TAMPA, Florida — Police in Tampa, Florida, have reportedly been searching a house in the area with a dark past for human remains but in another incident.
Tampa Police Department detectives with the unsolved crimes unit along with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement received information that a body was possibly buried on the property of a house at 1701 E. Fifth Avenue in the Ybor City area of the city, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
The homeowner, Kurt Schleicher, told the newspaper that law enforcement has been to his house a couple of times over the last few weeks.
About 90 years ago, the house was reportedly the location of a gruesome murder, the Times reported. It was believed to be where Victor Licata, 21, killed his parents and three siblings with an ax in 1933.
It was believed that the murder case partially inspired the 1939 movie, “Reefer Madness” where it depicted young people using marijuana before committing crimes, WFLA reported. Police at first had identified marijuana as being involved in the murders.
Licata was declared mentally unfit to stand trial and he was never prosecuted, according to the news station. He was eventually committed to the Florida Hospital for the Insane before being moved to Florida State Prison after an escape attempt and going on the run. He eventually died by suicide in 1950.
The homeowner said the search had nothing to do with those murders, WFLA reported.
Schleicher reportedly told the news station that the search was in regard to a man who had rented a room in the 1980s. That man allegedly admitted to killing a woman and then burying her body in the backyard while he was on his deathbed.
Police say Schleicher is not involved in the investigation, the Times reported. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents first knocked on his door in June. and had asked for permission to dig through his backyard.
Schleicher said that investigators reportedly found bullets and a bone in his backyard, according to the newspaper.
