The hour drive from the WOKV newsroom in Jacksonville to Palatka gave me more time to think about the possible outcome of the now intertwined cases. And unfortunately, what most of us had feared turned out to be true.

Print and broadcast reporters showed up from Jacksonville and Gainesville to hear Putnam County Sheriff Dean Kelly say that 15-year-old Morgan Leppert - the subject of last week's Amber Alert, is now being charged with 1st degree murder.

Even more disturbing is the manner in which 66-year-old James Stewart was killed. Stewart, a man with no hearing and no hands, was reportedly taken advantage of by Leppert when she claimed to need help with a broken down car on April 25th.

Later that evening, investigators say Stewart was beaten with two metal pipes, stabbed several times and suffocated when a plastic bag was placed over his head. As we now know, Leppert and her 22-year-old boyfriend and convicted felon, Toby Lowry, are the prime suspects in the murder. The couple had allegedly been casing Stewart's home for days before the attack, looking for the right victim to steal money and a vehicle from.

Authorities caught up with Leppert and Lowry in El Paso, Texas after the Amber Alert caught the attention of a motorist on I-10.

Why was the Amber Alert put out more than a week after Leppert was reported missing and why did Leppert's mother allow her to date a 22-year-old convicted felon? The questions keep coming up. Investigators say there's criteria a missing person's report must reach before it becomes an Amber Alert, and until Putnam County authorities felt Morgan's life might be in danger, that alarm was not sounded.

I also asked Major Keith Riddick about Jerry Leppert. She had reportedly tried to put a stop to the relationship that had been on-going since November 2007. But in this age of MySpace interaction, some of that contact went undetected. Jerry Leppert was being informed of the murder charges against her daughter around the same time that the media was on Tuesday. She was understandably distraught and asked that reporters not approach her.

I shared the new findings from the news conference with the ladies at the front desk of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office. They were shocked to hear the outcome.

"Kids just don't think about their futures nowadays."

Leppert is only 15-years-old, but could be charged as an adult for the murder. Sheriff Kelly extends his sympathy to the families of Stewart and Leppert, but would like to see the 15-year-old put on trial as an adult.