KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) – A pair of 45-year-old cold cases with a Kingsport connection are now closed.

On August 27, 1979, Charlotte County, Florida Deputy John Greer reported that his wife, Jackie Greer, shot herself in their home. Three months later, Greer radioed his dispatch center and reported he discovered a homicide at a store. The victim was 25-year-old Adele Marie Easterly.

Today, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office says the man who reported both of these deaths is the one responsible. Detective Kurt Mehl told News Channel 11 that they had a breakthrough in the case when a former colleague of Greer, who he allegedly sexually assaulted numerous times, courageously came forward with information.

“We were basically saying to the person who knows Deputy Greer,” Mehl said. “We’re naming him without naming him and asking them to come forward if they had information. And as a result of that, we eventually developed a female who came forward, who had been a police explorer during the 1979-1980 era and who had been traumatized by Deputy Greer in her own right, and she started providing us information.”

Mehl said they were able to track Greer to Kingsport, Tennessee with the help of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).

“Obviously, we have the commercial databases that we can research, driver’s license registrations, that kind of thing,” Mehl said. “The databases that are used for commercial reasons, we have access to. We also have some law enforcement databases. And with the assistance, again, of our friends in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, who actually located him for us in the nursing home, and got us access. But we knew he was in the Tennessee area in 2016 when we first put that message out on our webpage.”

When Detective Mehl and others finally interviewed him, they determined Greer was responsible, but his health was seriously compromised, and he would never be well enough to stand trial.

“It became very quickly apparent that there some cognitive issues along with some physical issues,” Mehl said. “He was not doing well. It was a very unique interview, not your traditional one, pretty much one-word answers. Although we felt it was good for being able to say, yes, we’re confident that he’s our killer. We also felt that there’s no way we’re going to be able to prosecute this guy because he’ll never stand trial.”

Greer died a few months after the interview at a care center in Kingsport. Mehl said there was no evidence of any criminal activity while he was living in the Model City.