Willie Crain told fishermen he knew how to make a body disappear where nobody would ever find it.
He proved it in 1998 – and Florida's taxpayers have been feeding him ever since.
But Ron DeSantis just made sure that the free ride ends on December 10.
28 Years of Waiting for Justice
Willie Crain had already been to prison once for molesting children.
He served time in the 1980s and early 1990s for child sexual battery.
Florida let him out.
He found a woman at a country bar, bought her drinks, charmed her with $50 bills, and maneuvered his way into her home – where her 7-year-old daughter Amanda was waiting.
That night, he gave the mother five Valium tablets when she complained of a headache.
While Kathryn Harris slept, Crain carried Amanda Brown out of her home.
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At a boat landing that morning, witnesses saw Crain carrying what appeared to be a rolled item of clothing as he towed his crab boat into Old Tampa Bay.
One of those same witnesses told investigators Crain had made the same boast twice before – that he knew exactly how to get rid of a body without anyone ever finding it.
Amanda's blood was in Crain's bathroom.
Her blood was on his boxer shorts.
He told police he'd spilled bleach and spent four hours cleaning it up because he couldn't stand the smell.
The jury unanimously recommended death.
The System That Protects Killers
Crain has spent 27 years on Florida's death row filing appeals.
He claimed insufficient evidence.
He claimed the jury instructions were wrong.
He claimed the death penalty was unconstitutional.
The Florida Supreme Court rejected every argument in 2004.
Federal courts rejected the rest.
His final appeals were exhausted this year.
In 2009, writing from his prison cell, Crain told the Tampa Tribune he had evidence of his innocence hidden in his cell – but couldn't get it to the right people because he didn't know how to spell well enough to write the proper letters.
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He also claimed to have lung cancer and said he wouldn't live much longer.
He is 80 years old and scheduled to die December 10.
For 27 years, Amanda Brown's mother Kathryn Harris has lived without a grave to visit, without an urn to hold, without an answer to the question she's been asking since September 1998: "Where is she?"
She plans to attend the execution.
"I just wish he'd tell me what he did with her," Harris said Tuesday.
He won't.
He never will.
The only thing left is justice.
DeSantis Leaves Office With a Record
If Crain's execution proceeds as scheduled on December 10, he will be the 22nd person put to death in Florida this year – a new state record.
DeSantis will leave office in January having carried out more executions than any governor in Florida history.
Close to 50 men will have been put to death under his watch, more than double the pace of any predecessor.
The left has screamed about it the entire time.
They called it an "unprecedented escalation." They said it wasn't what Floridians wanted.
They filed last-minute appeals, organized protests, and ran op-eds about the sanctity of life for men who snuffed out the lives of children.
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Florida kept executing them anyway.
What DeSantis understood – and what his critics will never understand – is that justice delayed long enough stops being justice at all.
Families waiting 27, 30, 40 years for an execution aren't experiencing a justice system.
They're experiencing a cruelty machine designed to protect killers at the expense of victims.
Crain is a child molester who went to prison, got out, found his next victim, murdered her, and then spent nearly three decades letting the legal system do what he never could – hide what happened to Amanda Brown.
That ends on December 10.
A mother who has carried the weight of an unanswered question for 28 years will finally watch Willie Crain meet his maker.
She won't get her daughter back.
She won't get the grave she deserves.
But she will get the one thing the system finally managed to provide.
The man who took Amanda Brown will be gone too.
Sources:
- Dan Sullivan, "DeSantis orders execution for 1998 murder of Hillsborough 7-year-old," Tampa Bay Times, November 10, 2026.
- Hadia Moosvi and Jim Turner, "DeSantis signs death warrant for man convicted in 1998 murder of 7-year-old girl in Hillsborough County," News Service Florida / WFTS, November 10, 2026.
- Sophia Fanning, "DeSantis signs death warrant for man who killed 7-year-old Tampa girl," WFLA News, November 10, 2026.
- David Fischer, "Busiest US death chamber: Florida executes 2 men in a day, including an octogenarian," Associated Press, July 28, 2026.
