Six years after the murder of Tallahassee’s Elisa Thompson, the Leon County Second Judicial Court is putting Thompson’s murder case on trial later this month.
Thompson, 26, was found dead in her car on Nov. 30, 2018, after she was reported missing, according to the Tallahassee Police Department.
Court documents show that Thompson was reported missing on Nov. 29 and had not picked up her child from school. Thompson’s family and the father of her child made numerous attempts to reach her, but she did not respond.
Thompson’s body was discovered in the rear of her car, which had been abandoned in the 2800 block of a Sharer Road parking lot, located off North Monroe near Interstate 10.
According to investigators, she died from a stabbing.
Thompson worked at a call center on Mahad Drive north of I-10. She ate her lunch on Nov. 29 at approximately 12:45 p.m., according to court documents. She frequently drove her Nissan Rogue to have lunch, as reported by two witnesses who saw her doing so.
A man approached her driver’s side and struck up a conversation with her. He was later identified as Reginald Gibson, 31. Gibson got in the car and drove off after Thompson slid to the passenger side.
Arrest records state that Gibson later admitted to investigators that his original purpose for coming to Thompson’s job was to find his ex-girlfriend. He claimed he saw Thompson in the parking lot and that he had a previous relationship with her.
According to Gibson, he requested Thompson give him a ride so he could find his former partner. Gibson allegedly stated that Thompson refused to take him, stressing that she needed to go back to work.
According to the report, Gibson said that after getting inside the car, Thompson shifted to the passenger seat and he said, “I guess I scared her … I told her I didn’t want to hurt her. I told her not to get out because I didn’t want the police to come.”
Gibson said the two drove back to his house and had sex. He asserted that it was agreeable.
Then, according to Gibson, Thompson tried to leave, but he stopped her because he thought she may call the police.
He also said that he was furious about something that had to do with his ex-girlfriend.
Gibson was at the Talla Villa Apartments on South Magnolia Drive, where Thompson resided, according to a witness who phoned 911 the day after Thompson vanished. The witness said that Gibson had confessed to killing a woman and had spoken of abandoning a car in a parking area off Sharer Road.
Detectives went to Gibson’s house and discovered a woman’s earring, some blood spatter on the bedroom walls and mattress, and a jacket that matched Thompson’s when she was last seen alive. Gibson had cleaned his comforter within the previous 24 hours, investigators said.
Gibson was arrested and charged with Thompson’s murder.
“We finally need to move forward with it,” Judge Lance Neff said.
The case will go to trial in two weeks.