Key chain leads to man accused of killing engaged couple in 2000, Florida cops say

A couple engaged to be married was found mysteriously stabbed to death inside their burning home in 2000, Florida authorities said.

A key chain with a girl’s photo on it cracked the case open 25 years later.

Now, 58-year-old Julian Romero has been charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Vernice Reese and Robert Hardwick, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office announced Jan. 16.

The day before the couple was found dead, Hardwick heard someone in his garage and came downstairs to find a man, later identified as Romero, who said his truck had broken down nearby, cold case detective Paul Taylor said at a news conference.

Hardwick called one of his longtime employees, and he gave Romero a ride somewhere else, according to investigators.

Then the next morning at about 6:30 a.m., the home was found engulfed in a massive blaze, and the couple’s bodies were found stabbed to death inside, with one of their vehicles missing, deputies said.

What investigators learned from witnesses and phone records is the couple, who had plans to get married, arrived home from dinner that evening, and Hardwick was going to go to bed, Taylor said.

Reese was about to head out to a birthday party when she decided to go back into the house and give Hardwick his medication before bed, according to investigators.

But she made one last phone call to a family member to say she heard Hardwick arguing with another man upstairs.

Then the phone line went dead.

Investigators believe Hardwick was possibly going for his gun in the bedroom when Romero stabbed him, before later stabbing Reese and leaving her at the top of the stairs and setting the place on fire with gasoline.

“I think he went back there and was going to steal a car or whatever and I think he got confronted by the victims,” Taylor said in the news conference.

Law enforcement put out an alert for their vehicle, and it popped up in Broward County two weeks later, Taylor said. Investigators said they found Romero sleeping in the vehicle but said he had just gotten inside to take a nap and it belonged to one of his buddies.

He was arrested at the time for warrants for unrelated charges.

The St. Lucie County homicide case eventually went cold, as Romero wasn’t firmly connected to the couple’s deaths.

When Taylor began looking into the case, he said his team sent off DNA to the labs again in 2023 and got a hit confirming Romero’s DNA was at the crime scene in St. Lucie County.

But Taylor said a different piece of evidence cracked the case open: a key chain with a girl’s photo on it found in the ignition of the stolen vehicle Romero was sleeping in. Investigators learned it was Romero’s daughter in the photo, which contradicted the story he told investigators at the time that it was an acquaintance’s car he was using to take a quick nap.

“If you’re climbing in there to take a nap for a couple hours, why would you take the keys out of the ignition and put your daughter’s picture on it?” Taylor said during the news conference.

He described the key chain as “the big break.”

A grand jury indicted Romero on charges of first-degree murder with a weapon. He was already serving a life sentence on convictions of sexual battery and rape in Broward County, records show.

He’s now been transferred to St. Lucie County Jail, which is about a 70-mile drive north from West Palm Beach.

This story was originally published January 17, 2025 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Key chain leads to man accused of killing engaged couple in 2000, Florida cops say."