By Deborah Circelli, News Journal

DAYTONA BEACH — A former local investigator for the state Department of Children & Families who was a key witness in an ongoing serial-murder case has died.

Cheryl Rose, 52, was found dead in her home in Ocala on Tuesday, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

She had several medical issues and was prescribed numerous medications, and the Sheriff’s Office is awaiting toxicology results to determine whether she could have died from an overdose, according to Detective Ryan Robbins.

Rose, who was an investigator in Daytona Beach for five years before being fired for poor conduct in April 2009, was the key witness in a trial in California against her ex-husband, Joseph Nissensohn, involving the 1989 murder of a 15-year-old South Lake Tahoe girl. The trial was set for January. He is also charged with murdering two other teens in 1981, before he met Rose, a prosecutor said.

Read the whole story