Rolex Sale That Went South Led to Murder of Florida Jeweler, Report Says
Jeweler Anthony D’Amore was found dead inside his office Dec. 23, marking the fourth jeweler killed on the job in 2024, according to JSA.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.—A 73-year-old Florida jeweler was found dead inside his business on Dec. 23, murdered by a man who owed him money for a luxury watch, police say.
According to the probable cause affidavit provided to National Jeweler by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, the jeweler, identified by police as Anthony D’Amore, was seen on CCTV footage entering the office tower where his workshop and showroom are located with another man just after 10 p.m. on Dec. 20.
The man, later identified as Nenad Milosevich (also known as “Ned”) and described by D’Amore’s wife as a “family friend,” was seen exiting the office alone around 12:45 a.m.
He was carrying a small bag and a large square-shaped item covered with a towel or blanket, the affidavit states.
Detectives found D’Amore’s body in his office three days later when carrying out a welfare check requested by his wife.
Police tracked down Milosevich. He agreed to meet with detectives and, according to the affidavit, told them he owed $4,000 on a $20,000 Rolex watch he had bought from D’Amore.
D’Amore essentially wanted to charge Milosevich interest on the remaining $4,000 because he was so slow in paying, while Milosevich was looking to get some additional items from the jeweler in exchange for the money he’d already paid toward the Rolex.
An argument ensued and, according to the affidavit, Milosevich admitted to hitting D’Amore twice in the throat and then choking him before leaving the office with a bag full of jewelry and the office’s video surveillance recorder, which he wrapped in a blanket.
He left the scene in his Dodge Ram truck, pulling over on a bridge as he fled and tossing the bag of jewelry and the DVR into the water, the affidavit states.
As of Jan. 2, Milosevich, 56, was being held without bond in the county jail, Broward County Sheriff’s Office records show.
The Jewelers’ Security Alliance noted in its final email crime alert of 2024 that D’Amore’s death brings the number of jewelers murdered on the job (or as a result of their job) in 2024 to four, up from one in 2023.
The first industry homicide of 2024 happened in July, also in Florida.
Ghazi “Gus” Osta, 68, was shot to death in his Daytona Beach jewelry store following a brief argument with a customer, John Willard Craiger. Craiger eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison in November.
In October, 72-year-old Hussain Murray, owner of Gold & Glitter Jewelry in Hamtramck, Michigan, was murdered in his suburban Detroit home by two men posing as employees of a local energy company.
The men arrested in the case, 37-year-old Carlos Jose Hernandez and 39-year-old Joshua Zuazo, face charges of felony murder and unlawful imprisonment, according to the Oakland County (Michigan) prosecutor’s office.
In November, 59-year-old Uc Thí Vo was shot and killed during an armed robbery at Kim Tin Jewelry, the Sacramento, California, jewelry store she co-owned with her husband, Vinh Tan Nguyen.
No arrests have been made in the case.
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