CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. — In November 1988, Robert Hecht was found dead. Deputies said he had been struck in the head several times with a heavy glass ashtray while lying on his living room couch.
The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office happened upon the scene after concerned friends requested a wellness check at the 58-year-old's home on Rio Togas Road.
Deputies spent over three decades trying to solve Hecht's murder. Now, nearly 36 years later, they can finally close the case.
People who knew Hecht told deputies that they saw him on Nov. 26 with a man he only introduced as Ray at the Fisherman’s Village Oyster Bar in Punta Gorda. They recalled his southern accent and how he told people he was from Tennessee and Kentucky, separated from his wife, and, at the time, had a 14-year-old daughter.
They also told deputies that they had never seen Ray before that Saturday night.
Nevertheless, Hecht allegedly told a friend they were hitting another bar before heading home. He was found on the living room couch the next morning.
During an initial investigation, deputies realized that Hecht's Lincoln, which he purchased around one month before his murder, was missing from his garage. On Nov. 28, it was seen parked on Main Street in Lenoir, North Carolina, and seized by the Lenoir Police Department.
Items found during crime scene investigations at both Hecht's home and the recovered Lincoln included two cigarette butts, one from the floor of the home near the victim and one inside the car.
While investigating, deputies learned that Hecht would allow people to smoke in his house—but not in his car—leading them to believe that the cigarette inside his Lincoln was from the person who killed Hecht and stole the car.
Even still, the case went cold, and investigators were unable to confirm Ray's identity.
In 2021, Charlotte County detectives began to interview everyone still available and reexamined evidence using new DNA technology on the cigarette butts that were recovered from the car and home.
The analysis determined that DNA from the same person was present on both cigarettes, but with no match in the Combined DNA Index System, detectives had to turn to genealogical examination. A match was found in a family from Tennessee.
Deputies conducted interviews and used the process of elimination and direct comparisons to family members, including the 14-year-old daughter Ray referenced during the time of the murder. The DNA was then identified as Kenneth Ray Miller, who would have been just 36 years old when Hecht died.
Witnesses were shown photos of Miller and confirmed to deputies it was the man they met that Saturday evening all those years ago.
Deputies said one witness even saw Miller in Robert's home the morning of the murder sitting on the end of the same couch where Hecht was found. To the witness, it appeared Miller had slept there, given that he had a blanket over his legs.
Miller died in 2007 at 55 due to natural causes, but a criminal history check revealed an extensive history, including aggravated battery, burglary, arson and more.
The case was officially closed on March 22. Hecht's loved ones were also contacted about the news.
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