The Murders of Ronkeya Holmes & MaSarah Ross

29-year-old Ronkeya Holmes (top left) was murdered by the father of her child, Lester Ross (bottom left), on October 18th, 2009. Lester had custody of their 3-year-old daughter, MaSarah Ross (top right). In 2009, he lived in Haines City Florida with MaSarah and his wife, Sharon Ross (bottom right).

On the day Ronkeya was murdered, she went to Lester’s house to pick up MaSarah. Unbeknownst to Ronkeya, she would not be able to pick up her daughter that day. MaSarah had already been dead for months. Lester had killed her and hid her body inside of a freezer at his home.

Lester told his wife Sharon that MaSarah’s death was an accident, but still reportedly threatened to kill Sharon if she ever told anybody about it. Lester had allegedly been abusive towards Sharon for years and she reportedly feared for her life during this time.

In order to hide the fact that he had murdered his own daughter, Lester decided that he had to kill Ronkeya as well. Before Ronkeya arrived at their home on October 18th, Lester asked Sharon to buy rat poison and melt the pellets on the stove. He then instructed her to mix the rat poison into a bottle of Coke from their refrigerator. Sharon followed Lester’s commands, and then left the Coke bottle on their kitchen counter.

At some point, Lester gave the Coke to Ronkeya. A few hours later, Sharon stumbled upon Lester with Ronkeya’s lifeless body inside his home office. Lester forced Sharon to help him move both Ronkeya and MaSarah’s bodies into his car. He then forced Sharon to drive to an orange grove in Winter Haven to help bury their bodies.

Over a year later, in December 2010, Sharon led authorities to their grave sites. It took over a year for the remains of Ronkeya and MaSarah to be positively identified, but once they were, Lester was indicted on murder charges.

In November 2015, Lester went to trial and was ultimately found guilty of all charges. He was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

-
Sources:
Midland Daily News
Palm Beach Post
Spectrum News 13