Mom Ronkeya Holmes, 29 & daughter, Masaraha Ross, 2, missing from Winter Haven, Florida/Father-Husband Lester M. Ross Jr arrested/Bodies Found Confirmed to Be Mother & Daughter/Father Indited in both murders

Posted on October 29th, 2009
by Jan Barrett

I know children come up missing almost everywhere in this country on a daily basis but I guess with two very high profile cases that we have been working on since July of 2008, The Caylee Anthony case and then in February of 2009, the Haleigh Cummings case, we tend to notice the others from Florida as well. In fact I have personally covered two other cases from Florida, one in January of 2009 which is of the little boy, Adji Desir who is still missing as well. Then there was Somer Renee Thompson who disappeared on her way home from school who was later found dead in a Georgia Landfill. Then there was the little girl from Missouri, Elizabeth Olten that disappeared as she was on her way home from a friends house less than a half a mile from her home. They found her dead in a wooded area close to home and now have a 15 year old girl in custody for the murder of Elizabeth.

I sit back and ask myself how can anyone hurt an innocent child. Just in Florida alone this is four children in less than two years. Two confirmed to be dead and two still remaining a mystery. Are they dead somewhere or are they alive and if they are alive are they healthy and happy being treated well or are they being tortured. That is a hard question to think about but I still wonder.

Now this morning I get a Google alert about another little girl missing from Winter Haven, Florida as reported late Wednesday afternoon. This time she is 2 1/2 years old, Masaraha Ross and is missing along with her 29 year old mother Ronkeya Holmes and the Winter Haven Police Department Detectives say they might be in danger.

Masaraha is black and she has black hair and black eyes. She is about 38 inches tall and she only weighs about 30 lbs.





Police aren’t exactly sure of the location they were last known to be because of conflicting stories but according to Sgt. Brad Coleman the police department spokesman, witness statements places them in either the Winter Haven or Haines City areas.

In his news release, Coleman stated, “Multiple law enforcement agencies are involved in this case and information is currently being filtered from a variety of sources.”

I pray there is no foul play involved in this and that this mother and daughter are OK and well. I hope they are both found soon. Masaraha has such a cute little smile on her face, how can anyone harm a child like this.

If you or anyone have any information of the location of Masaraha Ross or of her mother please call Detective Sgt. Chris Ford at 863-291-5733 or 863-412-5973 or Detective Amity McGee at 863-291-5312 or 863-287-1961.

Jan Barrett

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Stop the abuse and murder of the children in the U.S.

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Absence of mom, girl signals empty holidays

By Donna Kelly
News Chief staff

Published: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 4:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 2:03 a.m.

WINTER HAVEN - Edith Fletcher isn't looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday - it just won't be the same without her daughter, Ronkeya Holmes, and granddaughter, Masaraha Ross, who have been missing for a month.

"Holidays don't even matter anymore. Holidays are for family," Fletcher said Tuesday during a phone interview from her home in Savannah, Ga. "A holiday isn't a holiday without your babies."

It's difficult, she said, to wait for news of her daughter and granddaughter. She is frustrated by not knowing what has happened to them and information seems slow in getting to her. And she doesn't understand why the man she believes is responsible for their disappearance - Masaraha's father, Lester Ross - has not been listed by law enforcement agencies as a suspect.

But Detective Amity McGee of the Winter Haven Police Department said investigators from several agencies - WHPD, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - are working together to find Holmes, 29, and her 3 1/2-year-old daughter. Authorities are still sifting through and analyzing information received through court orders.

"At this time nobody has been named a suspect," McGee said.

Meanwhile, Fletcher is on a leave of absence from her supervisory job at the Bohemian Hotel Savannah Riverfront until Nov. 24, while she deals with the emotional roller coaster she's been on since her daughter and granddaughter were declared missing Oct. 28.

She wonders about "her babies" - where they are, what they are doing, how they are dressed, whether or not they are eating.

"All these things you wonder every day," she said.

Fletcher describes her daughter as "a good mom."

"She loves her kids. She takes them to the mall and to the park," she said. "She has a sweet personality. Everyone loves her."

In addition to Masaraha, Holmes has an 8-year old daughter, Remiah.

Masaraha lives in Savannah, Ga., with her mother, but had been staying with her father in Winter Haven while Holmes went back to school. Holmes had come to pick up her daughter to take her home. At the time, Sgt. Brad Coleman, spokesman for the Winter Haven Police Department, said Holmes was to retrieve Masaraha from Ross at the Wal-Mart in Haines City.

But surveillance tapes from Wal-Mart didn't allow detectives to see whether or not the exchange actually took place.

Law enforcement agencies started piecing together the story, which began April 14 ,when Holmes met with Lester Ross in St. Augustine. Holmes was leaving Masaraha with Ross until she finished training to become a certified nurses assistant and a childcare associate.

When Holmes finished school around Sept. 18, she began attempting to get her daughter from Lester Ross. On Oct. 2, she made contact with Ross via text messaging and informed him that she was traveling to Winter Haven to pick up her daughter. The following day, Holmes arrived in Winter Haven and contacted Ross, who told her that Masaraha was out of town with an uncle and would be returning Oct. 4.

On Oct. 4, Ross did not deliver Masaraha to Holmes as promised. Holmes returned to Georgia and on Oct. 7, contacted Winter Haven Police Department to make a report.

By Oct. 14-15, Holmes was in Winter Haven trying to get her daughter back and was staying with her former stepfather, Archie Forte. She then stayed with her grandmother in Haines City one day before returning to Forte's home.

On Oct. 18, Nafateria Fletcher came to Winter Haven because she was worried about her sister.

Later that night, Joseph Wilcox, 34 of Winter Haven, was stopped by Lake Mary Police while driving the 1992 Ford Escort driven to Florida by Holmes. Wilcox was arrested on unrelated charges and the vehicle was impounded. Wilcox is Lester Ross' cousin. Items belonging to Holmes and her daughter, such as clothes, toys and Holmes' identification badge were found in the car.

On Oct. 20, Nafateria Fletcher spoke with Holmes on the phone. Fletcher said Holmes told her the car had been towed when Wilcox was stopped by police and arrested. Holmes would not tell Fletcher where she was located.

Oct. 23, Fletcher filed a report with the Winter Haven Police Department.

Ross told police he last saw Holmes and his daughter on Oct. 18, when he turned Masaraha over to Holmes at the Haines City Wal-Mart.

Ross and Wilcox have stopped providing information in the case, Coleman indicated earlier this month.

Edith Fletcher and her family continue to pray and face each day as it comes. Holmes' sisters, Tameka and Nafateria, who is called Angel, continue to have dreams about their sister. And Fletcher will return to Winter Haven on Thursday.

"We're doing the best we can. We are just depending on God. That's all we can do," Fletcher said.

"I really need my babies back because I miss them," Fletcher added.

Anyone with information about Ronkeya Holmes and Masaraha Ross is asked to call McGee at 863-291-5312.

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February 2, 2010 at 11:26 p.m.


WINTER HAVEN | The father of missing 3 1/2-year-old Masaraha Ross said he had nothing to do with the disappearance of his daughter or her mother.

Masaraha and her 29-year-old mother, Ronkeya Holmes, have been missing since October, and Lester Ross may have been the last person to see the two. Lester Ross said the media attention and police scrutiny has caused him to drink heavily and has affected his ability to get contracts through his company, Ross Construction.

"I feel like they are mostly at me," Lester Ross said about investigators. "Jack Daniels made a lot more money from me. I don't have anything to hide."

Lester Ross said he hired an Orlando lawyer who is using a private investigator to help with the search, but he hasn't received any updates.

"I just think that she doesn't want to be bothered," Lester Ross said. "I just want them to surface so then I can just be done with pretty much her family."

Winter Haven detectives have the assistance of a special agent from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who is working full time on the case.

Winter Haven investigators say they have tried to interview Lester Ross again and said they have had a hard getting a response from him. The last time investigators spoke with him was Oct. 29, said Winter Haven Detective Amity McGee.

But Lester Ross said he's always been accessible and is still living in his Winter Haven residence.

"I took seven individual lie-detector tests," Lester Ross said. "I told them everything I knew."

Detectives are puzzled by conflicting statements from witnesses, including Lester Ross and Holmes' family, McGee said. She would not say whether Lester Ross is a person of interest or a suspect in the case.

Lester Ross, who is originally from Georgia, said he had a sexual relationship with Holmes, but he never was her boyfriend. He first met Holmes five years ago at a motel on U.S. 17 North in Winter Haven where he said he went with his cousin, Joseph Wilcox, to meet some friends.

Lester Ross said he continued a sexual relationship with Holmes, who he said was living at the motel, and she also had a relationship with Wilcox, 34.

Wilcox has been at the center of the investigation into the disappearance of Holmes and her daughter because he was found driving Holmes' car.

"We talked every now and then," Ross said about his involvement with Holmes. "I met one of her sisters, and I had a relationship with one of her sisters. My cousin (Wilcox) had a relationship with her. It wasn't nothing to brag about."

When he found out Holmes was pregnant with Masaraha, Ross said, he willingly took on the responsibility of fatherhood and kept his daughter for a year shortly after she was born.

He kept her again for a second time for five months beginning in June because Holmes was pursuing nursing at a community college in Georgia.

"She was saying she needed a break, and she needed to get herself together," he said.

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What an adorable little girl. I hope and pray that she is alive somewhere.

Police in Winter Haven are working to build a murder case against the father of a little girl missing for more than a year, the police chief says.

Lester Ross Jr. is in jail on a witness tampering charge, accused of threatening to kill his wife, Sharon Ross, if she told anyone what happened.

A judge ruled Thursday that Ross be held without bail, a day after two bodies were found in a shallow grave in a Winter Haven orange grove.

The bodies have not been identified but police believe them to be those of 29-year-old Ronkeya Holmes and 2½-year-old Masaraha Ross, the daughter of Ross and Holmes.

"Both of them being in the same shallow grave, one of them being smaller skeletized remains, the other being larger, it doesn't take a great leap of faith to come to the conclusion that that's our missing baby and her mom," said Winter Haven Police Chief Gary Hester.

According to an affidavit, it was Ross' wife who gave authorities directions to the orange grove where the two bodies were found.

Sharon Ross told an FDLE agent that she returned home in May 2009 to find Masaraha dead. She said her husband told her it was an accident.

Sharon Ross said she believed her husband kept the little girl's body in a deep freezer in their home for several months.

In October 2009, around the time Ronkeya Holmes was last heard from, Sharon Ross said she watched her husband struggle to load two items wrapped in sheets into a vehicle, and that he then directed her to drive to an orange grove off Dundee Road, according to the affidavit.

Sharon Ross said her husband removed the items from the trunk and carried them into the orange grove, then after several minutes returned empty-handed.

She said later when they returned home, Ross wrapped a cellphone power cord around her neck and told her he would kill her if she ever told anyone what happened.

According to the affidavit, investigators believe Ross killed Holmes to cover up the fact that the child was dead.

Police say he is not cooperating with them in the case at this time.

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Lester M. Ross Jr., who is being held without bond in the Polk County Jail on a witness-tampering charge, has been identified in statements by his wife as being responsible for the disappearance - and possibly the deaths - of his young daughter and the girl's mother.



Lester M. Ross Jr., 32, of Winter Haven, is in the Polk County Jail on a witness-tampering charge, but he has yet to be charged with the disappearance of his 3-year-old daughter, Masaraha Ross, or the girl's mother, Ronkeya Holmes, 29.

An arrest warrant released by the Winter Haven Police Department on Thursday details statements by Sharon Ross about her husband, Lester Ross Jr., and the disappearance of the man's daughter, Masaraha Ross, 3, and the girl's mother, Ronkeya Holmes, 29.

The mother and daughter were reported missing on Oct. 20, 2009, by Ronkeya Holmes' mother and sister.

In a Monday interview with investigators, Sharon Ross stated "that she believed that Lester M. Ross Jr. kept the body of Masaraha Ross in a deep freezer in their residence for several months, never notifying law enforcement of the child's death," according to the warrant.

Sharon Ross stated that her husband told her that Masaraha's death at their home in Winter Haven was an accident.

Also according to the warrant, Sharon Ross told investigators that on or about Oct. 20, 2009, she and her husband drove a rental vehicle to an orange grove off Dundee Road in Winter Haven and that her husband removed items from the trunk and carried them into the orange grove. Sharon Ross stated that her husband later returned to the vehicle without the items that had been taken from the trunk.

According to the warrant, Sharon Ross stated that before going to the grove, she saw her husband "load into the trunk of the vehicle two items, each wrapped in sheets, and that it appeared to her that Lester M. Ross Jr. was struggling and/or straining to carry the items to the trunk."

According to the warrant, Sharon Ross stated that after she and her husband returned from the grove on Oct. 20, 2009, he "wrapped a power cord for a cellular telephone around (her) neck and told her that if she ever told anybody about what happened, that he would kill her."

Winter Haven police announced Wednesday that they had found the remains of two people, one larger than the other, in an orange grove off Sage Road, with runs north from Dundee Road in northeast Winter Haven.

Later Wednesday, Lester M. Ross Jr., 32, of Winter Haven, was arrested by police and charged with tampering with or harassing a witness. In a Polk County courtroom in Bartow on Thursday, the man was ordered to remain in jail without bond because his Wednesday arrest came after he had just been released from jail Monday on a grand theft charge.

The warrant states that based on Sharon Ross' statements and directions to the orange grove that she provided, law enforcement located the skeletal remains of an adult and a child in a shallow grave.

According to the warrant, law enforcement investigators believe that Lester Ross Jr. "murdered Ronkeya Holmes to hide the fact that Masaraha Ross was dead and to avoid any criminal charges" related to the child's death.

A forensic investigation of the remains will be undertaken to determine whether the human remains found in the grove this week actually are those of Ronkeya Holmes and Masaraha Ross.

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Posted on December 27th, 2010 by Jan Barrett

Police in Florida recovered the remains of what appears to be one adult and one child buried in a shallow grave in an orange grove in Winter Haven last week, December 22, 2010. They have every reason to believe the bodies are that of 29 year old Ronkeya Holmes and her 2 year old daughter, Masaraha Ross.

Holmes and Ross disappeared over a year ago after Holmes went to Winter Haven to pick her daughter up from her father. She allowed her daughter to stay with the father while she was attending college classes in Georgia.

The father, Lester Ross told police that he met with Holmes in the Haines City Wal-Mart parking lot and handed his daughter over to her and that was the last time he saw her, but later that night police found one of Ross’s cousins driving Holmes car with toys, clothing and even Holmes college parking pass hanging from the rear view mirror in it.

Lester Ross was been arrested a day after the bodies were found and a judge has ordered him to be held without bail. He is being charged at this time for tampering with a witness after he allegedly threatened to kill his wife, Sharon if she told anyone what happened.

It was stated in an affidavit that Sharon Ross is the one responsible for the bodies to have been found after she gave authorities directions to where they could find the mother and child.

Her story was that she has returned home in May 2009 only to find the child dead and her husband swearing to her that it was an accident. She told police that she believed that Ross kept his daughter’s body in a deep freeze for several months. That would explain why he would never let Ronkeya Holmes talk to the child when she would ask to. He always had an excuse to refuse her to.

Sharon Ross told police that in October 2009 she saw her husband struggling to load two items wrapped in sheets into the trunk of his car and then he told her to drive them to an orange grove off Dundee Road. She said Ross took the items out of the trunk and carried them into the orange grove and then later returned to the car. She told police that when they got home he wrapped a cell phone power cord around her neck telling her if she ever told anyone about what just happened he would kill her.

Sharon told police she believed that her husband killed the child’s mother to cover up that his daughter was dead.

Winter Haven Police Chief Gary Hester said they will work round the clock if necessary to bring justice in this case. He said that is could be weeks or even months before they are able to make a positive identification on the bodies that were found. They are working to build a murder case against Ross for the murder of his daughter and her mother.

It is good to know that they are still working so hard to find out who did this to this precious child and her mother. I pray that if Lester Ross is the one who killed them, that he pays dearly for it. If it had been an accident he should have reported it, not hide it.

My prayers go to the family of Ronkeya Holmes and Masaraha Ross. I do wish all the missing children could be brought home one way or another. I keep them all in my prayers, including Haleigh Cummings, Adji Desir and Zach Pittman. Please help me keep them all in our prayers.

Jan Barrett

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the saddest part, it is not only Florida but everywhere. Florida does seem like a cesspool compared to the rest of our country.Something has got to STOP Now!!!! Politicians seem so unconcerned. If it were to happen to one of THEIR children I do believe this would be a top priority of government. Our children are our future, how can we have a bright productive future for this country if our children are murdered, emotionally destroyed by abuse that can take years to recover from. Then they grow up and teach our children, run our countries churches, big coroporation's, become family men and women,;parents" that begin to repeat the pattern, over and ever. The cycle is going to start again, only I am scared the pattern will get worse as the abuse continues to get worse. Someone has to get on board and support this problem. Someone that people will listen too.

Police Still Awaiting ID Of Two Skeletons Linked to Lester Ross


WINTER HAVEN | Two skeletons unearthed in an orange grove nearly nine months ago are still officially unidentified, though Winter Haven police say they are confident the remains are those of Ronkeya Holmes and her 3-year-old daughter, Masarah Ross.

Police have said they believe Lester Ross, Masarah's father, buried the two in the grove after he killed Holmes.

Ross, 33, is being held without bond in the Polk County Jail on a witness tampering charge. A bond reduction hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 9 and could grant Ross bail.

"I'm confident once the judge hears all the evidence in this case, he will choose to keep him in jail," Winter Haven police Chief Gary Hester said. "Sometime in the next several weeks, I would hope that we would go ahead and get him indicted for the murders."

The remains were found Dec. 22 and were sent by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to a University of Florida human identification lab for DNA testing in January.

Typically, police would use dental records to identify the two skeletons, but Hester said police couldn't find dental records for Holmes, and it appeared Masarah had never been to a dentist.

In March, officials told The Ledger an identification wouldn't take much longer. Now, Hester said, he expects an official identification in four to six weeks.

"I'm comfortable that's Ronkeya Holmes and Masarah Ross, and hopefully these forensics are going to determine that," Hester said.

There has not been a rush to identify the remains, Hester said, because the suspect in the case is in jail.


"The reason is it's not an urgency with FDLE, and rightfully so, because the killer is in jail and he's not going anywhere," Hester said. "Time is on our side to get all the forensics done. If he were on the street we couldn't take all this time to get this done."

A FDLE spokesman declined to comment.

Police have said they believe Masarah died in May 2009, while staying with her father, and her body was kept in a freezer in Lester Ross's house.

Holmes grew tired of excuses about the whereabouts of her daughter and drove from her home in Georgia to Winter Haven in October 2009. Police said they believe Holmes was killed by Ross and the two bodies were taken to an orange grove east of Winter Haven.

Police found the skeletons after being led to the grove by Ross's wife, Sharon Ross.

She told police that her husband claimed the death of the little girl was an accident.

Lester Ross wrapped a cord around his wife's neck and threatened to strangle her if she told anyone what she'd seen, police said. That led to the witness tampering charge.

Investigators said Sharon Ross knew where to find the remains because her husband ordered her to drive him to the site to dispose of the two bodies. His license was suspended at the time.

Ross has been in held in the Polk County Jail since Dec. 22. His lawyer, Marc Joseph of Tampa, couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.
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WINTER HAVEN | The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has officially identified two skeletons found in a Winter Haven orange grove as Ronkeya Holmes, 29, and her 3-year-old daughter, MaSarah Ross, according to Winter Haven Police Chief Gary Hester.
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WINTER HAVEN | Two years after the remains of a mother and her young daughter were found in a shallow Winter Haven grave, the man police long thought was responsible has been indicted.

Lester Ross Jr., 34, was indicted Thursday in the killing of Ronkeya Holmes and his and Holmes' 3-year-old daughter, MaSarah Ross.
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