The murder took more than two decades to solve. A retired detective was behind it, cops say.
A former Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detective and his ex-wife are accused of murder in a cold case that took more than 20 years to solve.
William Baer was arrested July 1 on several charges related to the 1999 killing of Saad Kwaf including second-degree murder, kidnapping and armed robbery. Court records show the 64-year-old pleaded not guilty in Wednesday’s pretrial hearing.
Baer’s ex-wife, Melissa Schafer, faces similar charges as detectives believe she helped her then-husband with the murder. The 51-year-old was arrested in Missouri but has since been transferred to Duval County.
Kwaf, 39, was stabbed to death in the morning of May 1999 while leaving his Jacksonville home. DNA evidence found at the residence linked the then-married couple of Baer and Schafer to the scene, JSO undersheriff Pat Ivey said in an early July press conference.
In the 21 years it took to solve this case, detectives manages to create a timeline that began just before 9:30 when a previously unknown man and woman confronted Kwaf near his garage. An altercation ensued, the noise of which drew Kwaf’s wife who saw the man, later identified as Baer, plunge a knife into her husband, the arrest report says.
According to deputies:
Kwaf’s wife tried to help but the woman, later identified as Schafer, pulled her inside the home. Baer soon followed and the couple began demanding cash, claiming to know that Kwaf had yet to make his weekly deposit.
Once inside, Baer, who joined JSO in 1975 and served as an intelligence unit detective at the time, put the knife to the wife’s throat, deputies say. She eventually relented and pointed to the cabinets which contained about $30,000 in cash.
The couple then duct taped her to a chair and fled the home with the money, according to the report.
Baer’s 27-year career at JSO ended with his retirement in 2002. He had known of Kwaf through his time in law enforcement, according to the sheriff’s office.
The blood found under Kwaf’s fingernails and on the scene was used to create two DNA profiles. More than two years of genetic testing led detectives to Baer and Schafer.
Both are currently being held without bond in the Duval County jail.
