North Lauderdale man arrested on murder charge after body uncovered in backyard

A North Lauderdale man is facing a first-degree murder charge after investigators discovered a body buried in his backyard, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said Friday.

Simon Hand, 23, was last seen with the victim around July 9, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The victim’s name is being withheld under Marsy’s Law, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that allows crime victims and their families to withhold identifying information from the public.

Sheriff’s deputies and Fort Lauderdale Police officers went to Hand’s home in the 1800 block of Southwest 64th Terrace in North Lauderdale with a search warrant Wednesday, where they dug up the victim’s body, deputies said.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office announced Friday the arrest of Simon Hand, 23, of North Lauderdale, after investigators obtained a search warrant and uncovered a buried body in the backyard of Hand’s North Lauderdale home. Hand is accused of shooting the victim to death, the Sheriff’s Office said. (Broward Sheriff’s Office)

The Sheriff’s Office said evidence found at the home showed the victim had been shot to death.

Authorities arrested Hand on Wednesday, and he is held in the Broward Main Jail on a count of first-degree murder and possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted felon after detectives found guns at Hand’s home.

Hand was sentenced in 2017 to four years in state prison on multiple burglary, robbery and grand theft charges after he stole a 9 mm gun from a car in August 2016 and admitted to robbing a deli at gunpoint the next day while he was a minor, according to court records. Hand also admitted to burglarizing an occupied home in Dania Beach in July 2016.

He was released from prison in March 2020.