Jason Verdow's legacy lives on in Cape Coral 50 years after his killing

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK)—A nine-year-old boy was abducted and killed in the Cape Coral woods 50 years ago, cracking a small town's sense of safety.

WINK News reporter Corey Lazar exclusively sat down with Jason Verdow's mother on the 50th anniversary of her son's death. Inside an old, rusted metal chest is an emotional time capsule for Helen Hubbard, offering a glimpse at her nine-year-old son's life.

Everything Jason loved is inside one box, unopened for years. Jason Steele Verdow was murdered in Cape Coral 50 years ago.

It stings to see his drawings, his baseballs, and his neatly written cursive letters to Santa. "PS, don't miss our house," one letter read.

"So he had a sense of humor," Lazar said. "Oh, he was, I told you, he was the perfect child," Hubbard said.

Jason's love notes also remain in the chest. "I love Cheryl Homison. Always did. Always Will. True Love, Cheryl H and Jason V," one note read.

It all brings back beautiful memories of a full-of-life, blonde-haired little boy who was athletic and friendly. "And got along with everybody, knew everybody, and he was a smart kid," Hubbard said.

Lazar sat down with Hubbard right by the baseball field where Jason grew up. "What memories do you have out here?" Lazar asked.

"Lots of things. I guess he enjoyed this was his, his thing. The other kids didn't play sports as he did, but he did. He loved sport. He loved it," Hubbard said.

Jason was the youngest of three boys. At only nine years old, he played for the major league team on Cape Coral Little League.

"How often was he out here?" Lazar asked. "Oh, gosh, probably every day," Hubbard said.

Tom Gorton Sr. was Jason's baseball coach and will never forget the little boy ready to play. "When I first met him, he was late for practice. I had practice at Cape Elementary School, and all the kids were there, but he wasn't, so I looked across the field, and here he comes, walking," Gorton Sr. said.

"He had his ball, I mean, his glove, and he's walking across the field. And there was something about him. He was, he was a lot, you know, he had a lot of energy," Gorton Sr. said.

Jason's brother, Lance, and Lazar walked onto the same diamond that his little brother played on, remembering the life so long ago, before the pain. 

"Camping. We did a lot of camping back in, baseball games, and going to the beach," Lance Verdow said.

Lazar asked Verdow and Hubbard to recollect the fated day to the best of their abilities. 

"Well, it's not quite like what I remember, the white clouds in the sky because I was out, taking the sun out, sitting outside in the yard," Hubbard said.

"First of all, he got up that morning, and he played with the dogs, and he went to school," Hubbard said.

But Jason never made it to school. Hubbard said he walked to the bus stop at the end of Alabar Lane near Pondella Road, where they had moved just about six weeks before, and that was the last time she saw her baby boy alive.

"It's probably the worst feeling you ever have in your life," Hubbard said.

At the bus stop, police say Arthur Goode III came up to Jason asking for directions, somehow lured him into the woods just across the street where the Target sits now, sexually assaulted him, and strangled Jason to death. "On Friday afternoons, he was supposed to go to his father's, and when I got home, he wasn't home to go to his father's," Hubbard said.

All night, Helen was sick with worry. Police searched through the night.

"So I started calling around, and my brother-in-law came over, and we started driving the streets. He did, never thinking about him being right across the street in the woods," Hubbard said.

"His mother called me up. This was Friday. She said he didn't come home from school," Gorton Sr. said.

When morning broke, Helen got the news that shattered her heart. "I was sitting outside, and they came and told me that they had found him, and I collapsed at that point," Hubbard said.

"They found one of his shoes in the ditch. That's what they had brought that to me to identify it," Hubbard said.

"You have a nine-year-old boy get abducted, sexually molested, and killed. I don't know what you're waiting for to shatter your sense of security," Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore said.

Sizemore reminds us that in 1976, the police force was only five years old. The killing of Jason Verdow shook the vibrant, easy-going community to its core. 

"Arthur Goode wasn't like an old, burly bad guy. He was a young baby face, looking mentally immature, and a predator," Sizemore said.

But why would Jason so easily go off with Goode? His mother believes that because Goode was around the same age as his brothers, 22, he was able to do so.

"I can see him saying to him, no way, Jack, because I thought that, you know, whatever, I don't know how this guy, you know, managed to, I know he got him away from the bus stop by asking him directions, but how he ever got to that point? And I'm sure that Jason, you know, at first, just totally trusted him, yeah, and then when it happened, I can, I can see him saying something like that, because it was him," Hubbard said.

"Putting up a fight a little bit?" Lazar asked. "Probably, I don't know," Hubbard said.

Authorities say that after he killed Jason, Goode ran off to Maryland. "And there was another victim, and that he abducted and did the same thing to, and was caught there," Sizemore said.

This time, Goode abducted a 10-year-old in Maryland and then killed 11-year-old Kenneth Dawson in Virginia. Goode was eventually caught and arrested, sentenced to death, and died by electrocution just eight years later in Florida for Jason's killing.

"And my, my father, was there. He went to Raiford, but he didn't go in. He sat on the hill outside. It really tore him up," Lance Verdow said.

"My thoughts about him, Arthur Goode, were right at the very beginning. I thought, why would somebody like this? There's something that happened to him to make him want to do something like this," Hubbard said.

"Every day with the blue sky and white clouds, does it kind of come back?" Lazar asked. "Oh, yeah, yeah," Hubbard said.

"This was, he was supposed to be here nine years. He was here for a reason. He was what, what it is, or why, or all that. Those are all questions that will never be answered," Hubbard said.

But one thing we do know is that Jason Verdow's legacy still lives on in Cape Coral, even 50 years later. The baseball field he once played on now bears his name—the Jason Verdow Memorial Park—where a new generation of kids learn the game he loved.

A living connection across generations, Jason's great-nephew threw out the first pitch to open the Little League season. Tom Gorton Jr. was Jason's childhood best friend and teammate.

"This is 50 years ago, but I still remember him being like, like, very peppy, very energetic, very ready to play ball," Gorton Jr. said.

Gorton Jr. spoke to WINK News anchor Annalise Iraola.

The Gortons have held onto a lineup card for decades—edges curled, ink fading—showing the batting order with Tommie #9 and Jason #7. A memory and a boy they would never forget.

"He was a lefty pitcher, lefty catcher. He played first base, but I remember him being really good. Like, this kid's good," Gorton Jr. told Iraola.

Not only did Jason's murder crack the sense of safety in Cape Coral, but it also broke Gorton Jr.'s heart. To this day, the pain is stamped into his life.

"It'll be 50 years since Jason's passing. I remember at least once a year, or not more, right? I just think that's part of my DNA," Gorton Jr. said.

A little boy who lost not only his best friend but also the boy who was always by his side on the diamond. "You know your nine-year-old kid, you're an eight-year-old kid, and you're just kind of living carefree. But I remember the day that you knew he was killed, on my birthday, March 5, 76, we had a birthday party, and I didn't know about it until one of my friends at the birthday party told me," Gorton Jr. said.

Now, every time you drive up to the Jason Verdow Memorial Park, you are greeted by a giant sign bearing his name and a plaque that keeps his face from fading. "I don't want people to forget why, while that plaque is up there, and what the whole story is about, you know. And it's such a positive place up there to go up there, I can go up and just sit in the car and watch the kids play," Gorton Sr. said.

For Jason Verdow's mother, this park is more than a baseball field and more than a location on a map. It's where her nine-year-old lived life to the fullest.

"That baseball was, this field was his life. This was his, where he wanted to be. This is what he did," Hubbard said.

Gorton and Verdow, 50 years later, are still playing baseball together. Grandsons and great-nephews are playing in Little League, further engraving Jason Verdow's legacy in this community.