{"id":64193,"date":"2026-03-27T17:36:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T21:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64193"},"modified":"2026-03-27T17:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T21:36:09","slug":"the-polk-county-sheriffs-office-and-the-bartow-police-department-are-currently-investigating-the-death-of-jeffrey-lee-blevins-56-which-occurred-late-last-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/27\/the-polk-county-sheriffs-office-and-the-bartow-police-department-are-currently-investigating-the-death-of-jeffrey-lee-blevins-56-which-occurred-late-last-night\/","title":{"rendered":"The Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Bartow Police Department are currently investigating the death of Jeffrey Lee Blevins, 56, which occurred late last night"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Bartow Police Department are currently investigating the death of <strong>Jeffrey Lee Blevins<\/strong>, 56, which occurred late last night, March 26, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"8c7466\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"405\" height=\"514\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 405px) 100vw, 405px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/jeffrey-lee-blevins.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64194 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #8c7466; aspect-ratio:0.7879616963064295;width:199px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/jeffrey-lee-blevins.webp 405w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/jeffrey-lee-blevins-236x300.webp 236w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Authorities have described the incident as a &#8220;violent death,&#8221; though specific details regarding the cause of death or potential suspects have not yet been released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Timeline of Events<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>11:00 PM (March 26):<\/strong> Blevins was outside his apartment at <strong>Fountain Place Apartments<\/strong> on North Wilson Avenue, speaking with his mother on the phone.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>During the call:<\/strong> His mother heard him suddenly fall to the ground. When he stopped responding to her, she contacted his sister, who lived with him, and asked her to check on him.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Discovery:<\/strong> Blevins&#8217; sister found him outside in a pool of blood and immediately called emergency services.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>11:55 PM:<\/strong> After being transported to Bartow Regional Medical Center, Blevins was pronounced dead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Death investigation in Bartow Friday, March 27, 2026\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qAlIY5lMb5s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Current Status of the Investigation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sheriff Grady Judd and Bartow Police Chief Stephen Walker held a briefing this morning to confirm the investigation is active. While the death is being treated as violent, officials noted that Blevins had a minimal criminal history (one domestic violence arrest from 30 years ago and a driving offense) and are looking for any information from the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Detectives from the PCSO Homicide and Forensics units are assisting Bartow Police in processing the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How to Help:<\/strong> If you have any information regarding this case, authorities urge you to contact:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office:<\/strong> 863-298-6200<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Bartow Police Department:<\/strong> 863-534-0100<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Heartland Crime Stoppers:<\/strong> 1-888-400-TIPS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Bartow Police Department are currently investigating the death of Jeffrey Lee Blevins, 56, which occurred late last night, March 26, 2026. Authorities have&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL2plZmZyZXktbGVlLWJsZXZpbnMud2VicD9maXQ9NDA1JTJDNTE0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiVGhlIFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IFNoZXJpZmZcdTIwMTlzIE9mZmljZSBhbmQgdGhlIEJhcnRvdyBQb2xpY2UgRGVwYXJ0bWVudCBhcmUgY3VycmVudGx5IGludmVzdGlnYXRpbmcgdGhlIGRlYXRoIG9mIEplZmZyZXkgTGVlIEJsZXZpbnMsIDU2LCB3aGljaCBvY2N1cnJlZCBsYXRlIGxhc3QgbmlnaHQiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.MmTwYmqKWd6HfVYI7qYd-YEDpT8AF4uh87bB82rlqXIMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[14225,14226,14227],"class_list":["post-64193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-14225","tag-the-polk-county-sheriffs-office-and-the-bartow-police-department-are-currently-investigating-the-death-of-jeffrey-lee-blevins","tag-which-occurred-late-last-night"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64195,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64193\/revisions\/64195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}