Florida authorities arrest man linked to 28-year-old murder as new evidence cracks cold case

SEATTLE - In a joint effort by the Manatee County Sheriff's office in Florida and the Delaware State Police, a man linked to a 1996 murder was taken into custody in mid-August during a traffic stop near his home in Georgetown, Delaware, on a warrant for second degree murder with a weapon. The suspect, 72-year-old Stephen L. Ford, was then extradited back to Florida and booked into the Manatee County Jail last month.

This is because Ford is the prime suspect of a murder case that had gone cold for almost three decades. He now stands accused of murdering Doris A. Korell, then 45-years-old, in St. Petersburg in 1996. She was found dead in a ditch along U.S. 41 in Palmetto, Florida.

Manatee sheriff's deputies responded to a call that reported a body floating face down in a drainage canal near Palmetto. Divers retrieved the body the woman, whose body had trauma to the right side of her neck and face. According to arrest records, an autopsy later revealed she had several stab wounds.

It took two years to identify Korell's body and, before detectives identified her through dental records, Ford had moved to Delaware. Authorities now say Ford stabbed Korell, who was his girlfriend at the time, 83 times.

How the case unfolded

The investigation went cold due to the lack of physical evidence and leads in the months following Korell's death. But in 2017, a cold case detective with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office reopened the case and began reexamining files from both Manatee County and St. Petersburg police.

Over the following six years, the sheriff's office said new information came to light leading to Ford's arrest, including acquaintances of Korell's saying she feared Ford and that the couple were having problems, as well as DNA testing.

Four days before law enforcement found her body in the canal, Korell's daughter reported her missing after Ford said she had left their shared St. Petersburg duplex to go shopping after an argument.

Ford denied any involvement in her disappearance when questioned by detectives. According to the sheriff's office, when investigators asked what should happen to the person who killed Korell, Ford told them "an eye for an eye" and said, "if I killed her, I should get the death penalty."

When they returned to Ford's home on Christmas Eve 1996 for a follow-up interview, investigators discovered Ford semi-conscious and foaming at the mouth after ingesting bleach in what it looked like a suicide attempt.

Detectives noted Ford's behavior showed a clear pattern of consciousness of guilt. That, added to the evidence obtained in the investigation including Ford's deliberate actions and statements to mislead law enforcement and ultimately his attempt to commit suicide, provided law enforcement with probable causes to believe Ford had murdered Korell and disposed of her body in Manatee County.

The 72-year-old suspect is now facing a charge of second-degree murder with a weapon and is scheduled for his first court appearance on Sept. 6.