Man Accused Of Stabbing Girlfriend 83 Times In 1996 Cold-Case Murder

A man living in Delaware is accused of fatally stabbing his former girlfriend, who was found dead 28 years ago in a ditch along a highway in Florida, officials announced Wednesday.

Stephen L. Ford, 72, was charged with second-degree murder with a weapon in the death of his live-in girlfriend, Doris Korell, who was reported missing on Dec. 11, 1996. She was found dead four days later, lying face-down in a drainage canal in Palmetto, and had been stabbed 83 times, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office ― though it would be months before law enforcement identified her.

Korell’s daughter, who was living in Maryland at the time, reported her mother missing on Dec. 12 after Ford called her, claiming Korell had driven off after an argument to go shopping, state prosecutors said. Korell’s car was located on Dec. 18 at a nearby mall with no evidence that a struggle or attack had taken place inside, the sheriff’s office said.

St. Petersburg detectives investigating Korell’s disappearance interviewed Ford days after she was reported missing and noticed a decomposing smell inside his home, according to the press release. Authorities also found stains on the bedding and mattress that were not there during an earlier search, as well as a suicide note Ford had written to his sons, “describing how he wanted to be with [Korell] if she was dead,” according to the sheriff’s department.

Detectives said that when they questioned Ford about Korell’s death, he stated, “If I killed her, I should get the death penalty.”

Ford had also allegedly rented a storage unit a day after Korell went missing and moved her jewelry, clothing and photos there.

Ford’s ex-girlfriend told detectives that he had sent her a letter approximately two months before Korell’s disappearance, reading, “I hope she gets the message that I don’t want her here anymore,” the sheriff’s office said.

Despite the law enforcement agencies’ findings, Ford continued to deny his involvement in his girlfriend’s disappearance, the sheriff’s office said. He was eventually discovered inside his home on Christmas Eve that year semi-conscious and foaming from the mouth. The sheriff’s office alleged that Ford had tried to kill himself by ingesting bleach.

But by 1997, Ford had already moved to Delaware and the case had gone cold. In 2017, the sheriff’s office reopened the investigation, and “new information” began to come to light, the office said.

Korell’s acquaintances said that she and Ford had been having domestic and financial problems at the time of the killing and that Korell had feared her spouse, according to the sheriff’s office.

Forensics analysis from DNA evidence resubmitted this year revealed that the bed stains found at Ford’s home decades ago were Ford’s own bodily fluids, the result of a suicide attempt, the sheriff’s office said. His behavior, statements to law enforcement and suicide attempts gave authorities probable cause to charge him with Korell’s killing.

Ford was taken into custody on Aug. 16 during a traffic stop near his home in Georgetown, Delaware and booked into the Manatee County Jail on Aug. 30, the sheriff’s office said.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.