Raiford (Florida): Dennis Sochor (74) became the oldest death row convict to be executed in Florida, USA, in recent times. He was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday for the rape and murder of an 18-year-old over 44 years ago.
While his death did bring some closure for the family of Patricia “Patty” Gifford, they are still distraught as Sochor died without revealing where he had hidden her body.
Sochor died at 6:16pm at Florida State Prison in Raiford, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. He reportedly declined a last meal and met with a spiritual adviser and a visitor before his execution.
The death chamber curtain was raised at 6 pm and Sochor was strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm. The drugs began flowing at 6.03 pm. He underwent about a minute of heavy breathing, followed by some seconds of sputtering. After about two minutes in which he appeared still, the warden looked into his eyes, shook his shoulders, and called his name without getting a response.
A medic was summoned at 6.14 pm local time and Sochor was pronounced dead shortly after, as per Independent.
Sochor addressed Patricia’s family in his final hours, saying he was “deeply sorry,” and commended his spirit to Jesus Christ, according, The Associated Press reported.
“This day did not bring Patty back, and it does not erase the 44 years our family has lived without her,” Patricia’s family said in a statement. “Patty was 18 years old, full of life, and deeply loved by her family and friends.”
Her sister Marilyn Gifford said after witnessing the execution that Sochor’s death brings some closure to the family, though it remains bittersweet since her sister’s body was never found. “He had 45 years to return Patty’s remains to us, but he cruelly chose not to,” she said, reading from a statement.
“We never got a chance to lay her to rest in God’s arms. Without closure, every happy memory of Patty is immediately crushed by the tragedy of her murder,” Marilyn said, as reported by Hindustan Times.
Sochor spent more than twice as long on death row as her sister lived her entire life, she noted. “Tonight’s execution was appropriate because Dennis Sochor was a lifelong brutal and sadistic man,” she said.
Sochor was convicted in 1987 of kidnapping, raping, and murdering Patricia, who had moved to Fort Lauderdale from Massachusetts just months before her death.
On New Year’s Day 1982, Sochor, a swimming-pool cleaner, met the teenager at a lounge near Hollywood, Florida. She ended up getting into his car along with his brother and the group spent hours talking.
When a friend of the girl’s fell ill and went to sleep in her own car, she left with the Sochor brothers, supposedly to get breakfast. Instead, Sochor stopped his truck in a secluded area and attacked her, according to Independent.
The teenager’s family said she did not willingly go off with the two men that night, adding that Sochor had made unwanted advances toward her and her friend earlier in the evening.
“Patty was loyal, protective, and responsible,” the family said. “The idea that she casually left her unconscious friend alone in a car to go off with the men who had been harassing them that night is unthinkable to us.”
In a taped confession played for the jury, Sochor admitted to luring Gifford into his truck, driving her to a remote construction site, sexually assaulting her, beating her, and strangling her, as per Miami Herald.
His brother, Gary Sochor, testified that he was present but said he didn’t intervene because he was drunk and scared. He was never charged.
Sochor was the 10th person to be executed in Florida this year.
