Julie Ann Backstrom

Unsolved Homicide of Julie Ann Backstrom

From I Care:

The victim's vehicle
Julie Ann Backstrom, date of birth May 29, 1957, attended a party in the West Melbourne area of Brevard County on the evening of February 10, 1987. She was last seen alive as she left the party in her car to return home to her residence in Cocoa, Florida. Her body was discovered on the following morning, February 11, 1987, partially submerged in a drainage canal on the south side of State Road 528. The victim, at the time of her death, was employed as a private duty nurse in Brevard County.

The body of the victim was discovered lying face down, with the head and upper torso submerged in the canal with the legs and abdomen resting on the canal bank. This area is located on the south side of the eastbound lanes of SR 528, otherwise known as the Beeline Expressway, approximately 1000 yards east of Interstate 95. Evidence located at the scene suggests that the body was dragged from the shoulder of the roadway to the canal. The autopsy determined that the victim died from a gunshot wound.

The victim's vehicle, a 1982 Plymouth Champ, blue in color, bearing Florida license plate AGZ18Y, was found parked in a business parking lot in Mims, Florida on February 13, 1987. A search of the vehicle found blood on both the driver's and passenger's seats.

I know this is a really cold case and there is scant information. I usually pass these kind of cases up in favor of ones with more detail or more possibility of being solved. But this is another case that occurred near my home when I was younger and I never forgot it. It was brought to my attention once more by a reader who emailed me the information. And I can't resist an unsolved mystery. There is always hope that astrology will give some much needed clues or insights. So I went ahead and gave this one a shot, although I must admit the lack of an exact time when she was last seen is discouraging. I started with a variable window based on my own assumptions, a few hours between 9 pm and midnight. The reports define her as leaving the party "in the evening" so this, to me, means before midnight, because then it's the morning of the next day. Even if this was a dinner party, it is unlikely she went running out on her friends before 8:00 pm so I started with these assumptions and drew up some charts. And then the whole thing just popped out at me and made complete sense so I had to do it. Here's what I found.




This chart is for 9:30 that evening and I saw right away that this was when Julie left the party. Notice that Libra is rising and Aries is falling, with Venus just moving from the fourth to the third house. She is getting into her car. This is when she was last seen, driving off in her car that night. By all reports she was alone. So I look at the seventh house, which describes the person she is about to meet. This is Aries with Mars, the ruling planet, in the seventh house as well in exaltation. Right away, you can see the fearsome aggression and power of this person. The north node is hovering nearby, showing me that he is in the "right place at the right time" and that things are going to fall into place. Venus is disposed of by Saturn, also in the third house, in the sign Sagittarius. This tells me that she is going to be in the car for awhile, that she had some distance to drive. Saturn also hints that she may have had some problem with her car. There may have been a stalling, a loss of power or a possible hit of something in the road. Something may have slowed her down or even stopped her. The huge marker for me in this chart is the sinister application of the Moon to Mars. Moon, the chart co ruler and the ruler of the tenth house, is within 2 degrees of an exact square with Mars, the dynamic ruler of the seventh. There is no way on earth that Julie is not going to run into this man.

Venus is closely followed by Neptune, which is also disposed of by Saturn. I am even more convinced that she had a problem with the car. Nothing serious, however, as the murderer drove it the next day, perhaps after he fixed the "problem", which could have been a simple fix. I do not see any supporting planets enabling Mars so I do not think she picked this man up hitchhiking. Neptune says she missed something or didn't see something. She pulled over because the car was creaking, wheezing, rattling or something else that scared her and he was around. Saturn, her dispositor, is close to Uranus, showing sudden opportunities and surprise. Mars is so strong in this chart, that I think something happened like this: she had a problem with the car, she pulled over and he came across her there, offered to help her. He got the car running (he fixed the hose or filled up the tire, etc..) and then asked for a ride. She obliged and he shot her on the way. Mars is trine Uranus so he was lucky this night; he got the opportunity he was looking for.




And I think that Julie was shot sometime between 11 and midnight. I believe it took this long because they first fixed the car and also, she had a long ride home. From West Melbourne to Cocoa Florida is, even on I95, a good 45 minute drive. I believe she had car trouble on I95. He says he's walking to Cocoa and she agrees to give him a lift. He went this far because I think he might have wanted the car. Up until 11pm, the charts show the first house ruler in the third house. But after 11, things seem to change. The chart rulers change and the seventh house ruler is suddenly in the third. This shows me that the killer got in her car. The chart for 11:30 has Scorpio rising and Taurus falling with Venus now in the third. This shows me definitely that her killer was in the car with her. Notice that the new chart rulers are Pluto and Mars. Pluto is very close to the Ascendant, where it is poised to cross into the eighth. Mars is in the sixth. The Moon is very close to an exact square with Mars, now a significator for Julie. The first house ruler in the sixth house always shows great danger. Venus, now the seventh house ruler, is in the third house with Neptune. At this point, this man is hiding something. The Moon is in her baliwick in the ninth house, so watch her and see when she enters the eighth.




I believe Julie died between 12:30 and 1:30 am. If you look at the chart you can see all the planets just lining up for the event. The Moon enters the eighth house and at around the same time it reaches the full square with Mars, which is now in the fifth. Co ruler Pluto is in the eighth house. Saturn is in the first. Saturn in Sagittarius is trine to Mars in Aries, showing firepower. He shot her and this is how she died, right there in the car. Saturn and Uranus are square Jupiter, which is angular in the fourth house, again making me think she was stabbed. It was a sudden decision to kill her and then it was overkill. Mars spent a lot of time in the sixth house so she may have been restrained while he drove the car. But the planets are in what I call a "death pattern" with Saturn in the first, Moon in the eighth and the chart ruler, Pluto, moving through the twelfth. Violent death. He took over the car, restrained her for awhile and then decided he couldn't risk leaving her alive. She fought back, of course, and this is why there was a bloody mess in the car and also why he was forced to give up the car later. Don't forget that Pluto is via combust way, which doubles the violent tendencies. This woman really didn't have a chance.




It is exactly these kind of stranger murders that are hardest to solve. There is no tracing the killer back through the victim's friends or family. In this case, she ran into trouble in I95 and a man on foot came across her there. Cars passing at that time of night notice but don't "take notice" if you get what I mean. In fact, that interstate has been the source of some hairy stories over the years, from prostitutes servicing customers right on the shoulder to body parts in bags that had been out there for months. It is a road that connects both ends of the state and takes people up to Georgia and beyond. More transients come and go along this road than any other in the state. Serial killers like Gerald Stano and Christopher Wilder made use of the anonymity of I95. I would hate to be out there late at night with a flat or a hissing radiator. That is exactly what I think happened to Julie Backstrom. And after this man killed her, he drove the car around awhile, perhaps looking for drugs or trying to get somewhere he felt he needed to be. This with Julie in the car for awhile until he made it to the exit to 528, where he dumped her. As the facts show, he had to drag her dead body from the car to the drainage canal. No doubt, she was seen by cars passing by in the morning.

After this man dumped her, he drove her car all the way to Mims, which is about another half hour north. This area, back in 1987, was rural and depressed. Lots of trailer parks and slums; very poor areas. There was a particular area where blacks were forced to reside that was so scary the cops wouldn't even go there. No one at the business in question knew anything about the car or about the murder. No one was seen coming or going to or from the car. So now I am going to look at the charts and try to give a description of the man who did this. Mars in Aries is his marker, but this does not mean he is an Aries or has Mars in that sign, or even has a strong Mars. What it does mean is that this man is large boned and wiry. He is not tall or short but medium in stature. He is physical and fit, athletic and it's not hard to imagine he was walking long distances on a major highway. This man has guts and energy and may have military training. He had a gun and perhaps always did. He was not afraid of weapons. His face was probably long and oval with high cheekbones. His ears stand out from his face, he probably wears his hair short cropped and he has a reddish, "hot" complexion. He has brown, dark brown or reddish brown hair with brown eyes that have red flecks. He could be freckled. There is no way to determine race or age from this but I can say he is likely gifted with survival skills and lives a rugged life. He can be helpful at times, with mechanical skills and manly attributes, but he is also prone to violence and quick tempered. He initiates action quickly and is extremely self confident; he had no qualms about approaching Julie. No hesitation at all.

Although this is sort of disappointing because very little that can be called new is revealed in these charts, I am pleased that they are clear and easy to read. This helps my readers get a better idea of how these charts work and how easily they can be read. As always, if you have information about this case, have suspicions about someone who may have been involved in this case or have anything else to contribute to this investigation, please call the FDLE / Brevard County Sheriffs Department at 1-(800)-423-TIPS.

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