Bunnell resident John Robert Stubbs found dead outside his home on Drain Street

Palm Coast Observer
News

John Robert Stubbs, a lifelong Flagler County resident, was found dead and bloodied outside his doorstep on Drain Street in Bunnell the morning of Nov. 27.

Bunnell Police and Flagler County Sheriff's Office deputies are investigating the death as an apparent homicide.

Stubbs, who relatives said served with the U.S. Marines for about eight years, was well-known in the area for detailing residents' cars, said onlookers who'd gathered in a crowd outside the crime scene tape surrounding Stubbs' home at 502 Drain Street.

Stubbs also had a history of drug-related arrests in Flagler County, including one for cocaine trafficking, according to Sheriff's Office records.

Stubbs' body lay under a white sheet next to his orange car-wash pail into the late afternoon Nov. 27 as Bunnell police officers, Flagler County Sheriff's Office deputies, Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime scene investigators and staff from the medical examiners office investigated.

"He was a good man. Washed everybody's cars, trying to make a dollar," said Stubbs' younger brother Eddie Bryant, a logger who heard about Stubbs' death while he was working on the west side at about 9 a.m. "He enjoyed washing cars; he enjoyed working. Being a handyman. He was a good man. Ex-military. A Marine, a truck driver."

Stubbs, 46, has two daughters in Volusia County, Bryant said.

Local pastor the Rev. Sims Jones came to Drain Street to console Stubbs' family.

"Everybody in the community loved him," he said. "He hustled, washing cars. He worked hard. He was a young man with a good head on his shoulders. He was trying to do something. "

Burnell City Manager Larry Williams said at about 4 p.m. that investigators had searched the exterior of the home and had obtained a warrant to search the interior as well, because the house had been a site of drug activity in the past.

"Right now it is an apparent homicide," Williams said, "It appears to be a homicide, but we don’t have that for sure." Williams said Stubbs' shirt had been bloodied, but police have not yet released any information about how he died.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.