The majority of commissioners on Monday blamed the polarization over the Martin case and its handling by the police department on outside groups. Lee had supporters at the meeting who wore, "Bring Back Billy" T-shirts, though there were detractors as well.

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"I'm disappointed but not surprised," said Velma Williams, the lone black representative on the commission who voted to accept the resignation.

The majority of commissioners said they wanted to wait for an outside investigation to conclude into the handling of the case by police before accepting the resignation agreement drawn up by the city manager and Lee.

Commissioners in reading from the agreement said Lee didn't want to step down, but thought it was for the best.

The city is also looking to find a permanent interim chief, perhaps as early as next week, Bonaparte said.

As for Zimmerman, in order to throw off curious onlookers and the media, he could change his look.

Anthony went from a long-haired brunette to a bobbed blonde while serving a year of probation on an unrelated charge at an undisclosed location in Florida.

Next, Zimmerman needs to go someplace where he knows few people and they don't know him, said Evan Ratliff, who wrote the book (or at least the magazine article) on how to vanish in the 21st century.

In 2009, Wired magazine challenged its readers to try to find Ratcliff, who deliberately vanished with the help of disguises, prepaid phones, fake business cards and software that protected his Internet identity, at least for a while.

Ratliff eventually was caught because readers were able to trace him through the IP address of a computer he had used.

"He needs to be where he is not around people who are known to be close to him," Ratliff said. "Not a friend's house. Not a relative's house."

Zimmerman needs to refrain from making any public statements, whether via social media sites like Facebook or Twitter or his own website, www.therealgeorgezimmerman.com, both Baez and Ratliff said.

Zimmerman is using his website to help raise money for his legal defense. Early indications are that will be tough for Zimmerman to resist.