Five years ago, 2019

•  Brenda Glover spent a decade searching for her missing wedding ring, which she lost in the filing room at Orange Park Medical Center just two months after her wedding. Construction workers found the long-lost ring as they prepared to renovate the room, and they returned it to Glover.

•  William Harrison Epps, 39, and Edria Ann McIntire, 35, were accused of hitting another man in the head with a hammer, then handcuffing him to a chair for 24 hours while they robbed him.

•  Two Clay County students – Ridgeview junior Michael Chen, 16, and Fleming Island High sophomore Gavin Baker, 16 – returned home from the international science fair in Phoenix with $14,000 in scholarships cumulatively. 

• Orange Park resident and member of the Libertarian Party, Matt McCary, announced his campaign for the Florida State Senate. Ultimately, McCary would be disqualified from the Libertarian Party primary scheduled on Aug. 18, 2020.

10 years ago, 2014

•  Laurel Grove Plantation and the Town of Orange Park were recognized with an official historic marker from the Florida Division of Historical Resources.

•  The Clay County School Board approved the settlement of two personal injury claims totaling $25,000. One was for Anthony Bowick, a ninth grader who suffered a broken jaw after being assaulted by another student. The second claim was for a kindergarten student who was injured when she jumped from playground equipment during recess. 

•  The Clay County Development Authority voted to cancel its license agreement with Big League Dreams, a sports complex projected to have a $25 million price tag. Big League Dreams was criticized by Eric Cravey, Clay Today's managing editor, who pointed out it would have taken "125 years just to break even on the ballfield project."

20 years ago, 2004

•  Clay County Sheriff’s Office investigators launched what became a nationwide search for Gary Bernard McCray Jr., who was wanted in the deaths of Phillip Perrotta, John Whitehead, Robin Selkirk, and John Ellis. McCray, also known as “Goldie,” was a drug dealer who entered an Orange Park home armed with two guns, taking the lives of four individuals. The event was known as "Clay's Massacre." McCray was sentenced to death on July 7, 2011. 

•  The Clay County Sheriff’s Office investigated a road rage incident near Old Jennings and Branan Field Roads that left one man, Rick Jones, shot in the stomach.

30 years ago, 1994

•  Officials with the City of Green Cove Springs, residents, and the Florida Department of Transportation debated placing raised medians on Orange Avenue/U.S. Highway 17 to slow traffic through the city.

•   Clay County Commissioners decided they wanted "Clay" rather than "Sunshine State" on vehicle license plates made for the county before a state-imposed Sept. 1 deadline.

• James Wasileski and Charles Mosher, both of Middleburg, were charged with maintaining a business for prostitution after Clay County Sheriff’s Office investigators raided Pretty Lady Lingerie.

40 years ago, 1984

•  A Clay County Grand Jury found that ethics and conflict of interest allegations lodged by a 1982 grand jury had been cleared up in county government.

• The Clay County Sheriff’s Office called on the help of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office helicopter squad in search of a man believed to have robbed the Wells Road Barnett Bank.

50 years ago, 1974

•  Clay County Clerk of Court George L. Carlisle was rushed to St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Jacksonville after being kicked by a horse on his Green Cove Springs farm. He was listed in fair condition in the intensive care unit.

•  Two-term Board of Commissioners member Elbert D. Saunders announced he would not seek a third term, saying he wanted time to travel with his wife and raise cattle.