Action News Jax learns more about the circumstances surrounding the 2017 murder of Autumn Van Camp, who was found dead by strangulation at Jason Guthrie’s home.
Guthrie now accused of murdering his co-worker first day of temporary work at the Anheuser-Busch plant on October 30.
Jason Guthrie charged in 2025 Thursday, Oct. 30, after stabbing a co-worker at the Anheuser-Busch plant on Oceanway in Jacksonville.
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Eight years ago, he was the only suspect named in a homicide investigation into Van Camp’s death.
A homicide investigation report obtained by Action News Jax revealed not only that Van Camp was found dead in Guthrie’s home, but also under his bed.
“She loved helping people. She loved her children,” Van Camp’s daughter Summer Pace told Action News Jax.
Guthrie was never charged in Van Camp’s death.
JSO’s homicide report listed the case as “exclusively under investigation” after the State Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute him due to his “mental health condition,” according to the report.
According to the FBI“exclusively confirmed” means that law enforcement identified the offender but encountered circumstances beyond the control of law enforcement that prevented the agency from arresting, charging and prosecuting the offender.
“Just because she wasn’t famous or anything like that doesn’t mean her life was any less worthy and doesn’t deserve any justice,” Pace said.
In a statement sent Tuesday by the State Attorney’s Office, a spokesman disputed the reason no charges were filed, not because “the evidence did not meet the legal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
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The 48-page homicide investigation report also reveals that Guthrie worked as a construction worker for the Navy and said he suffered from PTSD.
Honorably discharged, he was said to have been shot in the head, and family members told investigators his mental health rapidly deteriorated afterward.
The day before Van Camp’s body was found under Guthrie’s bed, he was arrested and Baker took action after attacking his father with a cord that matched the weapon police believe was used to kill Van Camp.
RELATED: Arrested in a workplace homicide at the Anheuser-Busch plant in Jacksonville
He was sent to a state mental health facility after the State Attorney’s Office filed charges for assaulting Guthrie’s father.
The homicide report revealed that Guthrie allegedly assaulted another patient “in a manner similar to” how Van Camp was killed.
Guthrie was also charged and convicted in 2020 of was released from the hospital after beating a man outside a liquor store.
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He was sent back to the hospital, where he remained until 2024, when he was convicted of beating and assaulting his father.
He was released on time after the judge imposed a lighter sentence than the State Attorney’s Office requested.
Now, with Guthrie facing second-degree murder charges nearly a year after his last release, Pace is praying for justice for his mother and Guthrie’s latest alleged victim.
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“And I’m hoping that somebody is stuck or there’s a trend where they’re like, ‘this person shouldn’t be in the public eye,’ because it would be really sad to see him slip away again,” Pace said.
The state attorney’s office said the Van Camp case is not over.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to justice in this case and to protecting the safety of our community,” a spokesperson for the State’s Attorney’s Office told Action News Jax in a statement Wednesday.
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