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April 3, 2023 | By: Kaitlin Ward
This story is part of a collaborative project between Project: Cold Case and the University of North Florida, Applied Journalism class.
Going into the weekend of Oct. 14, 2012, Floyd Osborne Jr. had big plans — not for the weekend, but for the days after: Floyd would be starting a new job. “Do your thing for the weekend, and I’ll come and get you on Sunday night,” his cousin, Sonja, said to him.
It was the last conversation they had. Around 4 a.m. the following morning, Osborne was found deceased.
Sonja and Osborne had always been close. Osborne, the middle child of 10 children, had moved in with Sonja at the age of 13. “We used to go to the movies and go shopping at the mall. Whenever I was taking a road trip, Junior was down to go anywhere I was going,” Sonja said.
In high school, he played football and baseball and then after he graduated, he played softball in an intramural league. Floyd was a huge Oklahoma State University Cowboys’ fan; it was always friendly banter in the family when Oklahoma University played OSU.
A year after moving in with his cousin, he chose to go to a boarding school run by their tribe, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The night of his high school graduation, he told his family that his girlfriend was pregnant, beginning a new chapter in his life.
Osborne later worked in maintenance at the same school he graduated from. In 2012, he was living with his cousin, and was in the process of getting a construction job.
Floyd had a daughter and he loved his daughter; he was always very supportive of her. He was always hands on when it came to her playing sports. Unfortunately, he was murdered a day before his daughter’s 8th birthday, stabbed multiple times.
He had spent the night partying with family and friends, before deciding to go to another party with a friend after but it is not known if he ever made it there.
“Nobody really knows the details of it.” Sonja said.
Sonya and three of her sisters both were asleep and woken up at 4:30 the morning he was murdered — all feeling like they were woken up by someone.
“We all felt like it was him telling us that was when he died,” Sonja said.
Osborne’s death was a blow to both his family and his community.
“A lot of people came out of the woodwork for Junior’s funeral,” Sonja said. “It was at an Indian church, and there were probably more people sitting outside than there were people inside the church.”
The family has kept his memory alive, remembering a young man who loved to smile.
“He’d come walking up and he’d have this huge smile on his face, and then he would make you smile. Even if you were mad at him,” Sonja said.
On holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, the family puts food on a platter and makes a drink and sets everything up on a little table, and that’s for everybody who has passed away. It all started with Osborne.
“We used to have a family dinner to celebrate our birthdays,” Sonja said. “We still do that and now that one of my sisters has passed away and Junior is gone, we still get together for our dinner and give them their own birthday cake.”
Anyone with information on the murder of Floyd Osborne is asked to call 1-800-522-8017. Callers may be eligible for a reward.
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