At 70 years old and recently learning that the young mother he clubbed during a 1987 burglary had actually died, Gary Glowacz came forward to solve nearly four decades of questions for Melissa “Missy Taylor” Ellison’s family.
Thursday, Oct. 1, he provided further closure by pleading guilty to the 20-year-old’s second-degree murder and armed burglary with assault or battery in Jacksonville. The judge sentenced him to 24 years in prison as part of the plea agreement.
Living without that closure — and even thinking that Ellison’s estranged husband may have been responsible — for 38 years caused some family members to lose “the luster and the will of life to live and the not knowing and the speculation and the hurt and the grief,” daughter Casie Ellison told
the Times-Union in a previous interview.
She knows because she was barely a year old and at her mother’s side in bed when she was struck with a log from the fireplace. Some thought it may have been her father because as a baby she was then moved to a couch with pillows tucked around her as if to prevent her from falling. Only a couple of items also were missing.
“For practically my whole life, I’ve genuinely had to lie about who I was just because of the inconvenience of the situation of who could it have possibly of been,” she said. “… I think that he has experienced the biggest set of relief because of that speculation. He’s had to carry that. … For him to have that weight of just feeling like people are wondering, that’s not a thing anymore. It’s like a weight lifted off of him as he deserves it. I’m so happy that’s happened in our lifetime. I truly never thought that this was going to be an opportunity.”
Mark Ellison, who remained publicly silent until Thursday’s plea, provided a written statement read by a victims advocate in court.
“We have waited almost 40 years for answers,” he said. “You took from this world not only my wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister and a friend to so many people. Your actions have changed the lives of so many people, it would be impossible to count. … Because of your actions, you have damaged relationships between loved ones, family and friends.”
“You may plead guilty to the crime and pay your debt to society, but there is nothing you or this court can do to ever come close to repaying what was taken from us,” his statement concluded.
For the family, it also was about justice. During a “Missy’s Light Still Shines” remembrance on Aug. 29, Missy Ellison’s sister Glenda Blandford said they are forever grateful to the efforts of Project: Cold Case and First Coast Crime Stoppers. She also gave a lengthy, tearful victim impact statement in court. Another sister, Catherine “Sissy” Bennett, provided hers that was read by Project: Cold Case founder Ryan Backmann.
Lastly for the family, Ellison emotionally addressed the court, sometimes bursting out her words while crying. She noted that she’ll be 40 years old next month, twice as many years her mother lived.
“I’ve spent four decades grieving a relationship I never got to experience,” she said. “… There’s nothing anyone can say that fixes this.”
She said the wounds won’t go away for any of them, “but today for the first time in my life I don’t have to be quiet.”
What happened to Missy Taylor Ellison that night in 1987?
Glowacz, who lived a half-mile away from the mobile home park where Ellison was staying, provided details to investigators that hadn’t been shared in previous media coverage and that only the thief and killer could know, according to his arrest report.
He called police on July 8 after reading an article on the cold case death and realized he was responsible. He said he wasn’t aware the woman died, although he knew it was a possibility.
He was 31 at the time and needed money to buy drugs. He was in the area sifting through a junkyard but didn’t find anything of value, so he said he decided to burglarize a nearby trailer. He didn’t know who lived there and entered through a window.
“He walked into a bedroom and he discovered a female lying on the bed,” he said in the report. “Also on the bed was a baby. Glowacz then left the bedroom and picked up a wooden log that was by the fireplace. Glowacz then reentered the bedroom and struck the female on the head by her neck, one time with the log.”
He said he picked up the baby and took her to the living room couch and then returned to the bedroom to look for money.
Another new detail was that he was arrested 18 hours later after another nearby burglary. Court records show he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in jail.
Now he’ll likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
Scott Butler has been an editor/reporter specializing in public safety coverage for 26 years with The Florida Times-Union. He can be reached at sbutler@jacksonville.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Cold case guilty plea brings closure after nearly 40 years of grief
