John Parker was a man who loved the great outdoors, a former U.S. Marine who had served his country on two tours in Afghanistan. At 26 years old, he was a student at Santa Fe Community College, studying forestry with the goal of transferring to the University of Florida. More than anything, he was the devoted father of a young daughter. His kind nature and his passion for the wilderness were well known to his family, who understood his desire to be in the peaceful expanse of the Ocala National Forest in Florida.
On January 3, 2006, John and a friend, 26-year-old Amber Peck, set up a campsite for an overnight stay in a secluded area of the forest known as Hidden Pond. The following day, January 4, their lives were cut short in a senseless act of violence. A 19-year-old man named Leo Lancing Boatman, who had taken a bus to the forest with a stolen AK-47 rifle, came across their campsite.
After a brief, seemingly cordial exchange where Parker gave him directions, Boatman suddenly aimed the rifle at the two students. As they ran for their lives, he chased them and shot them both to death.
When John and Amber did not return, their worried families began to search. On January 6, two days after the murders, Amber's father found her car. Knowing John’s love for that particular part of the forest, his own father, sister, and other relatives focused their search there. Tragically, it was John's own family who made the horrific discovery, finding the bodies of both victims partially submerged in the shallow waters near their campsite. The discovery launched an intense investigation by the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
The case broke thanks to a tip from a motorist who had given a hitchhiker a ride near the forest a day after the killings. The description led investigators to Leo Boatman, who was arrested at his uncle's home on January 10, 2006. Boatman, who had a history of juvenile offenses and had been released from a juvenile prison just five months earlier, eventually confessed to the murders on tape. He offered no real explanation for the killings, telling investigators he had been influenced by murder mystery books. Authorities described him as an aspiring serial killer who showed no remorse for his actions.
A grand jury indicted Boatman on two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors were prepared to seek the death penalty, but the families of John Parker and Amber Peck, wishing to avoid the prolonged pain of a trial, agreed to a plea deal. On July 30, 2007, Boatman pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. In court, John’s mother, Vicky Parker, spoke of the enduring pain, asking, "How does a father forget seeing his firstborn son lying dead in the water?"
Leo Boatman’s violence did not end with his imprisonment. He went on to commit more crimes while incarcerated, including an attempted murder in 2009 and the murder of a cellmate, Ricky A. Morris, in 2010, for which he was convicted of third-degree murder. In 2019, Boatman and an accomplice murdered another inmate, William Chapman. This final act of violence led to a new trial, and on November 10, 2022, Leo Lancing Boatman was sentenced to death. He is currently on death row at the Union Correctional Institution.
