Grandma wouldn’t let him use her car. She turned up dead, Florida cops say | Miami Herald

He was at a hospital in Florida’s panhandle on Wednesday when he made the confession, deputies said.

Thomas Crawford, 30, disclosed to staff at Fort Walton Beach Medical Center that he killed his 71-year-old grandmother in Picayune, Mississippi, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. Crawford’s motive? He said his grandmother wouldn’t let him use her car, according to deputies.

Hospital staff called authorities to report the confession just after noon on Wednesday, the Picayune Item reports.

Mississippi authorities did a welfare check on the grandmother, who the coroner identified as Sharon Lee Crawford, the Item reports. Her dead body was in the home, authorities said, and it appeared she may have died on Tuesday night.

Her death was ruled a homicide, the Item reports.

Deputies went to the Florida medical center and arrested Crawford, the Okaloosa sheriff’s office said. Authorities said Crawford is wanted on homicide charges in Mississippi’s Pearl River County.

Crawford is being held in an Okaloosa County jail, where he was booked on Wednesday evening, according to online jail records. He’s being held without bond.

The grandmother’s car — a black Suzuki — was found hidden in the woods off Interstate 10, north of Fort Walton Beach, according to the Okaloosa sheriff’s office.