Bernard Salcedo was looking for a bad wire in his attic after the power went out when he found $100,000 in cash. Now the money is in a police evidence vault while Salcedo and his home's former owner argue over who should get it.
Salcedo said he went to police because he was scared when he found the four plastic bags filled with $20 and $100 bills in July. He had heard that someone had been killed in his house years earlier.
"We didn't know if the murderer knew about the money," Salcedo said. "We decided the best course of action was to let someone know."
The money had been stuffed into a strongbox that was hidden in a cavity cut in the insulation.
Similar bundles of cash were found hidden in the home after Scott Quinn, a 37-year-old bail bondsman and gun dealer, was found stabbed to death in 2003. Police returned that money to the victim's estranged wife, Lana Quinn, the widow's lawyer Michael Herring said.
Scott Quinn kept large amounts of cash because he frequently attended gun shows and made cash purchases as part of his business, Herring said.
He also said Salcedo had no claim to the money, but that his client would pay an undisclosed finder's fee.
Salcedo's attorney Eric Frommer insisted there was no way to prove the money belonged to Lana Quinn. Officials in Sanford, about 20 miles northeast of Orlando, said they will let the courts determine possession.
Randolph Mora, 26, was indicted on a murder charge in Scott Quinn's death before he died of a drug overdose in jail in 2004. Salcedo and his wife bought the home from Lana Quinn in 2006.