Flagler County Sheriff’s Office’s recently created Cold Case Unit solves its first case

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — Flagler County sheriff deputies made an arrest involving a manslaughter case from December 2018.

On Dec. 5, 2018 Kim Zaheer called 911 to report her mother was “not breathing” and needed an ambulance.

According to deputies, when paramedics arrived, they discovered Zaheer’s 85-year-old mother, Frances King, deceased. Deputies said King was extremely malnourished, appeared not to have eaten in a long time and added that living conditions inside King’s bedroom were “extremely bad,” and the odor of feces and urine was unbearable.

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The medical examiner completed an autopsy on King and determined the cause of death to be “severe emaciation and emphysematous cystitis” due to “elder abuse, neglect and starvation,” ruling King’s death a homicide.

According to deputies, the investigation came to a standstill when detectives were unable to obtain medical and legal records establishing King had diminished mental capacity, and Zaheer was the legal guardian responsible for her care.

In the summer of 2020, Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly created a dedicated full time Cold Case Unit, the first in the agency’s history, to focus on unsolved crimes where the statute of limitations had not expired, which would make prosecution impossible.

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In March of 2020, Detective Andrew Cangialosi was selected as the first full-time Cold Case Detective and was assigned the Frances King Manslaughter case.

Cangialosi was able to locate a “Certificate of Incapacity” and determine that King’s daughter, Zaheer, was the “Primary Care Surrogate” for King at the time of her death.

On Wednesday, deputies obtained a warrant for aggravated manslaughter and arrested Zaheer.

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“Cases like these and the small list of other unsolved cases of homicides, missing persons, and sex crimes are what led to the creation of the Cold Case Unit,” Staly said. “I am grateful that we were able to arrest the suspect in this case and hopefully this can offer some closure to family and friends of the victim. If you are responsible for a human being’s care you must take care of them. No matter how long it takes, we will continue these investigations to hold people accountable for their crimes.”

Zaheer is currently being held on a $500,000 bond at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility, charged with manslaughter of an elderly disabled adult.

Cox Media Group