A report of a foul stench and the presence of a suspicious body led deputies from the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) to arrest a Brooksville man and charge him with murder.
HCSO Community Relations Coordinator Kasey Johnson said that around 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, agency deputies and personnel from the Hernando County Fire Rescue (HCFR) responded to a call reporting a foul odor and what appeared to be a dead body near the back of a dead-end road near a business on Cortez Boulevard (Dollar General), on the east side of the county.
At the scene, an HCFR Captain confirmed the remains were human and in the early stages of decomposition and that the dead person appeared to be the victim of homicide.
Shortly after detectives from the HCSO major case unit, along with forensic technicians and the medical examiner, launched their investigation, the remains were identified and a person of interest was identified and located for questioning.
Shortly thereafter, 53-year-old R.W. Resca, Jr. confessed to the murder and to dumping the body at that dead-end location.
The killing was the result of a domestic dispute, investigators said.
Resca, Jr. was subsequently arrested and booked into the Hernando County Detention Center on a charge of 2nd Degree Murder.
He is being held without bond.
Resca, Jr. has prior felony arrests out of Hillsborough County. In 2019, he was arrested for domestic battery by strangulation. Prosecutors dropped charges. In 2017 he was arrested for battery on a victim over 65, and prosecutors dropped the charges. In 2013, he was arrested for attempted murder in the second degree with weapon and aggravated battery- great bodily harm (both first degree felonies). The case went to a jury trial and he was found not guilty on both counts.
