Dennis Sochor: 5 things to know about Florida man executed 44 years after killing woman he met at New Year's Eve party

Dennis Sochor, who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering 18-year-old Patricia Gifford after meeting her at a New Year's Eve celebration in 1982, was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on Tuesday, July 14. He was 74. Sochor was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. after receiving a three-drug lethal injection, according to multiple media reports citing the Florida Department of Corrections.

Here are five things to know about the case:

1. He met Patricia Gifford during a New Year's Eve celebration

According to court records, Patricia Gifford, 18, was celebrating the upcoming New Year with a friend at a bar in the Fort Lauderdale area when they met Dennis Sochor and his brother.

After spending several hours together, Gifford's friend became ill and fell asleep in her car. Gifford then left with Sochor and his brother after they said they were going to get breakfast.

Investigators said the trio never made it to a restaurant. Instead, Sochor stopped his truck in a secluded area and attacked Gifford.

2. He confessed to killing Gifford, whose body was never found

The investigation remained unsolved for several years until Sochor was arrested in Georgia in 1986 on unrelated charges and extradited to Florida.

His brother told investigators that Sochor was responsible for Gifford's disappearance. Authorities also obtained taped confessions in which Sochor admitted choking Gifford and disposing of her body.

According to Florida Capital Cases records, the jury heard three taped confessions in which Sochor said he met Gifford at the lounge, kissed her in the parking lot and wanted to have sex with her. After she refused, he said the two fought and he choked her before disposing of what he believed was her body in a secluded area.

Despite extensive searches, Gifford's body has never been recovered.

3. He was sentenced to death in 1987

A Broward County jury convicted Sochor of first-degree murder and kidnapping in October 1987. The jury voted 10-2 in favor of recommending the death penalty. On November 2, 1987, he was formally sentenced to death for Gifford's murder, while also receiving a 22-year prison sentence for kidnapping.


His conviction and death sentence were upheld after years of appeals, including proceedings before both the Florida Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court.

4. Court records also detailed an earlier sexual assault conviction

Florida Capital Cases records note that Sochor had previously been convicted in connection with another attack. According to the records, in 1980 he forced a woman from a Fort Lauderdale cocktail lounge into a vehicle, drove her to a remote area, and sexually assaulted her. The woman later escaped and reported the assault to police.

Sochor denied forcing the woman into the vehicle, claiming the encounter had been consensual. As per murderpedia.org, he was sentenced in September 1980 to one year in jail and five years of probation. Court records state he was later resentenced to life imprisonment on the same count in 1987.

5. He became Florida's 10th execution of the year

Sochor was executed at the age of 74, making him the 10th person executed in Florida this year. He was also just one week older than Dusty Ray Spencer, who was executed in June and was, at the time, the oldest person executed in Florida.

Florida is scheduled to carry out another execution later this month. According to reports, Dominick Occhicone, 80, is set to be executed at the end of July and, if the execution proceeds, would become the second-oldest person executed in the United States.