TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — One of the last memories Mary Hobbs has of her granddaughter Kimberly Waters was teaching her how to fish along the Weeki Watchee river.
The 11-year-old girl spent a week with her grandmother before returning to her mother’s house in Lakeland. A short time later, on March 4, 1994, Eddie Wayne Davis broke into the home while Kimberly’s mother was working a double at a nursing rehabilitation center.
Twenty years later, Hobbs voice still trembles with anger as she talks about Davis, who is scheduled to be executed July 10.
“I can’t even hardly say his name. In my opinion, he’s just vermin,” Hobbs said Tuesday, the day after Gov. Rick Scott signed Davis’ death warrant. “I’m full of anger and fury.”
Davis found Kimberly sleeping in her mother’s bed and gagged her so she wouldn’t wake up her older sister in another room. Davis took her to a trailer, raped her and later beat her. Kimberly fought as Davis suffocated her by pressing plastic over her face. His DNA was found under her fingernails. When she stopped breathing, he threw her body in a Dumpster.
Hobbs said Kimberly had a healthy curiosity and liked nature.
“She was interested in everything. She particularly liked wild flowers and butterflies. She was a very precious little child,” Hobbs said. “I lived on the water at that time, the Weeki Wachee River, and she could just come out and walk in the backyard and jump in the water.”
Kimberly’s mother, Beverly Schultz, had briefly dated Davis, but broke up with him after learning about his criminal history, Hobbs said. Davis had served prison sentences for a string of burglaries.
While Hobbs doesn’t know for sure, her gut tells her that Kimberly’s murder was an act of revenge.
Davis told police he broke into the house looking for beer money and didn’t think anyone was home.
Kimberly’s mother was killed in a motorcycle accident 10 years later.
Hobbs said at first thought she could just push her emotions away. But then she began meeting with a support group that helps people who’ve lost loved ones, and she realized she was not only grieving the loss of her granddaughter, but feeling helpless that she couldn’t help her own daughter’s pain.
“And that’s when it finally hit me — I might not be as tough as I think I am. And in the ensuing years, I can tell you truly I’m not nearly as tough I thought I was,” Hobbs said, her voice trailing away. “I can’t describe it. I just really cannot describe it.”
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