SARASOTA, Fla. - Investigators in Sarasota say they now know who killed an aspiring rapper in 1999 whose body was found less than a mile from his burned-out vehicle.
The Sarastoa County Sheriff’s Office has arrested Kevin Holloway in connection with the murder of Esco Hunter Junior more than two decades ago.
The backstory:
On November 30, 1999, deputies responded to a vehicle fire near the intersection of Myrtle Street and North Orange Avenue in Sarasota.
Fire crews found a van hidden in the woods that was fully engulfed in flames.
Courtesy: Sarasota County Sheriff's Office
The license plate on the burned van was traced back to Esco Hunter Junior, 27, an aspiring rap artist from Miami.
The next day, detectives said a group of high school students was running along the railroad tracks around 2:15 p.m. when they found Hunter’s body less than a mile from where the burned-out van was found.
The medical examiner’s office later determined the cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds and ruled the manner of death a homicide.
Courtesy: Sarasota County Sheriff's Office
Detectives pursued every possible lead at the time.
"Without new information coming forward, the case eventually went cold," Detective Brandon Clark explained.
Dig deeper:
The case was reopened in 2017 to see if advancements in technology and DNA could help solve it.
As Clark reviewed the case with fresh eyes, the thing that stood out was the unanswered gap in time.
"The biggest thing that stood out was what transpired between the last phone call that Esco had and the time that his vehicle was found burned," Clark said.
Investigators said they learned that Hunter was supplying drugs to his childhood friend, Kevin Holloway, who lived in Sarastoa.
Holloway was questioned about Hunter in 1999 and said he hadn’t seen him in months. However, detectives noted that he had some burn injuries on his body. When asked about the burns, he said that he got the injuries while cooking crack cocaine.
Courtesy: Sarasota County Sheriff's Office
"We didn’t have enough evidence at that time to support an arrest," Hunter explained.
After the case was reopened, phone records helped detectives rebuild a timeline to see who Hunter was communicating with before he was killed.
Also, witnesses came forward and provided new information to the detectives.
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On February 9, 2026, Holloway was served with an arrest warrant and charged with felony second-degree murder, arson, and two counts of tampering with evidence.
Holloway, who was already in prison on another charge when he was arrested, is currently being held at the Sarasota County Jail without bond.
"Time will eventually catch up to you and we are going to hold you accountable," Clark stated.
What you can do:
Anyone with information on a cold case is asked to call the Cold Case Unit at 941-861-4248 or email it to coldcase@sarasotasheriff.org.
The Source: This article was written with information the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office distributed in a press release and in a YouTube video.