The document summarizes local news stories from St. Augustine, Florida. It includes: 1) New details emerging in the murder investigation of a local Catholic priest, with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent believing the priest was likely killed on April 11th rather than the 10th as initially thought. 2) A meeting between local potato farmers, researchers, and industry experts to collaborate on improving potato farming, which is an important crop for St. Johns County and the national spring crop. 3) A story about the JEA wastewater treatment plant in northern St. Johns County that discharges treated water into fragile wetlands, and efforts to ensure the plant expansion does not disturb the sensitive ecosystem.

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COVERING THE ANCIENT CITY AND ST. JOHNS COUNTY SINCE 1894
8 29562 00001 9
TV LISTINGS 6D
COMICS 6C
OPINION 6A
NATION/WORLD 5A
OBITUARIES 4A
INDEX Copyright 2016
4 SECTIONS, 32 PAGES
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THEY SAID IT
“‘A strong spirit transcends rules,’
Prince once said — and nobody’s
spirit was stronger, bolder or more
creative.” — PRESIDENT OBAMA,
after Prince’s death. See 8A
TODAY’S WEATHER
BY JARED KEEVER
jared.keever@staugustine.com
St. Johns County
priest Father Rene Robert
was killed where his
remains were found in
Burke County, Georgia,
likely later than initially
thought, according to a
Georgia Bureau of Inves-
tigation agent working on
the case.
“There is no doubt that
where we found the body
— all evidence leads us to
believe he
was killed
in the same
area where
we found
him,” Pat
M o r g a n ,
s p e c i a l
agent in
charge of the GBI’s Thom-
son office, said Thursday.
Steven James Murray,
28, who has been charged
with murder in Robert’s
death, led investigators to
the remains in the rural
area just south of Augusta
on Monday.
At a news confer-
ence that night, held to
announce the discovery,
St. Johns County Sheriff
David Shoar said inves-
tigators believed Robert
had been killed the night
of April 10.
But Morgan said in a
Thursday phone inter-
view with The Record that
he believes Robert was
likely killed on April 11.
“I know the sheriff
down there was saying
the 10th, but we are lean-
ing more toward the 11th
now,” he said.
A Wednesday autop-
sy indicated that Robert
died of multiple gunshot
wounds, but because of
the body’s condition the
GBI medical examiner’s
PLEASE SEE ROBERT/4A
GBI agent
shares new
details in
priest case
PETER.WILLOTT@STAUGUSTINE.COM
Lincoln Zotarelli, assistant professor in the Horticultural Sciences Department at the University of Florida, talks to farmers Tuesday about research on growing potatoes done on
UF’s research farm in Hastings.
»Industry experts meet with local farmers about important county crop
Nothing small about potatoes here
HARVEST TIME TALK
BY STUART KORFHAGE
stuart.korfhage@staugustine.com
With harvest time approach-
ing — or already arrived — local
potato farmers, researchers
and those in the farming indus-
try recently spent a few hours
together in Hastings collaborat-
ing on ways to make the business
even better.
St. Johns County and the
University of Florida hosted the
annual Potato Field Day event
Tuesday at the UF/IFAS Hastings
Agricultural Extension Center.
Potatoes are a big deal in St.
Johns County, and production
here is important to the rest of
the country.
Bonnie Wells, a local agricul-
ture agent with UF, said about 30
percent of the spring potato crop
in the United States comes from
the region. So whatever happens
on local farms has an impact on
the entire industry.
But Wells said one of the big-
gest growth areas is right here
because of the movement in
customer preference for locally
grown food.
“Local markets are what
they’re gaining in,” Wells said.
“That movement has been huge
for agriculture.
“What I’ve found, people are
getting to where organic doesn’t
really matter, but they just want
PLEASE SEE POTATO/7A
BY SEBASTIAN KITCHEN
sebastian.kitchen@jacksonville.com
After unlocking gates,
driving along an unfor-
giving unpaved road and
slogging along the path
they’ve beaten back with
a machete, Andrew Sears
and Katie Bizub trudge
into pristine wetlands.
They’re not here to
admire the fragile spider
lilies, ornamental blue
Virginia irises, the droop-
ing white blooms of the
lizard’s tails that are just
beginning to blossom, the
red buckeyes along the
banks of the shallow, slow-
flowing brook, the palmet-
tos, dogwoods or cypress
trees, or green growth in
every direction.
They are here to ensure
the millions of gallons
of treated wastewater
pumped in from a nearby
plant is not disturbing the
wetlands and is in compli-
ance with a state permit.
During a recent visit,
the wetlands appeared to
be flourishing.
“Your aim is not to
change the ecology of the
system,” said Sears, senior
environmental scientist
with JEA. “Everything is
in balance. There is lots of
diversity.”
JEA operates the
nearby Blacks Ford
Regional Waste Water
Treatment Facility under
a discharge permit from
PLEASE SEE WATER/7A
Wastewater,wetlands:Oddbedfellows?
»JEA plant in northern St. Johns County that
discharges into fragile ecosysem is expanding
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Robert
BY EMELIA HITCHNER
emelia.hitchner@staugustine.com
A second week of pro-
tests staged by parents of
students has prompted
the Florida School for
the Deaf and the Blind
to address audism and
American Sign Language
policies on its campus.
Audism is discrimina-
tion or prejudice against
individuals who are deaf
or hard of hearing.
The protests were
started last week by a
former employee, but
parent Shae Crook, 38,
said concerns over vari-
ous issues started at the
beginning of the year.
According to Crook, a
privately organized group
called “Parents of Drag-
ons” has shared letters
with President Jeanne
Prickett in the past sev-
eral months.
On Monday evening,
POD members and nearly
40 parents met for two
hours with Prickett and
Nancy Bloch, the execu-
tive director of com-
munications, to discuss
concerns.
“We all agree that we
PLEASE SEE FSDB/4A
Protests prompt FSDB officials to meet with concerned parents