8 Years After Death, Family Finds Hope In $25K Reward

This post was reported and written by Local Editor John Majeski:

It’s been eight years, and David Neel’s family is still waiting for answers: Who shot the Wesley Chapel man with a handgun, and why?

The family hopes money can loosen someone’s lips. They are offering up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Neel’s death.

Ditto for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Cpl. Dale Bunten was the original detective on the case. 

“This case has been part of my career since 2005,” he said. “I’m very hopeful (it will be solved). I can’t do more than hope.”

It was March 6, 2005, when Neel was murdered while driving south on Interstate 75 near the Interstate 4 exit. On his way to the Strawberry Festival, the 49-year-old was shot through the driver’s side door of his blue-and-silver 1990 Ford F-250, which exited the roadway and crashed into a stand of trees on the I-4 exit ramp. The bullet had pierced his chest.

The reward was announced last week in a press conference with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Chances are decent someone, somewhere, knows something, Bunten said.

“Maybe this shooter had someone in the car,” he said. “Maybe the shooter was by himself but maybe he told somebody.”

By all accounts, Bunten said, Neel was “an innocent victim” who stayed away from risky behavior. One theory is that he was the victim of road rage, but no evidence of that has ever been found. 

“David was known to be a patient driver, that drives below the speed limit and stays to the right lanes so that others can pass,” Bunten said in his press conference remarks.

On the day of his death, Neel’s daughter, Anne, was helping her agricultural students as they showed cattle at Plant City’s Strawberry Festival. David Neel had gone to the home to pick up something for the cattle and was heading back to the event when he was killed.  

The homicide is still a question mark after all these years.

“It is our belief it is random,” Bunten said.

Have information about the Neel murder? Call Crime Stoppers at 800-873-8477.