Florida Convicted Sex Offender Up For Execution 28 Years After Killing 7-Year-Old Girl

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed off on a death warrant for Willie Seth Crain Jr., a man convicted of kidnapping and murdering a 7-year-old girl in 1998 ... whose body has never been found.

Crain is now scheduled to be executed on December 10, 2026 … more than 28 years after the little girl’s disappearance.

Per court docs, Crain met Kathryn Hartman at a Hillsborough County bar in September 1998.

Just two days later, on September 10, Hartman invited Crain over for dinner, where she introduced him to her 7-year-old daughter, Amanda Brown.

The three later went to Crain’s trailer before returning to Hartman’s home, where she invited him to spend the night because he’d been drinking.

According to the court documents, all three slept in the same bed ... but when Hartman woke up around 6:15 the following morning because of an alarm, both Crain and Amanda were missing.

Hartman called Crain at his home around 6:30 a.m., but he claimed he had no idea where Amanda was. He told her he was “leaving to hook up his boat” and would call her later.

According to the documents, Crain claimed he left Hartman’s home around 1:30 a.m. and returned to his trailer, where he began cleaning – something he insisted was normal for him to do at that time. He also claimed he accidentally “spilled some bleach” while cleaning.

Crain told investigators he left his home around 4:45 a.m. and arrived at the Courtney Campbell Causeway in Tampa Bay around 5:15 a.m. ... despite Hartman saying he answered the phone at his home around 6:30 a.m.

Detectives later located Crain out on Tampa Bay and brought him back to shore for questioning.

Investigators noticed fresh scratches on both of his elbows and another on his left arm. When questioned about the injuries and Amanda’s disappearance, Crain claimed he didn’t know how he got hurt or what had happened to the girl.

According to Tampa Bay's News 10, investigators believe Crain dumped Amanda’s body into Old Tampa Bay, where he worked as a commercial fisherman setting crab traps.
Prosecutors said traces of Amanda’s blood were discovered inside Crain’s bathroom and on his boxer shorts.

Within weeks of Amanda’s disappearance, Crain was arrested and charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder.

And this wasn’t Crain’s first run-in with the law involving children.

According to court records, Crain had previously been convicted of sexual offenses involving underage girls in 1984.

Despite extensive efforts to locate Amanda, her body was never found.

On September 13, 1999, a jury found Crain guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping. Two months later, he was sentenced to death for Amanda’s murder and received a life sentence for her kidnapping.

Crain later appealed his conviction, arguing prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence of premeditation. However, in 2005, the Florida Supreme Court upheld his convictions and sentences.