A cold case is making progress after an arrest in the 2010 murder of an Oakland Park man.
Aaron Dobbins was arrested in Tampa last month and is charged with first-degree murder for the killing of Chad McMurray.
After years with no substantive leads, DNA found under McMurray’s fingernails was matched to Dobbins. According to reports he told investigators he doesn’t remember being there but didn’t dispute the forensic findings. He’s being held in the Broward County jail without bond.
As SFGN first reported in 2010, McMurray was found by friends in his Oakland Park home. His truck was missing and later found abandoned in Lauderhill. Details on a specific motive haven’t been released, but sex work and jealousy may be at the heart of the case. At the time of the crime, Dobbins worked as an adult entertainer under the names Trace Hunter and Trace Michaels.
According to WPLG, Dobbins’ roommate and occasional lover was John Navarro, who was also an adult worker. A BSO spokesperson said the victim and Dobbins likely met through Navarro.
The arrest report says McMurray and Navarro met at least three times, and one of the occasions involved group sex that included Dobbins. Navarro called McMurray several times the night of the murder but those calls didn’t raise red flags at the time. WPLG also reports that Navarro couldn’t say why Dobbins’ DNA was under McMurray’s fingernails, but said during his five-year relationship with Dobbins that the accused was very jealous.
Brutal End To A Troubled Life
McMurray's life came to a particularly violent end. He was killed “execution-style.” He was found face down in a pool of blood with his hands bound behind his back. McMurray had recently moved to South Florida after run-ins with the law and spending time in prison. He had moved to Broward from North Carolina looking for a fresh start. His record included doing time for drugs. He also violated his probation and was sentenced to 16 months in Florida.
Anyone with additional information on the case can anonymously call Broward County Crime Stoppers at (954) 493-TIPS (8477).
Editor’s Note: In the original version of this story we mixed up the names of McMurray and Dobbins in the last paragraph. It’s now been corrected. We thank the reader who called us and alerted us to this mistake. We regret the error.
