A Florida man convicted of killing a college freshman and raping the student's sister during a camping trip in 1994 is scheduled to be executed on Thursday.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Loran Cole, 57, in July.
According to court records, Cole and his friend, William Paul, 51, made friends with the two college students while in the Ocala National Forest. After talking around a campfire, Cole and a friend, William Paul, offered to take the siblings to see a pond.
While away from the campsite, the brother, 18, a Florida State University student, was beaten and had his throat slit and left in the forest.
His sister, a 21-year-old student at Eckerd College, was taken back to the campsite before Cole tied her up and raped her.
Court documents say the woman was left tied to a tree overnight and raped again the next day. She eventually escaped and was able to flag down a driver for help.
Police say they found the brother's body lying face down on the ground.
Cole and Paul were arrested in Ocala. Cole was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery and sexual battery, according to Florida Department of Corrections records.
Paul pleaded no contest to murder, kidnapping and robbery charges and was sentenced to life in prison at the Cross City Correctional Institution.
Cole is scheduled to be executed on Thursday at the Florida State Prison, according to documents on the Florida Supreme Court's website.
Cole will be the first inmate executed in Florida since October 2023, when Michael Zack was given lethal injection for a 1996 murder in Escambia County.
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