Mike Garvin: Camera-Friendly Killer

A Cheating Husband Is Oblivious to Electronics
“One for the Road” (Forensic Files)

Mike Garvin is memorable for something he forgot or maybe was unaware of in the first place — a little piece of modern-day technology known as the security camera.

The video clips that contradicted the Florida real estate agent’s account of his wife’s disappearance helped authorities win a murder conviction against him. They also made it fun to watch “One for the Road,” the Forensic Files episode about the case.

Gone girl. For this week, I checked into where the killer is today and also looked for details about homicide victim Shirley Garvin’s life.

So let’s get started on the recap of “One for the Road,” along with additional information drawn from internet research:

In January 2003, Michael Jay Garvin reported that his wife, Shirley, had vanished from their hotel room in Key West, Florida.

Life of the party. Shirley Garvin, 55, was born in Washington, D.C., the only child of Robert and Cecilia Fleming.

She met Michael Garvin when they both lived in Virginia Beach, and their 14-year marriage looked happy enough from the outside. Mike had no record of domestic violence or other prior criminal behavior, according to an AP account.

None of the newspaper coverage about the murder mentioned an occupation for Shirley, but she was described as a socialite and probably didn’t have to worry too much about money. Her parents, who died in 2000 and 2001, had left her around $900,000, according to Missing Persons Unit, a Court TV series that produced an episode about her murder.

Shirley and Mike lived on the 9000 block of Whittington Drive in Jacksonville, Florida, and both enjoyed serving on the board of the Mandarin Community Club, where Shirley was the “driving force” behind organizing parties and other get-togethers, according to a Florida Times-Union account.

Emergency search operation. Mike Garvin told police that he thought his wife went out for a walk and he had gotten worried when she didn’t return.

Shirley often wore a Rolex watch and other expensive jewelry that could have made her a target for thieves looking to prey on tourists. She also had high blood pressure and became disoriented without her medication, her concerned husband told police.

Local and state law enforcement sprang into action, searching every corner of the Quality Inn — where no one remembered seeing Shirley — and then mobilizing tracker dogs on the ground and a helicopter over the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to find her.

On the beach a mile from the hotel, a citizen found a pair of sandals that looked like ones Shirley owned, so perhaps she’d accidentally drowned.

Trouble in paradise. The authorities considered suicide as a possibility, too. Maybe she just walked into the sea.

But her friends told investigators she wasn’t depressed — quite the opposite, she was a live wire. But she’d grown disenchanted with Mike and was thinking about breaking up.

Detectives tracked down security footage from a rest-stop convenience store along the 500-mile route from Jacksonville to Key West. It showed Mike Garvin entering and exiting the Pilot Foodmart without Shirley in tow.

A woman who doesn’t hit the restroom during a long road trip? Definitely suspicious.

PC problem. Mike’s account of stopping at a local eatery to pick up two meals for the couple to eat back at their hotel room fell apart, too. A bartender said Mike only bought one sandwich, and a receipt proved it. As YouTube commenters summed it up:

Corey Hodges All that money and you stay at a Quality Inn. RedGibsonsRock What can you expect from a guy who’s too cheap to buy a second meal for the sake of his alibi?

The authorities, who seized Mike’s computer, found out that he not only had a girlfriend on the side but was also trolling for other date mates on Match.com during the time police were searching for Shirley. (The tech-illiterate Mike didn’t know homicide rule No. 1 — destroy the hard drive.)

And the cameras implicated him again when authorities found tollbooth footage that showed him driving alone in a white Jaguar during the time he was supposed to be heading toward Key West with Shirley in the passenger seat.

No explaining this away. In hopes of finding more evidence, the authorities did something that ultimately guaranteed Garvin would be saying goodbye to romantic trysts with mysterious women and hello to uncomfortable encounters with male career criminals: They secretly attached a GPS device to his car.

The GPS — which at the time was relatively new technology, so we can’t blame Mike for being blindsided by it — tracked him to a remote site on Jacksonville’s Hecksher Drive, where authorities later found Shirley’s body wrapped in plastic in a very shallow grave, according to a Florida Times-Union story. She had died from two bullet wounds to the head from a .22 caliber pistol, probably fired while she was asleep.

Police found traces of her blood at the couple’s home.

Over-extended husband. At that point, police already had a solid case that Mike Garvin had made the trip to Key West alone, as a cover story. But the incriminating evidence kept rolling in.

Shirley’s close friends — the gals she met for ladies night every week — told investigators that she hadn’t mentioned anything to them about a trip to Key West.

Mike’s finances gave him a motive for the crime. He was $80,000 in debt and had bounced checks, according to Forensic Files and Missing Persons Unit.

Most of the couple’s assets were in Shirley’s name. And, as mentioned, she was thinking about divorce. What did the popular, fun-loving Shirley need with a promiscuous spendthrift of a husband?

Police arrested Mike Garvin and charged him with first-degree murder.

He took a long hard look at the pile of evidence against him and did something rarely seen on Forensic Files.

Instead of changing his original story, he pleaded guilty.

Friends’ perspective. Defense lawyer Mark Miller said his client wished to “spare his family” of a potentially “high profile trial,” according to an AP account from Aug. 27, 2004.

Judge Karen Cole listened to victim impact statements before the sentencing.

“She tried and tried and he murdered her,” said Shirley’s cousin, Ellen Fleming, according to a Florida Times-Union account from Sept. 1, 2004. “Why could he not be man enough to just walk away?”

It also came out that Shirley had helped finance Mike’s daughter’s college education.

“Shirley was a good wife,” said friend Wilma McLaren, as reported by the Florida Times-Union. “She created a beautiful home for her and Mike. She did not deserve this horrible ending.”

Slammer city. Judge Cole gave him life without the possibility of parole on a charge of second-degree murder.

Up until recently, Garvin was better known as No. 126380 in the South Unit of the South Florida Reception Center (a rather friendly-sounding name for a state prison) in Doral, about 10 miles from the Orlando International Airport.

He didn’t have a chance to fly the coop — the Florida Department of Corrections kept him in “close custody,” making him ineligible for work camps outside a secure perimeter.

As of March 2020, Florida no longer listed him as a prisoner, and a Forensic Files Now reader (thanks, Marcus) wrote in to say he died after serving 17 years.

Mystery remains. Forensic Files mentioned that, before Shirley, Mike had a wife who had died by hanging herself.

Media accounts didn’t reveal her name or any other information about her.

Garvin had her body cremated, so police couldn’t go back and look for forensic evidence of foul play.

It’s lucky the Florida authorities did such a good job of building a case against him for Shirley’s murder and put him in a place where security cameras — and bulked-up inmates with neck tattoos — discouraged him from harming anyone else.

That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR

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Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube or Amazon Prime