Posted on 11/05/2021 12:37:40 PM PDT by Red Badger
A Florida man has been arrested in connection to the bloody murder of a convenience store manager who was stabbed 73 times in 1996 after DNA from a discarded beer can linked him to the cold case, investigators said Thursday.
Kenneth Stough Jr., 54, was taken into custody in Lake County on Tuesday more than 25 years after the murder of 31-year-old Terence Paquette, Orange County Sheriff John Mina told reporters at a press conference.
Paquette was found dead on the morning of Feb. 3, 1996, inside the bathroom of the Lil’ Champ convenience store in northwest Orange County. Mina described the scene as “very gruesome.”
Paquette had been stabbed 73 times and had his throat slit. Pools of blood stained the floor and walls in photos shown by the sheriff’s office. The cash deposit from the store was also missing.
Kenneth Stough Jr., 54, was taken into custody in Lake County on Tuesday more than 25 years after the murder of Terence Paquette. Paquette was stabbed 73 times and had his throat slit in the bathroom of a northwest Orange County convenience store where he worked. (Orange County Sheriff’s Office)
While homicide detectives working the crime scene in 1996 had discovered the blood of an unknown individual inside the store, Mina said that at the time there was no way to make an arrest based on blood evidence without comparing it to another blood sample and the case went cold.
In 2003, the blood evidence was entered into a database, but no matches were found. The case remained cold until the sheriff’s cold case unit reopened the investigation in 2019.
Using a droplet of the unknown individual’s blood recovered from the handle of a freezer, forensic genealogists with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 2021 determined the blood came from one of three brothers.
Detectives focused on Stough, who they said had worked at the convenience store for some time before Paquette. Detectives also said Stough lived in an apartment across the street from Paquette in 1996 and would often frequent the store.
Detective Brian Savelli monitored Stough and followed him to a Lake County gas station, where he saw Stough throw away several beer cans in a dumpster. Savelli recovered the cans and had them swabbed for DNA. Investigators determined the DNA on the cans matched the DNA found at the crime scene.
Stough was charged with first-degree murder with a weapon. Savelli said detectives were still working to determine a motive.
While none of Paquette’s family was living to receive news of the arrest, detectives informed his friends about the breakthrough in the 25-year-old case.
“I think it’s important to remind our public again, remind our survivors and the families of all our victims out there that we never, ever forget about these cases,” Minas said.
Since the Orange County Sheriff’s cold case unit was first formed in 2019, the unit has solved eight murders dating back to 1984, Minas said.
Good police work. Always keep possible evidence of a crime, esp rape and murder. Technology is a crime fighter’s timeless friend.
There have been numerous cases of rape and murder where the defendant would wash down the victims with bleach or acid. Many were burned alive by the defendant, thinking that this would erase the murderers’ DNA from the scene.
Not much different that when the difference in punishment between robbery and murder became minimal. Just kill everyone and set fire to the place.
I do not expect that anyone with a murderous heart to stop at anything to keep them off death row.
Bashed on the head with what?
Yeah, lived across the street, used to work there, and frequented the store. Took 25 years and some DNA to crack the case. No wonder they lost track of Laundrie and thought he was his mother.
“I’ve never understood what difference a weapon makes in a murder. Is someone who has been stabbed deader than someone who was bashed on the head?”
Something I have wondered about: is someone who has been killed because of their race deader than someone killed for any other reason?
“Not hard to see what the defense is going to do with that.
Depends on how long a gap was between their employment. It said he worked there before the victim. By how much? Years? Months? Hours?”
As he only lived across the street, and often frequented the store, and had previously worked there, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was allowed access to areas ordinary customers were not allowed in.
“stabbed the clerk 73 times and cut his throat. Either the killer had/has anger management issues or more likely he had some beef with the guy”
I agree. So if Stough didn’t have anger management issues, and didn’t have some beef with the guy, then it’s unlikely he was the killer.
As the police had to resort to genealogical databases to get a DNA match, it’s likely that he hadn’t committed any serious crimes since that murder. Which would make it unlikely he was the killer.
Too many comments from the brilliant lawyers here to really know how this is going to turn out.......
Even though DNA was first used in 1988 in England, in 1996 it’s use was still in the infancy stage here and there really wasn’t a database of DNA samples.
In 2003 there was still no match in the DNA database. Not until 2021 were they able to make a familial match.
All in all, I can’t blame the cops on this one.
Laundrie on the other hand was a clusterscrew from day one. Real Keystone Kops, Car 54 type bumbling.
That one we CAN blame on the cops.
“As the police had to resort to genealogical databases to get a DNA match, it’s likely that he hadn’t committed any serious crimes since that murder. Which would make it unlikely he was the killer.”
Either he or one of his brothers did the deed...according to the DNA evidence. I can see his lawyer explaining the blood drop away pretty easily. Evidently the police found things in this guys background that led them to charge him.
We’ll never know until the trial is over.
I have now done some research, and found an article which indicates that Stough’s blood was found in many areas at the crime scene:
“Authorities say blood samples from multiple areas within the store were sent to a crime lab. It was determined all came from the same previously unknown person.”
https://www.wesh.com/article/discarded-beer-can-orange-county-cold-case/38151900
This makes it extremely unlikely that he is innocent.
They should have been able to nail the bastard using then-current forensic science and good old fashioned police work, that was my point. :^)
Sigh...silly me. Like too many people I got snared by the DNA thing. You’re right, this case went into the cold case files rather quickly.
You know I’ve read the entire article twice and it never mentions any details from the original investigation that led the detectives to close the case. Not even if Stough was considered a suspect back then.
Surely a former employee who was known to hang around the place would have been a red flag. Even to me!
Just wish they had included more information from the original investigation.
“They should have been able to nail the bastard using then-current forensic science and good old fashioned police work, that was my point. :^)”
I agree. That level of violence implies it was personal, so someone - family, friends, coworkers - should have known who had that much anger against the victim. Even if not, someone who apparently had so much contact with the victim (or at least with the store) should have been identified and interviewed - and probably his injuries would have been observed. Even without DNA, they had blood types - crude, but it could eliminate many potential perpetrators.
And I’m still surprised that his DNA wasn’t in CODIS for other crimes. Was this just a one-off? Not unheard of but surprising. Was he on drugs at the time? And this gave him such a shock that he never used again, never committed a serious offense again?
When a serious crime is committed, don’t the police canvas the neighborhood? Anyone who lived nearby, or was a frequent customer, might be able to provide useful information to the police, and all of them should have been interviewed.
We really need to know more about the initial investigation before we can draw conclusions.
“We really need to know more about the initial investigation before we can draw conclusions.”
Yes we do.
But I expect we’ll have to wait for the trial to be over to find out anything. If the defense counsel doesn’t plea bargain it down.
Thanks, and well put. And I certainly didn’t mean to demean police work. I’d guess that the crime took quite a bit of time (what was it, 74 stab wounds? Of course, after the first 20 or so, there’d be no resistance), but OTOH, it seems likely that it took place in one of the many “I didn’t see nuthin’” neighborhoods, where it’s often a waste of time and effort to get the story, particularly when there are more crimes all the time that require attention.
At that time the “Cocaine Cowboys” were still fairly strong and police resources were still stretched pretty thin. No telling how that may have influenced the amount of time given to the investigation. The drug runners will always be a problem in Florida and that takes tax dollars and cops out of neighborhoods.
As far as the “didn’t see nuthin” neighborhoods go, will they ever figure out that their silence is what makes a lot of the violence possible?
Nah, that would require common sense which ain’t so common anymore.
Now look, if you acknowledge that clamming up creates problems, you can’t scapegoat law enforcement. ;^)
True dat, true dat.
Follow the Benjamins!
Baby mama wanna get PAID cause the popo ain’t stop her baby daddy from getting killed but used force arresting her newest baby daddy.
And she knows who killed baby daddy1 cause she saw it.
But snitches get stitches ‘n stuff.
That’s true of the white trash, as well, which this perp clearly is. His victim looks like he’s from Nawleans, and has a French-lookin’ name. So, y’know, who cares. /jk
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.