Thanks to innovations in technology and the relentless effort of detectives who never stopped searching for justice, JSO can bring answers to Tina’s loved ones.
 
On Sunday, April 17, 1994, Tina, 20, was brutally killed in her Mayport apartment. She had been stabbed more than two dozen times. Tina was 15 weeks pregnant when she was killed; her husband was on duty at Naval Station Mayport when she was killed.
 
It was Tina’s brother-in-law, Chad Heins, who reported her murder. Heins was later convicted of her murder. Nearly 11 years into his life sentence, Heins was released after DNA evidence from the scene did not come back as a match for him.

JSO detectives continued to dig into the case, using all available technology and investigative tools and determined Michael Ziegler was Tina’s killer. Ziegler was no stranger to Tina; he was her husband’s close friend and even stood next to the Heins couple on their wedding day.
 
On Thursday, August 28, 2025, a Grand Jury indicted Ziegler for first-degree murder. Then on Thursday, September 4, 2025, Ziegler was arrested in Covington, Georgia, more than 300 miles from where he killed Tina. That arrest was made possible thanks to the U.S. Marshal’s Regional Fugitive Task Force, Georgia State Patrol, Newton County Sheriff’s Office, and Clayton County Sheriff’s Office.
 
Last week, JSO detectives picked Ziegler up from the Newton County Detention Center and brought him back to Jacksonville. He is now behind bars at the John E. Goode Pretrial Detention Facility (Duval County jail).
 
While Ziegler cut Tina’s life short, her legacy lives on. Her family in Wisconsin has established a scholarship in her honor.

To access the arrest report and booking photo for this case, please visit the Published Media Requests page on JSO's Public Records Portal and search "M482559" in the Reference No. section. 

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