Savannah Gold Murder: Confession, Failed Defense, and 40-Year Sentence

The Savannah Gold murder was the August 2, 2017, killing of a 21-year-old Jacksonville, Florida, server by her Bonefish Grill manager and on-again, off-again boyfriend, Lee Rodarte Jr., who strangled her in his car in the restaurant parking lot, dumped her body in a Westside pond, and spent three days posing as her by text and even handing out missing-person flyers before confessing. In 2021 he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 40 years in Florida state prison.¹

Who Savannah Gold Was

Savannah Page Gold was born on April 26, 1996, and grew up in the Mandarin area of Jacksonville, the daughter of Dan and Sherri Gold and sister to Chris.² She attended LaVilla School of the Arts and then Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, where she studied technical theater, and she played lacrosse for Mandarin High School because her arts school did not field a team.³ Her uncle Frank Pastine later said she had turned down a scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design to stay home and care for her mother, who was ill.⁴

At 21 she was working as a server at the Bonefish Grill on San Jose Boulevard in Mandarin, where she had been employed for about two years. There she entered a casual, on-and-off relationship with Lee Rodarte Jr., the restaurant’s culinary manager, who was 28.⁵

The Night of August 2, 2017

Gold left home at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, August 2, 2017, and arrived at the Bonefish Grill parking lot at 5:31 p.m. A red-light camera at San Jose Boulevard and Claire Lane captured her car pulling in, followed by Rodarte’s. Instead of going inside to start her shift, she walked to his car and got into the passenger seat.⁶⁵

Around 5:45 p.m., the surveillance video recorded a violent struggle inside the vehicle. Gold kicked the rear door open three times but never managed to escape. At 6:04 p.m., Rodarte’s car was captured driving out of the lot with Gold still inside.⁶⁵ She was never seen alive again. Her car sat in the parking lot, unlocked, with her purse inside and one tire slashed.⁷

Three Days of Deception

At 6:11 p.m. that same evening, Gold’s family began receiving text messages from her phone claiming she was “running away with a great guy.” The messages read as completely out of character and alarmed them further.⁵ Her mother called police at 7:12 p.m. to file a missing-person report.⁸

Over the next three days Rodarte inserted himself into the search. A co-worker saw him handing out missing-person flyers at the restaurant on Thursday. On Friday he spoke face to face with Gold’s father, Daniel Gold, and expressed concern about her disappearance.⁹ By Friday night, though, detectives at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office had spotted contradictions between his account and what the restaurant’s surveillance footage showed.⁸

Arrest, Confession, and What Investigators Found

On Saturday, August 5, 2017, officers arrived at the Bonefish Grill around 7:15 p.m. and arrested Rodarte on an outstanding traffic warrant. Confronted with the surveillance evidence, he confessed to killing Gold and led police to a pond at the dead end of Club Duclay Drive on Jacksonville’s Westside.⁹¹⁰¹¹

At Rodarte’s home, crime scene investigators found knives, gasoline, bleach, and a fire pit, all consistent with the burns on Gold’s body.⁶ The medical examiner classified Gold’s death as a “violent homicide” but could not determine a specific cause because of the condition of her remains. The autopsy found no broken bones. It did identify a serious injury to cartilage in her neck that could indicate strangulation.¹²

Rodarte was charged with second-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a dead body, and was held without bond at the Duval County jail.⁹

The Stand Your Ground Claim That Failed

Rodarte initially pleaded not guilty. In 2019, his defense filed a petition for immunity under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, arguing that Gold had attacked him during an argument in his car and that he killed her in self-defense. By Rodarte’s account, he grabbed Gold’s neck to break her grip and “heard and felt a pop.”¹

The evidence undercut that story. Medical examiner Dr. Peter Gillespie testified that Gold’s spinal cord was not severed and that a “pop” in the neck would not have caused instant death. He identified a cartilage injury consistent with strangulation but could not say definitively what caused it.¹² The autopsy found no broken bones, Gold’s body bore extensive burns, and additional surveillance footage placed Rodarte’s car near the Westside pond where her body was recovered.¹¹

On August 20, 2019, a Duval County circuit judge denied the Stand Your Ground petition.¹¹ Rodarte’s attorney appealed, and an appeals court stay put the trial on hold.¹³ On January 27, 2021, the First District Court of Appeal of Florida denied his petition for a writ of prohibition in case No. 1D19-3060, holding that “competent, substantial evidence supports the trial court’s decision.”¹⁴

Guilty Plea and 40-Year Sentence

With the self-defense route closed, Rodarte took a plea. On February 18, 2021, the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit announced that he had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a 40-year prison sentence. The tampering with evidence and abuse of a dead body charges were dropped as part of the agreement.¹⁵

Sentencing came on March 11, 2021, before Duval County Circuit Judge Jeb Branham. Gold’s father, brother, and mother each delivered victim impact statements; the family wore butterflies on their lapels in Savannah’s honor. Sharon Gold called her daughter “my sweet baby, my heart,” and noted the recurrence of the number 21 in Savannah’s life: her sports jersey number, a tattoo on her arm, and now the year her killer was sentenced. Rodarte said nothing during the hearing but was seen wiping tears with his back turned to the family.¹¹⁶

Judge Branham imposed the 40-year sentence with credit for time served, leaving roughly 37 years remaining. He also ordered nearly $9,000 in restitution to Gold’s mother and directed roughly $12,000 to a victim trust fund.¹⁶ Rodarte is serving his sentence in Florida state prison. No post-conviction appeals have been publicly reported.

1
Jacksonville.com. Lee Rodarte Sentenced in Jacksonville Co-Worker Savannah Gold Case
2
Dignity Memorial. Savannah Page Gold Obituary
3
Jacksonville.com. Mandarin’s Savannah Gold, an Outsider Who’s Easily Won Acceptance
4
Jacksonville.com. Savannah Gold Remembered for Kindness, Compassion, and Love of Life
5
Jacksonville.com. Bonefish Grill Co-Worker Arrested in Death of Savannah Gold
6
News4Jax. Evidence: Lee Rodarte Admitted to Killing Savannah Gold
7
News4Jax. Evidence: Rodarte Admitted to Killing Savannah Gold
8
News4Jax. 3 Days Between Gold’s Disappearance, Body Found
9
News4Jax. Police: Co-Worker Admits Killing 21-Year-Old, Dumping Body
10
Jacksonville.com. Suspect in Jacksonville Bonefish Grill Co-Worker’s Death Claims Stand Your Ground
11
News4Jax. Stand Your Ground Defense Denied in Savannah Gold’s Killing
12
News4Jax. Autopsy Findings Examined in Death of Bonefish Grill Worker
13
News4Jax. Trial of Man Charged in Girlfriend’s Murder Placed on Hold
14
First District Court of Appeal of Florida. Rodarte v. State, No. 1D19-3060
15
State Attorney’s Office, Fourth Judicial Circuit. Rodarte Pleads Guilty to Murder in 2017 Killing of Savannah Gold
16
News4Jax. Jacksonville Man Who Murdered Bonefish Grill Co-Worker Faces Sentencing