. “At that point, we’re thinking the perpetrator is purposefully leaving the body in a certain position to get some kind of shock value out of it.”
Detectives Find Blood Fingerprints at Joyce Wishart Murder Scene
As detectives delved into the investigation, they learned that Joyce had logged off her computer at 4:52 p.m. on January 16. Yet, she never set the alarm at 5 p.m., as was her usual habit, leading investigators to believe that her killer may have come in just before the gallery closed.
They also collected fingerprints left throughout the gallery and samples of blood on some of the artwork, which detectives believed may have been touched by the killer. Although the killer had attempted to do a lot of cleanup in a bathroom, investigators also found some blood spatter that had been left behind.
They also talked to other business owners in the area, who reported seeing a tall white man with sandy colored hair in the area, riding a bicycle.
Michael Benson, the author of Evil Season, described the man as being belligerent and upsetting people, adding, “He’d gone inside one gallery and had to be chased out by the owner with a broom.”
Yet, the man was nowhere to be found after the murder and without a name to go on, the lead quickly dried up.
Investigators also tried to study the art near the body—and the article left open by Wishart’s body—to see whether it might reveal any clues.
“It did seem that the killer was making some statement,” O’Donnell said. “It wasn’t obvious what the statement was.”
Who Killed Joyce Wishart?
While investigators took a closer look at those in Wishart’s life, they could not determine any viable suspects.
Then, in July 2004, investigators get a hit on male DNA that was found at the crime scene. It was matched to Elton Brutus Murphy, a man living in Houston, Texas with no known tie to the murder investigation.
“He had been arrested in Texas for burglary and he was sitting in jail,” O’Donnell explained. “We needed to tie him to Sarasota and we needed to show that he was present during the time that Joyce was murdered.”
The investigators drove to Texas to speak with Brown, but they encountered a man with significant mental health issues.
“He said, ‘My name is the Lord God Elton Brutus Murphy. I get my commands directly from God,’” Sarasota prosecutor Karen Fraivillig recalled. “I work with aliens.”
He added in the interview that he was a “coordinator” between his god, the god in the bible and satan and said he could hypnotize people and have sex with them.
“You know,” he told detectives at one point, “I could pretty much do anything I want essentially.”
Investigators learned that Murphy had once lived in Sarasota, was an amateur artist who had been trying to sell his work and often rode his bike through Sarasota’s downtown—including on the day of the murder.
As Opitz explained, “I believe he probably did go into the Provenance Gallery trying to have Miss Wishart sell his art on consignment.”
Opitz added that she may have “rebuffed” him, giving him motive to kill her.
What Happened to Elton Brutus Murphy?
Murphy was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
“When news broke that an arrest had been made, there was a giant, collective sigh of relief through the entire community,” former Sarasota Magazine publisher Jimmy Dean recalled. “Thank god somebody’s been caught.”
Yet—due to questions about Murphy’s mental competency—it took years before the case would ever go to trial. Murphy was diagnosed by doctors with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type and also suffered from delusions.
He was finally declared competent and went on trial in 2009. Though he pled not guilty by reason of insanity, prosecutors were able to prove he’d known his actions were wrong at the time because he spent so much time cleaning up.
“The time and effort that was taken to posing the body and having the fingers touch the magazine and placing the artwork around her head,” criminologist Dr. Casey Jordan explained. “In his mind everything he saw was a potential movie scene or photograph to be preserved. An artistic creation.”
Murphy was found guilty and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
