EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a two-part series about the impact of a brutal murder and the death penalty on those left behind. For this special report, reporter Elena Barrera spent weeks talking to their relatives and combing through the Democrats’ archives and court records. You can read the other part of the story here.
After a long weekend, members of Phi Gamma Delta at Florida State University were eager to reconnect. It was the 1990s, and without social media and cell phones, the fraternity brothers had a lot of catching up to do.
Then the house phone rang. Everyone fell silent.
Something had happened to the youngest brother, John Edwards. Meanwhile, one of the older brothers stormed into the house and turned on the six o’clock news.
The screen showed a body bag in the forest.
“Everyone just lost control,” said Chris Spires, an FSU and Phi Gamma Delta graduate.
On February 18, 1994, John was brutally murdered by Loran Cole and another man during a weekend camping trip with his sister in the Ocala National Forest.
Thirty years later, the culmination of the Edwards family’s nightmare is now in sight: Cole’s execution is scheduled for August 29 at 6:00 p.m. – it is the first death penalty case since last August.
The impending execution brought back painful memories for John’s family, who had been trying to find peace all this time. But they also had to grapple with a nagging question: Is taking Cole’s life enough to bring justice?
John Edwards: A life that could have been
John had his whole life ahead of him.
Spires said the freshman chemical engineering student, who was separated from his friends and family at age 18, missed countless important moments in his life.
“We missed his wedding, he missed our weddings, he missed seeing his kids grow up, his career advancement,” Spires said. “I bet he’d be coaching his kids baseball right now.”
The 14-member pledge class was very close, but after John’s assassination the bond became even stronger. Most of them still keep in touch regularly, especially on the anniversaries of John’s death.
“He was not forgotten,” Spires said.
“John was always a positive, friendly, charismatic and down-to-earth person,” said Barrett Atwood, another FSU graduate and Phi Gamma Delta.
He was “the guy you’d want your sister to go out with,” Spires added.
According to court documents, his life ended when Cole, with the help of another man, William Paul, attacked and tied up John and his sister after the two men invited them on a hike.
John’s body was found in the woods with his throat slit and his skull fractured. His sister had been raped and tied to a tree before she gnawed through the ropes and escaped.
The news was heartbreaking.
“The boys were crying, which then turned into anger … some wanted to jump in their cars and drive to Ocala to start a manhunt and personally find and kill the perpetrators,” Spires said.
Atwood said he hadn’t processed the incident for years. But one by one, everyone started picking up the pieces and doing what they wished John could do – live.
Atwood became a lawyer, Spires opened a wealth management firm, another became an ordained minister, and a third became a Marine.
The tragedy “taught me a lot about life,” Atwood said. “And I’m sorry that John had to lose his life because of it.”
John Edwards’ last words: “I’m sorry”
The Edwards family declined to be interviewed about the impending execution, but an October 1, 1995, article in the Tallahassee Democrat detailed their reactions to the jury’s unanimous recommendation for the death penalty.
“It’s not about satisfaction, it’s about justice,” John’s mother Vickie Edwards said at the time. “This closes a sad chapter in all of our lives.”
At this point, Cole would have died in the electric chair.
The sister who testified during the trial said the right punishment would be one that would prevent him from hurting anyone again.
“If it requires death, then that is appropriate,” she added.
During her tearful testimony in court, she recalled her brother’s final words, according to a September 25, 1995 article.
“He said, ‘I’m sorry’ … because I hadn’t wanted to do the hike,” she told jurors.
Finally justice?
Every crucial moment in the case – Cole’s and then Paul’s arrest, conviction and sentence – was, in the eyes of John’s friends, a step closer to justice.
Cole and Paul were found guilty of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon. Cole was also found guilty of two counts of sexual abuse. Paul was sentenced to life in prison and Cole was sentenced to death.
And after 30 years, they finally witness the announcement of the jury’s decision.
“I think this will be the closure that many of us have been waiting for for a very long time,” Spires said.
John was denied a long, fulfilling life, so the death penalty was only a natural consequence, Spires said.
He checked Florida Department of Corrections records every few years to see if there was any update in Cole’s case. When he read a July 29 Tallahassee Democrat article reporting on Gov. Ron DeSantis signing the death warrant, he said he was overcome with emotion.
“I shed a few tears,” he said.
Atwood said he “made the mistake” of following the case long after he left Florida, regularly reading new court rulings and learning more of the gruesome details than he would have liked.
Atwood has mixed feelings about Cole’s execution. The death penalty in this case is “well deserved” and will bring relief to many people, he said, but he is not sure he will ever be able to put it behind him.
“In theory, I think the death penalty is great, you know, like the whole biblical story of ‘an eye for an eye,'” he said. “But the problem is that we are only human and fallible, and the criminal justice system makes mistakes all the time.”
“It doesn’t replace a friend,” Atwood added. “It doesn’t take away the pain.”
Whether they are for or against Cole’s execution, John’s family members all agree that it is unbelievable that this consumed three decades of their lives. And although it closes a long, painful chapter, a part of them will always be stuck in 1994.
Breaking and trending news reporter Elena Barrera can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.
