Tampa, Florida -- It sounds like a scene out of a movie but it's real. A homeless man in Tampa hears a message from a minister and then turns his life around - confessing to not one but two murders that Lakeland police say happened more than two decades ago.
But a bizarre twist of events recently have some believing that divine intervention was at work in the case, in more than one way.
La'Tevia Lowe sums up the life changing moment like this.
"It is the work of the Lord. It really is the work of the Lord."
She says it's all due to her church family at Bible-Based Fellowship Church at 4811 Ehrlich Road in Tampa. Lowe works with her church family in a ministry which serves the homeless hot food at the Salvation Army in downtown Tampa.
Lowe says with a smile on her face.
"I walk around with my little basket and I say, 'would you like bread? Would you like a roll?' And you know I would always say man cannot live by bread alone but by every word that preceded out of the mouth of God."
Lowe says she clearly remembers feeding 47-year-old Anthony Jackson before he made national headlines.
"I was watching the news and saying to myself wow he looks familiar. This man looks really, really familiar. I didn't realize it at the time that it in fact was the young man I had served at the Salvation Army with these two hands."
Lakeland Police say last December Jackson called 9-1-1 to say a minister from Bible-Based Fellowship Church delivered a message that touched his heart so much that he wanted to get something off his chest. They say he confessed to murdering two people in Lakeland more than two decades ago.
Jackson's confession hit extremely close to home for Lowe who says, "It clicked. Right then it clicked. And I was like oh my God. Lord what is this before me?"
That's because one of the victims Jackson confessed to killing was the brutal murder of someone she knew and loved, La'Tevia's cousin -Sharon Boyce- who was just 16 years old.
Lowe laughs as she explains how special Boyce's personality was. She says it was just unforgettable.
"Because she was just that amazing of a person. She was so funny - so funny - and just a heartfill of love and joy."
Boyce was Ruby Rookard's niece and she says no matter what type of mood you were in when you visited with Sharon you just felt better about life. She says she could bring a smile to your face within seconds.
Sharon Boyce was just a few months pregnant when she was killed in 1985. She was shot in the head and raped.
Lowe says, "He was interested in a relationship with her but she was not interested in a relationship with him. Once he found out she was pregnant he became angry."
Lakeland Police say the baby wasn't Jackson's.
Boyce wasn't just pregnant though she was also the mother of a young daughter who was inside the apartment when she was murdered.
Family members say little Jessica spent days inside that apartment with her mother's dead body. Detectives told them back then that it's likely that she laid on mother's body and even tracked little footprints through her mother's blood on the floor.
Despite all that Lowe isn't angry. She says, "I didn't feel any ill feelings towards him and that's when you have a heart for Christ when you love him. You love his people. There's no greater sin that God cannot forgive and the wonderful thing about it is that God can forgive him just like he forgives me."
That's the message church leaders at Lowe's place of worship are hoping to continue to spread. But they say they can't do it alone. They're hoping other churches will pitch in, join in and volunteer to also feed and minister to the homeless.
For more information about the ministry at Bible-Based Fellowship Church just call 813-264-4050 and ask for Minister John Warren.
Tammie Fields, 10 News