Manatee County deputies have arrested a Delaware man in a 27-year-old cold case.
Stephen Ford, 72, faces second-degree murder charges after deputies alleged he killed his girlfriend, who at the time was 45-year-old, in December 1996 and disposed her body in a Palmetto drainage canal . Investigators allege that Ford’s actions and statements to mislead law enforcement and his attempt to end his own life during the criminal investigation led them to arrest him for the murder of Doris Korell. Ford was arrested on Aug. 16 during a traffic stop near his home in Georgetown, Delaware. He was booked into the Manatee County Jail on Aug. 30.
When investigators interviewed Ford about the death of Korell, they asked him what should happen to the person that killed her.
“An eye for eye,” Ford told investigators after a lengthy pause. “If I killed her, I should get the death penalty.”
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