STARKE, Fla., July 15 (Our Florida Times) — Florida was set to execute Dennis Sochor, a 74-year-old death-row inmate convicted in the 1982 kidnapping and killing of Patricia Gifford, making him the oldest inmate Florida had executed at that point, according to court records and state prison scheduling.
Sochor was convicted in 1987 of first-degree murder and kidnapping in Gifford’s death, court records cited by ABC News and Fox News show. Gifford was 18. Her body was never found.
ABC News reported that Sochor was arrested in Georgia in 1986 on unrelated charges and later extradited to Florida. The report also said Sochor’s brother told police he was responsible for Gifford’s disappearance.
Investigators obtained a taped confession in which Sochor said he choked Gifford and disposed of her body, ABC News reported. Florida State Prison near Starke was scheduled to carry out the execution by three-drug injection at 6 p.m. Fox News reported that the U.S. Supreme Court denied Sochor’s appeal before the execution date.
