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Lee Rodarte Jr. was sentenced in March 2021 to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Savannah Gold, 21, his co-worker at a Bonefish Grill in Jacksonville, Florida.

Gold left her parents' home on August 2, 2017, and drove to the restaurant. Surveillance video showed her getting into Rodarte's car in the parking lot, where the car could be seen shaking before it drove away.

She was reported missing on August 3, 2017. Her body was later found, and Rodarte was charged.

In a stand-your-ground filing, Rodarte said the two had argued and Gold became violent. He said he grabbed her neck to break her grip, claiming he acted out of fear. Detectives questioned him, and the recorded interview was released as part of the court file. Under the plea agreement, charges of tampering with evidence and abuse of a dead body were dropped.

The video is a narrated analysis by JCS - Criminal Psychology that runs about 40 minutes and was released before the plea. It covers the detectives' interview with Rodarte, with commentary on his account of the argument, his behavior and the detectives' technique over the interview-room footage. It is not raw footage.

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Lee Rodarte, 28, admitted to police that he murdered Savvanah Gold, 21, and dumped her body in a pond after she disappeared in Jacksonville, Florida, in August 2017. He was arrested and charged with murder; this recording predates the conviction and 40-year sentence described above.

Rodarte and Gold were on-off boyfriend and girlfriend who worked together at the Bonefish Grill in Jacksonville. Surveillance footage showed Gold entering Rodarte's car, followed by what appeared to be a struggle inside. Rodarte drove away, and Gold never exited the vehicle. She was not seen again for three days.

Police interviewed Rodarte three days after Gold disappeared. He initially denied knowing where she was, but admitted to murdering Gold and disposing of her body after investigators presented evidence. The female detective became emotional during the interview.

Police divers found Gold's burned body in a Westside pond. The medical examiner could not pinpoint her cause of death but classified it as a "violent homicide." Gold had second-degree and third-degree burns over 75 percent of her body.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office released an edited police interview-room recording in February 2018, and the full footage had not been released publicly as of April 24, 2018, despite some versions being labeled "FULL." The approximately 99-minute video contains the interview without narration or a presenter, cut down from an agency release of more than four hours by removing downtime and marking those cuts with an hourglass. The Sheriff's Office omitted the confession itself, but the retained final half-hour shows Rodarte alone, crying and talking to himself after the confession.

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Lee Rodarte gave a full confession to a co-worker's murder during a police interview.

The police interview-room recording runs about 313 minutes and is posted in three parts. It shows the interview itself, without narration or a presenter.

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Part 2 of 3 of the recording described above.

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Part 3 of 3 of the recording described above.