Man sought in the murder of a Florida nanny is arrested

A man considered a person of interest in the murder of a Florida nanny has been found holed up in a roadside motel and arrested. 

Scott Edward Nelson, 53, was captured on Sunday in Jacksonville, Florida, about 140 miles from where 56-year-old Jennifer Lynn Fulford was found dead in the woods outside of Orlando.

Police had issued a broad appeal to the public for assistance in the manhunt, acting on information that Nelson had used the victim’s ATM card.

Julia Anne, a friend of the victim, told DailyMail.com that Fulford was kind-hearted person who enjoyed spending time with her friends and family. 

Scott Edward Nelson, 53, was captured on Sunday in Jacksonville. He is a person of interest in the murder of 56-year-old Jennifer Lynn Fulford

Authorities say that this security camera image shows Nelson using Fulford’s ATM card to withdraw $300 shortly after she vanished when she left her dentist appointment Wednesday

‘She was very special, a big heart, kind word for everyone, and was enjoying life,’ she said.

Fulford, who was a mother of two, grandmother and nanny, was last seen leaving her dentist’s office in Winter Park on Wednesday, according to police. 

The family who hired Fulford as a nanny became concerned after she failed to pick up their son from school and notified police. 

Her purse was found on the bathroom floor of the home. 

Fulford’s vehicle, a 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe SUV, was found abandoned, and police found unspecified evidence inside that pointed to murder.

On Saturday, Fulford’s body was discovered in the woods off of Apopka-Vineland Road.

Records showed that Fulford’s ATM card had been used to withdraw $300 on the day she disappeared, and the security camera on the machine showed a man identified as Nelson making the transaction.

Police zeroed in on Nelson by Sunday night, learning that he was holed up in the Sunshine Inn in Jacksonville.

Police captured Nelson in a rain on the Sunshine Inn (pictured) in Jacksonville on Sunday

Nelson is an ex-convict who has served time for a brazen bank robbery

Heavily armed police cleared other guests out of their rooms before raiding Nelson’s room, the Orlando Sentinel reported. 

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Criminal Apprehension Unit made the arrest, and records show that Nelson was being held Sunday night in Jacksonville pending a transfer to the Orange County Jail.

The ex-convict spent five years in prison for a 2010 bank robbery in Daytona Beach, which court records show he planned while in federal prison for a separate crime.

Nelson held up the Wachovia Bank in Daytona Beach with a note to the teller, claiming that he had a bomb that would ‘light everything in the bank on fire’.

‘We will all die’, his note threatened, unless he got everything in the bank.

Nelson disguised his appearance in that robbery by wearing a salt-and-pepper wig and stuffing napkins into his cheeks to make his face look rounder, court records show.  

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk